Grown chickens in a coup should have around 4 sq ft per bird...can be a little less.
Grown chickens should have at least 10 sq ft per bird in the run.
These are guidelines.
Is that for the footprint of the coop? Does it include the nesting box space? Why did the lady I bought my 3x6 coop from tell me it'll hold 8-10 chickens? I think I've only got 4 girls I'm keeping now so it's not an issue now but I was really looking forward to getting a few more
I hope you don't mind that I'm asking these on your thread...
I have seen a lot of people selling coops on craigslist that are way off on the number of birds they can hold. I have also seen a lot of them built with wood that should not be used in a coop: cedar and/or pressure treat.
Minming it does NOT include nest box space. That is floor space for the birds only. Also, I believe that is the guidelines for standard size birds. It may be that the smaller birds might require less space, but I would guess not a lot less.
I too was surprised when I looked for coops online at how small they were and how many birds they SAID they would house. Small crowded coops cause stress on your birds and will apparently lead to some fighting and feather picking. Spend some time on here reading some of the old threads to pick up info from those a lot more experienced than me. Maybe your coop could be enlarged???
Yeah well at least it's good for the babies I've currently got! If it wasn't so heavy and it hadn't been such an ordeal getting it to my house I'd take the darn thing back