How much room do chickens need

[lazy gardener]

You can actually have too much room in a coop, if you have a 8x8 coop with 5 birds they don’t snuggle up and fill the roost bar up . My 15 birds are much more comfortable then my 8,both have the same size coop

As far as having only heated water in our “ northern” climates and not a 0’ degree heater , maybe if you lived here you could advise , but I want eggs in the winter , so we heat a little with a thermostat and a good sealed heater... we all make choices ,

Have fun

Yes, we all do make our choices. I choose not to provide supplemental heat. We have many cold snaps here, where the temp stays below 0*F for weeks at a time. We are in zone 4B. I supply supplemental light, keep my water thawed with a heated bowl, and have good egg production all winter long. Rarely do I have frozen eggs. One thing I do to help ensure that the eggs don't freeze is to limit the number of nests in the winter.

 

[aart]

You can actually have too much room in a coop, if you have a 8x8 coop with 5 birds they don’t snuggle up and fill the roost bar up .

Nah. My birds snuggle together even in this disgusting heat.

The thought that the chickens will warm the coop in the winter is a myth. The birds trap a layer of air in the down under their outer feathers. This is what keeps them warm in the winter.

Ditto Dat^^^

 

[lazy gardener]

Agreed with aart. 10' long roost, the birds can easily snuggle on one end of it.

 

[snow5164]

Nah. My birds snuggle together even in this disgusting heat.QUOTE]

That’s great , I’m stating my experience and your “nah (a word?) “ doesn’t cancel out my experience , it would be nice if the old hens would allow others to comment and share their experiences and not challenge them with no experience in the weather / situation they’re in .

 

[aart]

That’s great , I’m stating my experience and your “nah (a word?) “ doesn’t cancel out my experience , it would be nice if the old hens would allow others to comment and share their experiences and not challenge them with no experience in the weather / situation they’re in .

Nope, nah does not cancel. Canada is a big country with widely varying climates, might help to clarify your location to give more credence.

The 'Nah' was for this part, I should have highlighted it in my first quotation of your post to be more clear.

You can actually have too much room in a coop,

This can be very misleading, and lead newbies to cram too many birds in a coop....plus adequate ventilation makes a coop 'holding heat' moot.

 

[gocgo]

Well, what I've found living in a similar (not quite as nasty) cold weather environment is that coop space isn't as much an issue in the winter as what I would have thought. There are days that I simply don't even bother to open up the coop because what little heat is in there will escape and the birds aren't going out anyway. My coop is 6x12 and houses 15 full size birds. They tend to sit up on the roost for a lot of the day (probably because heat rises, but I do have a vent at the top of the coop where it would escape anyway. Keep an eye on the amount of frost that accumulates in the coop in the winter as that will give you a good indication of ventilation issues (less ventilation=more frost build up). Put the nesting boxes in a private area of the coop away from the roosts if possible. They tend to appreciate privacy while they are laying. Rodents don't tend to be an issue in the summer, but when winter arrives, they will find their way into the coop as there is bedding that they can use and food that they can pick up. Be prepared to deal with them and not let them get out of hand. Store your food in a sealed container like a Rubbermaid bin or metal trash can with a lid. Mice will find the food and will get to it if they can. In terms of electricity, it is a must to keep the water thawed. I also made a cinder block heater that I plug in as well. I don't do the additional light thing to keep them laying, but mine tend to be good winter layers anyway. While making a coop air tight isn't recommended (ventilation), I do take some of the expandible foam sealer and seal things up where I can around the bottom half of the coop in order to keep the rodents out and the winter breeze from cooling things down too much. However, the chickens do peck at the hardened foam, but it doesn't seem to hurt them. In the winter, they seem to concentrate on 3 things...food, water, and warmth. Laying eggs is a distant 4th.