my chicken math!!

[rachelofmany]

We are getting our chicks on friday, and our plans for the coop are under way. We are first timers. My chicken math is already proving to be a problem with my husband and we don't even have chicks yet. Our original plan was to get 3. Then 5. Now I'm hoping for 8. Before we can do anything though, we're trying to figure out how many chickens our coop will even hold. We have plenty of room for the run. However, the coop will be 5 1/2 x 4 1/2. My question is this, would I be able to add more chickens (the 8 I'm thinking) if I make the coop 2 story for more roosts (but not as much actual walk room since I'll need to do a ladder or something for them to get "upstairs") will that cover the amount of space needed for this amount of chickens, or is that still too small? I'm thinking the second floor would be half the amount of floor space, but extra room for roosts. The egg boxes will be outside of these measurements.

Thanks!!

 

[rachelofmany]

I decided to go ahead and just stick with 5 for now to make it easier.

 

[Anuthatch]

I'm lauging at your chicken math. We are new too and already the math is hitting. We went back and forth about how many to get. Ended up ordering 5 with hopes of having 3. We have 4 now (3wks old) but we'd like 6 since once my husband really got into building the coop, he decided he could make it bigger without much more work. We are building it inside an exisiting shed. I'm sorry I didn't just order more to start.

I read 4 square feet per bird if they will be confined in the space is minimum for what you need. Are you letting yours out of the coop? Your dimensions sound pretty small if you are keeping them in the coop all the time.

You can search this forum and find it.

 

[rachelofmany]

They will have a pretty large run. I need to look at my measurements again, but its way more than the 10 sqft per bird recommended. They definitely will not be kept in the coop.
Our dimensions are the way they are because we're turning an old wooden swing set play house into the coop. We're using the existing bones to build the coop. We did decide to get another play house we found on CL to add to it, but we will (for now) still stick with the 5 chickens we planned on. I'm just worried about crowding. We're using pallets to finish it off. I'll have to take pictures as I go. We're trying to keep this build as cheap as possible.