new birds

[chickens asome]

hi i what to order 16 chickens and about5-6 ducks but i dont know if i have enough room. i aredy have eight chickens aredy and my pen is not very big but its not small the most chickens i every had in there was 18. could i fit 16 more chickens and 5-6 ducks in the same pen

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
Uh, you haven't mentioned the size of the pen. How can we possibly know. If it is the size of a football field, then I'd say yes, and good for you!
If we can infer from your comment, " it's not very big, but not small..." that it is of average size, well... let me put it this way:

If you have to wonder if you can cram more in, then you most probably should not.

Your inner voice is giving you a warning, here. Listen to it.

 

[chickens asome]

it is about 8 by 8 feet long

 

[Mahonri]

Quote:
There's a small little voice,
Always speaking within,
And it warns you from danger,
And it keeps you from sin,
And what is most strange,
Is it makes itself heard,
Though it gives not a sound,
Nor says never a word.

YOU FOLLOW IT!

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
64 square feet is adequate for ONE chicken, if you intend to let the earth help handle it's waste - so you dont have to.

Anything more and you become tasked with ever increasing waste management chores.
You have 16 in there now, so I suspect that either by design or coincidence, you've gone with the 4 sq ft/ bird standard??

Sorry to say, but that is not a good thing.
============================================

People love to toss that 4 foot standard around as the Rule of Thumb for space allowance. I sincerely wish they wouldn't.

That number is for interior floor space in a roosting coop only. It isn't intended for all space allowances, especially not for exterior space.

It got started back in the early 20th century with the move to urbanization. New city people, fresh from the country, wanted a few chickens to remind them of the "good life" they abandoned. It got 'scientificated' during WWII, when people were wanting to keep urban chickens for meat and eggs to offset war production.
Truth be known, my research indicates it is more akin to early experiments at commercial confinement than anything else. ::GASP!::

To be fair, it works as a close confinement method. But it requires a lot of effort at dealing with waste. It is directly responsible for all the complaining and moaning you hear about shoveling poo and mulching and liming and filthy runs, ad nauseum..... I avoid it like the plague.

Heres a "Davaroo Chicken Rule of Thumb," directly from my now famous "The 5 Keys to Successful Chicken Keeping":

The proper minimum exterior allowance for chickens is 87.12 sq ft/per bird.

This arose from the practice of market range-rearing for eggs in the early 1900's. Their standard was 500 birds/acre. Thats 43,560 sq ft/500 = 87.12.
This was considered intense flock density for the time and was the practical limit if the land was not to be depleted and overburdened with chicken manure. It also required planting of cover crops and flock rotation throughout the seasons.

I don't want to bore you with more, so suffice it to say that you have enough chickens, IMHO.

 

[chickens asome]

no i have 8 in there but i am going to get rid of2-3 of them

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
You are right, I mis-stated your initial post.

But I hope you get the spirit of what I'm saying...