Number of chickens that can comfortably live in my coop....

[Long Last Farm]

Hi! We continue to work on remodelling an old tack building on our farm into a chicken coop. It is an 8' x10' permanent building with high rafters. The chickens will also have a 16' x16' fenced in run for daily use. I also plan to provide supervised "free-ranging " in the evenings. What would you think would be the maximum # of chickens that I should have with this set up?
Thanks for all replies!

 

[kybeagle]

An 8X10 coop should hold 20 full grown standard size chickens, at least that's what information I have read.

 

[vstoltzfus]

Well, the "rule of thumb" is 4sf per bird in the coop, 10sf per bird in the run. You can put more in if they're bantam. Have fun!

 

[95yj]

theoretically 20, if their all happy and like each other and its a well set up coop etc 25-30 maybe, also depends on the breed, not only size but also aggression and flightiness etc. i'd start with 10-15 and then bump it up if that works well.

 

[Long Last Farm]

Thanks, everyone--we have 15 in the brooder right now, so we should be good to go when the remodelling is done.....

 

[teach1rusl]

15 should do fine. Keep in mind that the general rule of thumb of 4 sq. ft. per LF chicken is a minimum guideline for folks wanting to get away from commercial poultry house "acceptable" standards. The more space you can give your chickens, the better off you and your chickens will be, especially when they are full grown birds, and it's winter time, and they want to spend a lot of time indoors. Your space will look huge when they're chicks. And it'll seem roomy in spring, summer, and fall when the chickens are only indoors for sleeping and laying. But winter time with full grown birds will be another story...