New to Chickens West GA

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CaptMorgan

CaptMorgan

Hatching
5 Years
Mar 3, 2014
4
0
9
Temple, GA
Hello All,
Just wanted to say thank you to everyone on this site. It has been a wonderful source of information for me to use in building my chicken coop and for raising my new baby chicks.
I have built a mobile chicken tractor with a 4'x3' coop (Not counting the three hen boxes) with 7ft. worth of roosting perches one at 1ft high above nesting boxes and one at 2ft. I read before that you need about a foot of roosting perch for each bird and I was wanting 6 total chickens.
The run is 7'X4'.

Would 6 be too many....? I don't want them to feel miserable.

Right Know I have
2: Red Stars
1: Easter Egger (Sold as an Americana/Araucana mix)
1: Black Australorp

I was thinking about getting one more of the Australorp and another easter egger for a total of 6.

Any suggestions would be great. Thanks in Advance.
 
images


A coop space of 4x3 is 12 square feet. This is a bit too small for 6 chickens. If kept confined in this small space, they will no doubt rip each other apart. You can't really include the roost bars as coop space, even though it is there. It is floor space you are concerned with. You might be able to keep 3 or 4 birds in this space ok. However you have a good sized run and if they are spending most of their time out there and not stuck in the coop, you might do ok, if your weather warrants lots of them being in the run. So if you do get 6 birds, you will need to be prepared to expand on the coop size if the birds are picking on each other. :)

Welcome to BYC and enjoy all your poultry adventures!
 
@TwoCrows ,

They will spend all day in the run and only coop at night. Here in GA we usually(this one has been weird) have pretty mild winters and of course hot summers.


Thanks!!! For your response.
 
Hello :frow and Welcome To BYC! X2, that is probably going to be too small for that many standard breed chickens unless they can spend pretty much all their time outside... the general rule of thumb seems to be 4 sq foot inside and 10 outside, so the run space is small also for 6. Here is a great BYC article that helps on figuring out how much space you'll want https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-much-room-do-chickens-need
 
you either need to build a bigger run and coop or get less chickens. If you have a roosting bar over the nest boxes, the chickens will be dropping poo bombs all over them.
 
Thanks Everyone....

@drumstick diva
I did notice that in most designs so the roosting bars are not over the hen boxes. Thanks for the tip.

I think I will stick with the original four!
 

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