How many square feet per chicken in the coop?

[ChickieBooBoo]

I know the general rule is about 4, but what if they free-range all day? My birds only use the coop for sleeping and I can provide roosts for all of them, even if they only have about maybe 2-3 square feet each inside.

Would that work for layers or am I setting myself up for disaster?

I also have a few ducks and geese which sleep on the floor. (Besides the Muscovies)

 

[claudicles]

Quote:
It is back yard chickens! Not that many of us have acres and acres in out back yards. I am on 2.5 acres which is obviously bigger than most back yards but I still contain my chickens as predator density is a real issue here. I'm of the opinion that a live chicken in a large run is better than fox food.

 

[TDM]

The international rule of thumb is about two square feet per bird. Good to see you want to free range rather than employ the feed lot style of raising chickens used here a lot on BYC: small coop and a bare dirt run. When I hear the 4:10 rule mentioned I cringe and think about the cattle feed lots out west.

 

[TDM]

You will find that two square feet per bird is sufficient even in winter. Birds should not have to be confined to the coop for days or weeks at a time. . My birds like to hang out under the corralled wagons in the winter as well.

 

[TDM]

Quote:
Some aspects of the linked article were interesting:

Area being heated: Make drop ceiling or insulated hover around roost; or or partition off just part of the coop, and let chickens choose where to spend their time.

If you look at my coops, the roosts are located above the windows and encapsulated by the insulated ceiling. Air movement goes across the manure and out the other side, and the chickens roost in an area where air movement is significantly less.

 

[teach1rusl]

I always push for the most space possible. However, space tolerences are definitely flexible seasonally. Spring/Summer/Fall, if I had enough roost space, I could keep 3x as many birds in my main coop that I currently do (I have 10 birds in a 7x12 coop). They're literally never inside except to lay an egg or to roost. But between short days and cold weather, my birds spend a LOT more time inside in winter time...and they're a lot grouchier with one another. That's with the pop door opened every morning at first light.
Only you know your winters, how much snow you get, and how your chickens react when you get snow. I would always opt for more space if I had the choice, whether that meant decreasing my bird population or increasing my coops/coop space.

 

[gale65]

Quote:
It is back yard chickens! Not that many of us have acres and acres in out back yards. I am on 2.5 acres which is obviously bigger than most back yards but I still contain my chickens as predator density is a real issue here. I'm of the opinion that a live chicken in a large run is better than fox food.

Thank you. We have lots of acreage but I think a lot here do not. We have a dog and a cat and live near a highway and there are lots of places that chickens could get into that they shouldn't and free ranging just isn't a practical choice for us. I still don't think of our chickens being in their 20-sq-ft-per-chicken run as being like feed lot chickens.

 

[dlbranton]

My coop is about 300 square feet of floor space. I can comfortably roost 200 hens in it. That equals 1 1/2 square feet per hen. My hens stay out during the winter and only come in to roost. I call it my Roost Wagon rather than my Coop. I move them to new pasture about every other day, (depending on how well they have worked the grass.) I feed and water outside. This encourages them to come out, though I think they would anyway, and eliminates extra mess inside. The bottom of my Roost Wagon is 1/2"x1" rabbit wire to keep manure from building up inside. You would think that this would let in to much cold air, however, having more chickens inside the roost produces more heat during the winter. I have windows and a roof vent that help expel heat during the summer. With this said, I would not think it wise to put this many chickens per sq. ft. in a stationary roost. The manure buildup alone would be unbearable. Also, I live in Texas. Our winters are not that bad. The worst case scenario is temperatures in the teens. That is only a few weeks per winter and is usually spread out over a few days at a time throughout winter.

 

[clueless chic]

Our new plan is to make a 4 x 8 coop with a 12 x 8 run. We have a 15 x 15 concrete slab in the yard that we are considering using. Do you think it would be a good idea or should we build on the ground?

 

[rosemarythyme]

It's 3x7 exterior and 1x3 interior.

Hubs and I have decided to build a 4x8 ourselves and use the existing one for a grow-out pen for our littles. They are 3 weeks old now and I think should be pretty well feathered out by next week so we can put them in it during the day and in at night unless we get a chill all of a sudden. I have an outside outlet that I can use to hook up a heat lamp as well.

1x3 interior??? Who designs something that can barely hold 1 bird? I think something like that would be fine to help chicks integrate to outdoor living, or maybe to house a broody hen or a chicken that needs to be isolated for medical reasons, but that's it. Good to see you and your husband have decided to build something larger. Hope you enjoy watching your flock grow up - I think by the time they're 6, 7 weeks old you'll see what a difference the amount of space makes, as it's hard to look at a tiny chick and imagining it closer to adult sized sometimes.