How much room in the coop

[dianefbarfield]

I've seen soany opi ions about how much room chickens need in the coop. Mine only sleep in the coop. My 3 hens use about 1 foot of space. They sleep in a tight bundle.

 

[DobieLover]

I've seen soany opi ions about how much room chickens need in the coop. Mine only sleep in the coop. My 3 hens use about 1 foot of space. They sleep in a tight bundle.

The problem with using this as your only guideline on how large to size the coop is forgetting about the times when the birds can't or won't leave the coop. That's when problems can really arise. You may find yourself in a situation where you need to lock the birds up because they don't have a secure run to be locked into and they're being picked off by predators or the weather is terrible and they won't leave, you're going to be in trouble.
Then there's the issue of just how much poop a chicken can produce in one night all accumulating in a very small square footage area. That is also hard to clean.
And then there's the difficulty in providing proper ventilation in such a small structure.

 

[dianefbarfield]

The problem with using this as your only guideline on how large to size the coop is forgetting about the times when the birds can't or won't leave the coop. That's when problems can really arise. You may find yourself in a situation where you need to lock the birds up because they don't have a secure run to be locked into and they're being picked off by predators or the weather is terrible and they won't leave, you're going to be in trouble.
Then there's the issue of just how much poop a chicken can produce in one night all accumulating in a very small square footage area. That is also hard to clean.
And then there's the difficulty in providing proper ventilation in such a small structure.

Good points. They have a large area, just bundle up to sleep.