how much space per chicken

[bairo]

I've read through this thread and am honestly wondering if I need to get rid of a bird or three. I have 15 chicks and plan to put them in a 5x7 shed. I do know I need to get the next boxes off the ground to make more floor space for the full 5x7 to be usable...I will mount those to a wall to do that. I have 3 roost bars in there, totaling 19' of roost space, so I know that is enough for 15 birds. There is also a "shelf" about halfway up the back wall of the coop which is approximately 2x5', which is technically more space for them, correct? All in all I would say that my 15 girls will have approximately 45s/f of interior floor space plus a HUGE side yard to roam freely all day long. I'm positive that they'll each have at least 14s/f outside in the yard all day long but we do live in WA where it rains a lot. We will be covering about 1/3 of the run so the food and water stays fresh and dry, and they can stay outside under cover if it's raining. Can anyone who's done this before please let me know how you think this will work out?

7-8 chickens in that space unless you want to deal with too many problems to list.

 

[bairo]

It seems I see this more and more. Always the questions of how do I fit all the chickens I want into this space. 6 months down the road the same people are posting in the diseases and ailments sections wandering what is wrong with their sick birds. What is wrong with them is that their owners wanted to satisfy their desire for a certain number of birds more than they wanted to raise healthy and happy chickens!! In this world today we have been taught that there is always a way to satisfy our wants no matter what it takes. (we are a very spoiled society). Sometimes we are just going to have to admit that it can not be done!!! Or we will accept the consequences (period). I don't care how special we think we are; every action has a reaction. You can not like it all you want to but you can not fight the rules of nature regardless.

By the time you get in the feeders, nest boxes, waters, roosts, etc.etc. You need 5 sq./ft per bird inside with a minimum of 30 sq./ft. (no matter how many birds you have). You need 15 sq./ft per bird of run space (ONLY IF THEY CAN FREE RANGE SEVERAL TIMES PER WEEK) If they can never free range...then you need about a 100 sq.ft. per bird of run space. I am talking floor space period. Not extra shelves or 2 story coops. Just measure the length and the width of the floor and multiply those together. Take that answer and divide by 5. That is how many chickens you can have. No if's, and's, or but's.

Chicken tractors were invented to allow the controlled and safe free ranging of chickens, not as a perm. coop. the same rule applies to tractors. If you have a 48 sq.ft. tractor...then you can only get 3 birds in there to roll them around so they can have their outside time during the day. As sun set approaches they need to be back in the coop.

That is the "brass tacks" on the space issue. You may berate me for it, you may not like it, you may think I'm mean, etc. Regardless of how you feel though, that is the way it is to avoid all sorts of problems. I imagine that there will be plenty of people that say they get away with less space and not had a problem....just give it time, you WILL have problems or you are spending an inordinate amount of money trying to avoid those problems.

 

[lakeandme]

Very helpful advice-----Thanks!

 

[Davaroo]

It seems I see this more and more. Always the questions of how do I fit all the chickens I want into this space. 6 months down the road the same people are posting in the diseases and ailments sections wandering what is wrong with their sick birds. What is wrong with them is that their owners wanted to satisfy their desire for a certain number of birds more than they wanted to raise healthy and happy chickens!!....

Chicken tractors were invented to allow the controlled and safe free ranging of chickens, not as a perm. coop. the same rule applies to tractors. If you have a 48 sq.ft. tractor...then you can only get 3 birds in there to roll them around so they can have their outside time during the day. As sun set approaches they need to be back in the coop.

That is the "brass tax" on the space issue. You may berate me for it, you may not like it, you may think I'm mean, etc. Regardless of how you feel though, that is the way it is to avoid all sorts of problems.

It might interest you to know that the expression, "the brass tacks," came from the early pioneers. When they bought linear goods, such as cloth or cord at the general outfitters, they would find a rail, table edge, or wooden rod marked out in one foot increments - using brass tacks as markers. This "benchmark" was used to assure that a proper measure of material was bought and sold. Thus, the expression suggests the right way of something, measured, sorted and precise.

As for chicken space, here's a rule of thumb to go by that is PROVEN and not anecdotal. Back before the age of industrialized poultry, market chickens were reared paddock fashion, on what we might call "ranges." These were nothing more than open, but carefully managed, pasture lands. The chickens grazed and foraged around these paddocks, staying close to their carefully sited watering, feeding and housing stations - all of which were mobile.
Periodically, these fixtures were moved to a new spot, to give the grassland a chance to recover from the chickens' incessant scratching and manure. The entire markets of the American East were fed from such arrangements as these.

So, how many birds did these expert chickeneers keep on their ranges? 500/acre.
That is 87.12 sq ft per bird. This was learned the hard way and settled on as the best compromise.
Put in MORE chickens - too crowded, in other words - and the land could not absorb the chickens' effluent and destructive habits.
House too FEW birds in the same space and financial efficiency was diminished when compared to the production costs.

Now the problem is, no one has heard much of this stuff - you only find it in 100 year old books. I'm lucky, in that I owned and read these books before I knew of the internet or BYC. Essentially, I didn't know any better and reckoned if it was good enough for them, it could be used today. I followed these practices for several years.
- I used temporary fencing to make rotating paddocks on grass and forest floors.
- I didnt "relate" to predators, wishing we could all just get along. I kept them at a distance.
- I fed good, commercial feed and fresh greens and I gave them clean water.
- I used a "fresh-air" mobile, coop, like a hoop house on steroids... another old idea being reborn today as "revolutionary."
You know what? I had zero problems. I had no issues with disease, filth, flies, liming or other nastiness. I read here about all the problems other people had and I wondered, "How did they miss these simple things?"

What most people don't realize is that our hobby efforts are not usually based in sound practices like these, because these have been mostly forgotten. Instead, our hobby is rife with compromises grown out of the industrial practices most have become familiar with over the last 75 years... the same commercial practices we so often denounce.

Sure, you can cram more and more birds into smaller spaces; the high-intensity poultry industry proves that. And you are free to do what you want. But you reach a tipping point somewhere along the way when you've put in too many. At that moment you are no longer a 'chickeneer', but a livestock waste management specialist - or not, if you should do poorly at it.
If it's the latter, well, all kinds of things go wrong.

As bairo suggests, it is better to have fewer birds in the allotted space than as many as you can shoehorn in.

 

[mike001]

It seems humans need less room than chickens. I should just move out of my house, give it to them, and live in the coop.

 

[mike001]

Quote:
Why is this? If you have two 50 square foot coops and you put one on top of the other and make a doorway to connect them, do they suddently become one 50 sqft coop instead of a 100 sqft coop or two 50s?

 

[Montana-Hens]

Think the 4x4 tile with a bucket in it is a great illustration for a newbee. I forgot all the mental trials and research I did when I started my 1st coop. My ladies have about that, and they clearly are tight in there at night when they go in to roost. Like you my birds go in their only to lay an egg and for the night, so I can live with and they can too. They have a large attached shed they can take shelter from the elements if they choose during their free range days, but their favorite spot is under the camper.

 

[Reurra]

As quoted by Fiddlebanshee: Your run is 6x10 = 60 sq ft which could house only 6 chickens comfortably.

Quoted by Bairo: Just measure the length and the width of the floor and multiply those together. Take that answer and divide by 5. That is how many chickens you can have. No if's, and's, or but's.

Im getting conflicting messages here. One person said 60 sq ft of run space is only enough for 6 birds whereas if I take 60 sqft and divide it by 5 I can fit 12 birds in there.

I only want 10 birds, thats it lol.

10x6=60 60/5=12??

4 foot rule would bake 60/4=15. Im terrible at math, am i doing it wrong?

 

[fiddlebanshee]

You need to distinguish between coop and run.

For the coop (the actual hen house) you need 4 or in case of Bairo 5 sq ft per bird. So if you want 10 birds your house needs to be 40 or 50 sq ft I'd go with the larger amount.

For the run (the outdoor part that is enclosed for their safety, you need 10 sq ft per bird so in your case you need 100 sq ft.

Quote: But the 60 sq ft is for the run, not the henhouse, so that'd still be at most 6 birds.

I hope this clarifies.

 

[Reurra]

Yep that makes more sense! Thanks for clearing that up for me!