I know the 2 square feet rule, but how small is REALLY too small?

[Hollywood Hen]

The climate does matter - I live in Southern California, so my birds basically don't spend any time in the coop except to lay and sleep, year-round. My coop is only 4x4, but the run is about another 200 square feet so they have a lot of room to move around.

It worked out pretty well for my 9 hens, but boy did they let me know in the morning if I wanted to sleep later than they did. Next planned mod: automatic door opener.

 

[baldessariclan]

If you are able to let them out in the yard or "free range" almost all the time, then you can get by with a smaller coop -- they'll basically only use it to roost in at night, and maybe nesting boxes for laying eggs. However, if you have prolonged periods of bad weather, the crowding in the coop will become an issue fast. Also, you will most likely have to deal with predator losses at some point if you can't keep them in a secure coop for longer periods (e.g. when hawks or similar show up and hang around for a week or two).

 

[crossgirl]

Quote:
That is exactly what I've been wondering about, if climate matters. Here in Florida I expect my chickens to only be in the coop when they're sleeping or popping in for a bite to eat, oh and the egg laying. My coop is about 4x4 also, maybe a little smaller and there are 2 LF RIR and 4 banties that will be roomies. That is until the roos make themselves know. Who knows how many birds I'll have in the end. I don't want to build a bigger coop when they're hardly going to be using it.

 

[amgreen1980]

We are in Missouri. I am not sure at what temperature they would stay in, but I would guess that we have about an average of 3 months of potentially below freezing temps? December-February. They will have a good sized run for sure. We have the materials for it already. But, unless we are gone for the entire day, they will be free ranging. ( I stay at home). I appreciate all of the input. I think worst case scenario, we will throw something together for them to go in once they are fully feathered while we build the permanent coop.

 

[youngjedi32002]

Quote:
I bought a coop on Ebay for my 4 hens. It is a great coop but after building a make-shift run, I decided that raising the coop off the ground (to deter weather and small rodents) was the best bet! So I built a coop stand and then a separate run that just stands in front of the coop. The posts for the stand and coop are 4" by 4" so they are very sturdy. The coop stand has a door on one side, to put the food in and out, and chicken wire on the other two sides and then the ramp from the door just goes down into the run, which is like a 3 foot long chicken wire "box" missing a side! I can build another "box" missing two sides and stick it in between! They seem very happy, since their combined run space is 4 feet long and a little over 2 feet wide but I would definitely like to give them more space! Since it is a very simple design and really easy to build, I hope to have that extension up soon, since they are growing fast! At the last minute, I thought to build a perch at the end of the run, 2 feet off the ground, which they LOVE! One or two of them will be up there and the other ones will have the ground, and then they switch! It keeps everyone out of everyone else's feathers!!! I hope to post pictures soon!

 

[jamband]

I've spoken extensively with a sustainable poultry specialist who travels the country educating and he tells people 2sq ft per bird if they have access to room outside. He says tooo much room leads to inability for them to keep warm on really cold days.

 

[amgreen1980]

Quote:
Then we buy more chickens right?

I will definitely keep this in consideration. Thanks again for all of the input!

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Well, that's nice for him, that is indeed a commonly-spouted theory, however I would question how much experience he necessarily has in the issue in cold climates... that is generally a recipe for frostbite and cannibalism, IME.

The difficulty is that it is a self-perpetuating idea... when you pack them in like sardines in the winter and get frostbite b/c you have such high humidity, there is a tendency to think "wow, if they got frostbite that bad despite having their body heat contained so well around them, just *imagine* how much worse it'd have been in a larger coop!"

Whereas the reality, managed intelligently anyhow, is that chickens are generally quite robust in cold DRY air (as long as you have not picked really inappropriate breeds for your climate) and typically do as well or better if you give them five or ten times the room and a lot better ventilation.

Even if you are really "on the edge" of what your chosen breeds can handle, there is absolutely no reason to have a small COOP just in order to pack 'em in tight on the roost to "keep themselves warm" on really cold days -- you just knock together a smaller enclosure WITHIN your coop to do that, you can even run a lightbulb in it if you really feel you need to, then they have the best of both worlds (good air quality and a large area to get away from each other and lower their stress level)

Just sayin',

Pat

 

[amgreen1980]

We have barred rocks and possibly RIR and or NHR which I have read are all great for cold climates!

 

[pitbulls and chickens]

Thanks, We are going to look around and get creative! So for 6 pullets, 3 barred rocks and 3 reds that we don't know yet LOL, a 6x8 or 8x8 would be enough room?


I personally would go the 8x8 but if your girls are out daily, 6x6 may be a good fit. Theyre more or less coming in to roost and pop in occasionally. Ours are outdoors every day all day by choice whenever its above 30 degrees. During these "warmer" times of year they could be content with less space, so I guess your climate will help you dictate too...Ours are in an area fenced off by 200 feet of fencing and theyre happy happy! We live on 50 acres in Northern Vermont off grid and have many predators in heavily wooded rural area, as well as 3 rescued Pit Bulls, 1 of which does not like chickens, sooo we cannot completely free range unfortunately.
They pretty much spend their days foraging for bugs, their fave being night crawlers and frogs(yuck). They also get a daily bucket of restaurant scraps(favorites are greens and pasta!) from my job and laid eggs daily ALL winter, which is very unusual in a climate this cold. Our girls laid more eggs daily than local farmer with 50 hens who werent fed/housed as well. During their slowdown, we ended up supplying the eggs for a local general store, we were so overrun with eggs!
Lots of things you can do but, Simply put...The better you house and feed them, the happier they are and reward you with an abundance of eggs, good health and even companionship sometimes!
I just cant imagine not having chickens anymore when I look out the window, laughing as they do the baggy pants run to me every time Im near or ever eating anything other than fresh eggs!!!