How much room do I actually need for 4 chickens?

[Aunt Angus]

But there are building methods and designs, in some climates, which allow some creative space solutions.

Oh, gosh, yes! This! I have seen some amazingly creative ways to do this here on BYC - things that I never ever would have thought of. You might consider posting a thread and asking folks how they've expanded their areas/enlarged their coops. Chicken people are super resourceful.

 

[3KillerBs]

P.S. We talk a lot about the guidelines and offer rules of thumb and they DO get people off to a good start. But everyone should also read this article which shows why they are *guidelines* rather than hard-and-fast RULES.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/how-much-room-do-chickens-need.66180/

 

[3KillerBs]

You know as soon as your article is done, I'll be linking it frequently!

I'm working on getting good photos of common objects that are the same size as the recommendations and figuring out how to give a sense of scale to photos of various sheds on our property.

I also want to make a few more of those "crayon" diagrams to replace stuff I linked off the internet.

 

[Amka]

Thank you all for your input! And thanks for starting the thread, @ChickenOfSpades. I hope it's okay I'm using it, just didn't want to start a new one. Flagging @rosemarythyme @3KillerBs @Aunt Angus @TheFatBlueCat @townchicks @U_Stormcrow

@3KillerBs, thanks for the link to your coop renovation, it was super helpful.

Again, this is for 6 chickens in a suburban area.

In northern Utah, my dry climate includes winters with Fahrenheit temps as low as single digits with highs in the teens in the winter and a few days of summer highs in the triple digits. We also can get monsoon winds and rain occasionally.

This is the build so far, partially primed. Its color will eventually be a very pale blue, the lighter color so it doesn't absorb as much heat in the summer. I got the plans for the Bella coop from cleancoops.com, and according to them, it's big enough. The coop itself is 4x4 ft. The big opening will be the door for access to clean. The plans call for making a roosting box, with a dowel handle, that will be just inside the door. I'm not sure about this for roosting. The window you see is south facing, and the original plans had a nesting box there, but I figured it would get too hot for that. I am using hardware cloth for a screen and making my own window that I will be able to swing up for the summer, maybe even to just roof pitch down, and add shade - then shut for the winter and have warmth from the sun.

And here is another window, according to the plans, just above the chicken door. It faces east. This one again will have a hardware cloth screen, but the window I build will slide side to side. Above you see the soffit. I used a 2x4 on one side of the truss for stability and will put hardware cloth on the other. Same, kitty-corner on the other side of the roof. The plan calls for a rectangular vent above the window and nest boxes but I thought it might be cute with some round holes, using hardware cloth again. Is that all enough ventilation? Is this enough space?

I haven't connected these, just laying it out. The woodpile will be moved to the east wall. Also east of the coop is a planned ~10x10 patio with a fire pit. Also, that tarp shed behind the coop will become a real shed and will shade the coop's west side. The only reason I didn't consider the run right against the wall is because the city ordinance said the _coop_ had to be at least five feet from the property line. But it didn't talk about the run. We got a permit. We won't have the chicken police around unless there are complaints but still, not sure. Also lumber starts to become a consideration. It will be as tall as just under the roof. With the space under the coop, as laid out, it works to about 64 sq ft.

Letting them out is something I want to do, but I'll need to fence off this space north of the garden which is to the east of this picture's vantage point. None of the walls are shorter than about 5 ft. A problem is that I'm worried about hawks, and our ordinance says "with supervision," whatever that means.

Is this sufficient, am I missing something? Thank you all so much for your help!

 

[3KillerBs]

4x4 makes a nice coop for 4 chickens, but is too small for 6 unless you make a secure, covered run that will never be unavailable so that the coop-and-run functions together as a complete unit.

I had 5 in this coop for a year, but I live in a particularly mild climate where my chickens never lacked access to the outdoors because of weather (They even foraged in the run between rain bands of several tropical storms): https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-little-monitor-coop.76275/

It looks good and sturdy for your storms, but you need top-level ventilation right up at the roof peak.

 

[townchicks]

Sorry for the late reply. I have been working on the coop like crazy because yes, we already have the chicks. Unfortunately, when we were going to "check things out" at our local country store, we came home with chicks and supplies to brood them. They are in the garage. I'm going to start another thread.

That's how a lot of us here got started. Have fun with the little ones.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Does vertical run space count? (cubic feet) For example, if i have an 8x8 enclosed area, that's 64 sq ft. But if it's 6 feet tall with a roof, that's a lot more (in my pea-brain) than an 8x8 run that's only 2 or 3 feet high. So does that figure into the space?

Vertical space does not count. *Its useful for ventilation purposes* but for flock behavioral purposes, the only space that counts is space they can walk around and/or scratch on. Which is why we don't count roosting bars in addition to floor space (also, would only add a score square inches in many cases)

 

[raingarden]

My trouble with the standard 4-10-1 recommendation is that it does not apply to open-air "coops" in a mild climate where there is no harsh winter. We have a dozen chicken pens of various shapes and sizes, but none have a fully enclosed coop. They just have plenty of places to lay, roost, scratch and get out of the rain. I guess that more space is always better, but with 10 square feet per bantam or 15 square feet per large chicken the flock dynamics seem to be fine and it doesn't turn into a sewer.

 

[Aunt Angus]

In my old, smaller run, I installed deep "shelves" around the perimeter (18 in wide). That actually acted like additional square footage. I had to scrape them off daily to keep them from getting really gross, but it was like an apartment with a loft. My girls loved it.

 

[Aunt Angus]

The prefab manufacturers' claims are based on legal minimums for commercially-kept birds -- who are intensively managed in ways that backyarders cannot duplicate (forced-air ventilation automatically coupled to temperature and ammonia sensors), and do not want to duplicate (debeaking to prevent cannibalism). They are not *exactly* lies, but they are deceptive.

This coop was designed to meet all the minimums for 4 hens: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-little-monitor-coop.76275/ At one point I had 5 in there happily BUT I also had approximately 600 feet of run space in an exceedingly mild climate.

The 4 square foot per hen is the size of my doormat:

The 10 square feet in the run is the size of that little, fiberglass, tub/shower combo that you find in the hall bath in a manufactured home.

Just to give you an idea of what actual chickens look like in a space with their equipment, this photo shows 3 cull cockerels in a 4x8 space. At this age they're just slightly smaller than an adult hen of their breed:

No one has ever regretted making their coop and run bigger.

Awesome pic to illustrate!