Is my coop too cramped?

[Pureupto99per]

I heard you should have four square feet for each chicken... you have 64 square feet with your 8x8 coop... which means you can house 16 chickens. But that's just what I heard...

 

[Joyryder]

WELCOME TO BYC
Your coop is not full! Buy more chickens!
It also depends on the size of the chickens. If they're FS full size you could keep 16 easily, fewer if they're giants.
If they're bantams 21 would be most comfortable in the coop.

 

[ChickenQuest]

Wow! I feel much better now. I never knew I was such a worry wart until I got these beautiful chickens. Thanks to all of you for your reassurance and advice. Cheers!

 

[BarredBuff]

I have an 8 by 8 chicken coop that has 20 chickens in it, it did have 21 in it but one of the red pullets got weak from the artcic temps and we put it in the pet taxi and she got better then we returned her and she got weak again and I put her in the nest box because I could not keep her the taxi and we fed her the same feed and isolating her didnt do anything and they pecked her to death...SORRY for the rambling but that was the one I named DUCK THE CHICKEN and she was not of duck blood but she reminded me of one. But back to the coop I plan to keep 30 in mine this summer so you reaally have room for more. And mine only lay in two boxes out of eight.

 

[patandchickens]

If your coop works the way you want it to and you're happy with the results, it's the proper size, no matter what anyone else says.

Everyone has different ideas of what constitutes good results, and furthermore everyone is in their own climate with chickens of their own particular dispositions, so legitimately there IS a fair range of "right" coop sizes. Please do not get attached to this magic "4 sq ft indoors, 10 sq ft outdoors" you hear here, or any number picked out of any book you read. Numbers are not what count, RESULTS count. Yes, this means it is hard to predict how many more chickens a person can "safely" add to their coop.... but it just IS hard to predict with accuracy what will happen, that's just how the world is

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Brickman House]

I agree with Pat, above. Don't get tied to a square foot number-- chicken management has to take into account so many more factors!

My flock of 25 birds are in a 6 x 8 coop (so even smaller than yours!) and are doing great. They free range, and are only in there to sleep and lay eggs. We get plenty of rain, cold temperatures, and snow several times a year, and my flock chooses to be out in just about all of it. The only time they choose to stay in is when there's a serious amount of snow on the ground, and then they seem to happily hang out in the coop, on the roosts, and eat me out of house and home. No scuffles, no problems.

So watch your birds carefully, know when they're happy and when something's out of sorts, and you'll do fine, however many birds you choose to keep in your coop.