First, the recommendations on here are not usually absolute laws of nature. They are general rules of thumb that keep most people out of trouble most of the time under a wide variety of conditions. Are they over the top for some of us? Yes, sometimes they are. But in a couple of paragraphs, we can't cover all the possible conditions that affect it. To avoid encouraging you to do something that could cause you a lot of trouble, many of us give advice that should keep you out of trouble in spite of some of the things you do or some of the conditions you have.
We all have different goals and conditions. Our chickens have different personalities. Each flock has its own dynamics. There is seldom one right answer that covers us all. Some chickens will not go out in snow. Last winter I had three that would regularly walk through 9" of snow to the compost heap to check it out, although it was frozen solid. Most, but not all, would go out and forage for grass and weed seed in 3 to 4 inches of snow. Mine don't like the wind, but mine have gone out to forage in 4 degrees Fahrenheit as long as the wind is not blowing. They'd probably go out in colder weather, but it has not been colder than that when I opened the pop door.
I use the 4 square feet in the coop with 10 square feet in the run as a starting point in the discussion. We have to start somewhere. There are conditions where you can get by with quite a bit less, such as where you use the coop as a safe place to roost and lay eggs, maybe squeeze some food and/or water in there. But this means they have access to the outside practically all the time they are awake. This may mean climate or maybe a run with a roof and sides to keep snow and wind out of it. There are different ways to do things.
I also find that I have to do a lot less work taking care of the chickens if I do not crowd them. If they have plenty of room, I don't have to get up at the crack of dawn every day to let them out and find a chicken sitter to do that when I am on vacation. With extra space, I have to manage the poop a lot less. If you crowd them, one risk is that they can become cannibalistic, but there is also a general convenience factor for you too.
I did a write-up a long while back about space that you might find interesting or it might bore you to tears. Hopefully it will help you some.
As long as you have enough height for the roosts to be noticeably higher than the nest boxes, height does not matter to chickens. They are basically ground dwelling birds, so the ground area is all that really matters space wise. I said it does not matter to the chickens. It does matter to me if I have to work in there. It matters quite a bit.
If the nest boxes are high enough off the ground that the chickens can easily get under them, then nest boxes do not take away from the space available. The tops of the nesting boxes does not add to the living space either although they may occasionally be up there. Ground level is what counts.
Some of the things that make up the space requirement are, in my opinion:
1. Personal space for the birds. They have different personalities and different individual requirements. Some are very possessive of personal space and some can share.
2. Access to feeder and waterer. The general recommendation is that they all be able to eat at one time, but access to the waterer is also important. Part of this is that they seem to like to all eat at once but not necessarily drink at the same time. Part of it is that a dominant bird may keep others from eating or drinking, especially with limited access.
3. Being able to put the feeder and waterer where they will not poop in it when they roost.
4. Roost space. They not only need to have enough room to roost, they need to have enough room for them to sort out who gets to sleep next to whom and who gets the prime spots. They also need enough room to get on the roosts and get off them. When they get on, they may jump from some midway support or fly directly to the roost, but either way, they like to spread their wings. And some chickens seem to enjoy blocking the entry points if there are limits. And when they get off, mine tend to want to fly down, not jump to a halfway point. They need room to fly down without bumping into feeders, waterers, nesting boxes, or a wall.
5. Poop load. The larger area they have the less often you have to actively manage the poop. They poop a lot while on the roost so you may have to give that area special consideration, but mucking out the entire coop can be backbreaking work plus you have to have some place to put all that bedding and poop. In my opinion, totally cleaning out the coop is something that needs to happen as seldom as possible.
6. How often are they able to get out of the coop. The more they are confined to the coop, the larger the personal space needs to be. The normal recommendation on this forum is 4 square feet per full sized chicken with a minimum of 10 square feet of run per bird. This additional requirement outside is sometimes not mentioned. How often they are allowed out of the coop may depend on a lot more than just weather. Your work schedule, when you are able to turn them loose, what time of day you open the pop door to let them out or lock them up at night, all this and more enters into the equation. The 4 square feet recommendation assumes they will spend extended time in the coop and not be able to get in the run. What that extended time can safely be depends on a lot of different factor so there is no one correct length of time for everyone.
7. Do you feed and water in the coop or outside. The more they are outside, the less pressure on the size of the coop.
8. The size of the chicken. Bantams require less room than full sized chickens. This has to be tempered by breed and the individual personalities. Some bantams can be more protective of personal space than others, but this is also true of full sized breeds.
9. The breed of the chicken. Some handle confinement better than others.
10. The number of chickens. The greater the number of chickens, the more personal space they can have if the square foot per chicken stays constant. Let me explain. Assume each chicken occupies 1 square foot of space. If you have two chickens and 4 square feet per chicken, the two chickens occupy 2 square feet, which leaves 6 square feet for them to explore. If you have ten chickens with 4 square feet per chicken, each chicken has 30 unoccupied square feet to explore. A greater number also can give more space to position the feeders and waterers properly in relation to the roosts and provide access. Im not encouraging you to crowd your birds if you have a large number of them. Im trying to say you are more likely to get in trouble with 4 square feet per chicken if you have very few chickens.
11. What is your flock make-up. A flock with more than one rooster may be more peaceful if it has more space. I don't want to start the argument about number or roosters here as I know more than one rooster can often peacefully coexist with a flock, but I firmly believe more space helps.
12. What is the maximum number of chickens you will have. Consider hatching chicks or bringing in replacements. Look down the road a bit.
13. Do you want a broody to raise chicks with the flock? A broody needs sufficient room to work with or you risk problems from other chickens.
14. The more space you have, the easier it is to integrate chickens.
I'm sure I am missing several components, but the point I'm trying to make is that we all have different conditions. There is no magic number that suits us all. The 4 square feet in a coop with 10 square feet in the run is a good rule of thumb for a minimum that most of the time will keep us out of trouble, but not always. I do believe that more is better both in the coop and in the run.
We all have different goals and conditions. Our chickens have different personalities. Each flock has its own dynamics. There is seldom one right answer that covers us all. Some chickens will not go out in snow. Last winter I had three that would regularly walk through 9" of snow to the compost heap to check it out, although it was frozen solid. Most, but not all, would go out and forage for grass and weed seed in 3 to 4 inches of snow. Mine don't like the wind, but mine have gone out to forage in 4 degrees Fahrenheit as long as the wind is not blowing. They'd probably go out in colder weather, but it has not been colder than that when I opened the pop door.
I use the 4 square feet in the coop with 10 square feet in the run as a starting point in the discussion. We have to start somewhere. There are conditions where you can get by with quite a bit less, such as where you use the coop as a safe place to roost and lay eggs, maybe squeeze some food and/or water in there. But this means they have access to the outside practically all the time they are awake. This may mean climate or maybe a run with a roof and sides to keep snow and wind out of it. There are different ways to do things.
I also find that I have to do a lot less work taking care of the chickens if I do not crowd them. If they have plenty of room, I don't have to get up at the crack of dawn every day to let them out and find a chicken sitter to do that when I am on vacation. With extra space, I have to manage the poop a lot less. If you crowd them, one risk is that they can become cannibalistic, but there is also a general convenience factor for you too.
I did a write-up a long while back about space that you might find interesting or it might bore you to tears. Hopefully it will help you some.
As long as you have enough height for the roosts to be noticeably higher than the nest boxes, height does not matter to chickens. They are basically ground dwelling birds, so the ground area is all that really matters space wise. I said it does not matter to the chickens. It does matter to me if I have to work in there. It matters quite a bit.
If the nest boxes are high enough off the ground that the chickens can easily get under them, then nest boxes do not take away from the space available. The tops of the nesting boxes does not add to the living space either although they may occasionally be up there. Ground level is what counts.
Some of the things that make up the space requirement are, in my opinion:
1. Personal space for the birds. They have different personalities and different individual requirements. Some are very possessive of personal space and some can share.
2. Access to feeder and waterer. The general recommendation is that they all be able to eat at one time, but access to the waterer is also important. Part of this is that they seem to like to all eat at once but not necessarily drink at the same time. Part of it is that a dominant bird may keep others from eating or drinking, especially with limited access.
3. Being able to put the feeder and waterer where they will not poop in it when they roost.
4. Roost space. They not only need to have enough room to roost, they need to have enough room for them to sort out who gets to sleep next to whom and who gets the prime spots. They also need enough room to get on the roosts and get off them. When they get on, they may jump from some midway support or fly directly to the roost, but either way, they like to spread their wings. And some chickens seem to enjoy blocking the entry points if there are limits. And when they get off, mine tend to want to fly down, not jump to a halfway point. They need room to fly down without bumping into feeders, waterers, nesting boxes, or a wall.
5. Poop load. The larger area they have the less often you have to actively manage the poop. They poop a lot while on the roost so you may have to give that area special consideration, but mucking out the entire coop can be backbreaking work plus you have to have some place to put all that bedding and poop. In my opinion, totally cleaning out the coop is something that needs to happen as seldom as possible.
6. How often are they able to get out of the coop. The more they are confined to the coop, the larger the personal space needs to be. The normal recommendation on this forum is 4 square feet per full sized chicken with a minimum of 10 square feet of run per bird. This additional requirement outside is sometimes not mentioned. How often they are allowed out of the coop may depend on a lot more than just weather. Your work schedule, when you are able to turn them loose, what time of day you open the pop door to let them out or lock them up at night, all this and more enters into the equation. The 4 square feet recommendation assumes they will spend extended time in the coop and not be able to get in the run. What that extended time can safely be depends on a lot of different factor so there is no one correct length of time for everyone.
7. Do you feed and water in the coop or outside. The more they are outside, the less pressure on the size of the coop.
8. The size of the chicken. Bantams require less room than full sized chickens. This has to be tempered by breed and the individual personalities. Some bantams can be more protective of personal space than others, but this is also true of full sized breeds.
9. The breed of the chicken. Some handle confinement better than others.
10. The number of chickens. The greater the number of chickens, the more personal space they can have if the square foot per chicken stays constant. Let me explain. Assume each chicken occupies 1 square foot of space. If you have two chickens and 4 square feet per chicken, the two chickens occupy 2 square feet, which leaves 6 square feet for them to explore. If you have ten chickens with 4 square feet per chicken, each chicken has 30 unoccupied square feet to explore. A greater number also can give more space to position the feeders and waterers properly in relation to the roosts and provide access. Im not encouraging you to crowd your birds if you have a large number of them. Im trying to say you are more likely to get in trouble with 4 square feet per chicken if you have very few chickens.
11. What is your flock make-up. A flock with more than one rooster may be more peaceful if it has more space. I don't want to start the argument about number or roosters here as I know more than one rooster can often peacefully coexist with a flock, but I firmly believe more space helps.
12. What is the maximum number of chickens you will have. Consider hatching chicks or bringing in replacements. Look down the road a bit.
13. Do you want a broody to raise chicks with the flock? A broody needs sufficient room to work with or you risk problems from other chickens.
14. The more space you have, the easier it is to integrate chickens.
I'm sure I am missing several components, but the point I'm trying to make is that we all have different conditions. There is no magic number that suits us all. The 4 square feet in a coop with 10 square feet in the run is a good rule of thumb for a minimum that most of the time will keep us out of trouble, but not always. I do believe that more is better both in the coop and in the run.
