How much space per chick?

[vjbakke]

How much space is needed for chicks/chickens? I don't know how many chicks we are going to get per the size of our yard. Is there a good rule of thumb of the size of coop to how many chicks you can have in it? Ours will not be able to free roam in the yard as we live in town and own a dog.

 

[falinagirl]

2-3 feet per chicken is what I have been reading. Check out raising chickens 101 on the BYC home page for some really great information!

 

[TylahT]

I've heard that each chicken needs 4 square feet each in the coop and 10 square feet each in the run area...so say you built a 4ft wide by 8 ft long coop..thats 32 square feet...so you could have 8 chickens in the coop