So i have a HUGE coop. It is i think 6x12 which would be room for 18 chickens. My roosts are almost 6 feet into the air thats how tall this coop is. They are free ranged during the day up until they put themselves to bed. I have 14 hens 1 rooster and 7 young ones. So my question is, Is my coop too small for all my chickens. They have access to the run 24/7 which is closed off, the run is like 12x12 or so. I can add pics of the inside i need be.
If you go by the 2 square feet per bird 6X12 is 72 sq ft divided by 2 equals 36 birds that you can have since you only have 22 they should be more than comfortable.
Not familiar with your area of CA - is your weather warm year-round?? Because that would determine for me whether you have enough space. In other words, if they truly were never confined to the coop/run (other than at night when they are merely roosting) - never when you go away for weekends or vacations or bad weather...then I'd say yeah. But I use the minimum of 4 sq. ft indoor/10 sq. ft outdoor for my birds as well. So if there's a chance they could end up being confined at times, then I'd downsize numbers. Personally, I couldn't even imagine keeping my birds at the 4 sq. ft thing - but we get winters here.
well since ur chickens are free run they will usually only use the coop at night so i would say ur fine with th amount you have but i would no get anymore hens unless u made ur coop bigger hope this helps
Yeah mine are free range too and they only go into their coop for the night hours from about 9:30 until 6:30 am. I am adding a second coop though so that I can have a juvenile coop as well and that one will be bigger than the one I have right now for my layers. That one has enough room for 48 chickens. The new one will be about 10 ft by 12 feet so it can hold about 60 chickens but probably won't hold that many lol and will only be for the babies before they can go to the meat pen or to the laying barn. I think the square foot per coop depends on where you live. In the cold areas you need to have less square feet because they need to get together for warmth. In hotter areas you need more space between birds. But it's all dependent on the owner. The books say 2 feet per bird so that's what I go by.
Quote:... or go into the coop to lay eggs. Our birds enjoy over 150 square feet of rotating pasture each during the warmer months, but our mobile hen houses allow for two square feet per bird inside. In the winter when we round up the wagons, we keep our exercise runs open with a seven foot snowblower. I think some people don't keep the runs clear of deep snow which causes confinement problems in poultry.
