Official BYC Poll: How Many Square Feet Per Chicken?

[Paula321]

I currently have only 3 feet per bird in the coop because my 84 meat birds are taking up more and more space I can cordon off from my 17 hens in the coop. The coop size is 336 square feet.

I don’t feel bad about this because it only lasts about 2 weeks when the fatties are in their biggest. Normally the hens have 19 feet per bird.

I let the big girls into their acre of fenced yard from 6am to 8pm. It is a permaculture food forest on a lake with a natural spring. They love hunting tadpoles in the little stream I made to deal with the spring. They have plenty of space to roam.

The meat fatties have a run that is 50x12 they play in from 6am-6 pm. This is 7 feet per bird but they only last 8 weeks and most of that time they are considerably smaller. They never seem crowded. It is totally shaded, fenced and has bird netting up top. I let my girls have access to this area for 2 hours a night from 6-8 pm and it is loaded with worms and maggots as the fatties fertilize it. It has 6 inches of oak leaves and I dump in three garbage cans of duck weed daily as well as water it every night. Every scratch uncovers about 30 maggots, bugs worms. The big girls line up around 6 and can’t wait to get in there. I wish the fatties would forage but they mostly just eat their feed, weeds and duck weed.

 

[ShotGunBetty]

Not sure how to answer this! My coop is a small tractor supply setup with a 3 spot nest box up top and a single roost, 2 doors to the run. That coop is insided my enclosed run. I have placed a 3 spot sheltered nest box below the actual built in enclosed nest boxes. I have 12 chickens. 3 bantams, the rest are full sized. My enclosed run area is 12x23 ish that's 276 sq ft. They have a tree roost, and 3 other roosts out of the coop inside the enclosure. 3/4 of its roof covered with a tarp for shade and chicken wire over 100% to keep out predators. The uncovered part is secured by chicken wire roof and wraps around a tree, it also has a 100 gal pool for the ducks on that end. (5 ducks) I have Rubbermaid totes down for duck boxes. Mostly the chickens use them as furniture lol. They get let out about once a day into the yard to free range, supervised only. My set up seems odd reading every one elses but my backyard is small. They all seem happy. They lay eggs and don't pick at each other. Overall, I guess the run/coop is about 16 ft per bird all of the time because the coop is never closed and they only use the coop to lay eggs and out of 6 nest boxes they only like 2 of them, they take turns. I utilized what space I have the best way I can. Considering all the cats in the neighborhood and raccoons.

 

[khorvath]

Feel free to reply below with more detail, such as:

1. Inside space per chicken
2. Run space per chicken
3. Free-range space per chicken

(Check out more Official BYC Polls HERE!)

1. 6 sq ft
2. 12 sq ft
3. 1200+ sq ft

 

[The Phantom]

I have 20 chickens that roam on probably 10 of my 25 acres.

 

[CHlCKEN]

Run space mine have 333 sq ft per bird. Inside it’s 10 sq ft per bird. They only use the coops (6) for sleeping or laying eggs, nothing else. I have a 10,000 sq ft run and 30 chickens.

That’s insane! Wow good job on giving them the extra leg room!

 

[FortCluck]

That’s insane! Wow good job on giving them the extra leg room!

I have even more room now. We extended the run an additional 8,000 sq feet not too long ago. We also have more chickens and chicks, but some of those are going to new homes. I am thinking I will have 30-40 pullets for the springtime so I cannot wait to see what kind of eggs we get.

 

[Panhandler80]

21 - hens.

5 - Five exterior nesting boxes

64 - Square foot coop (3 sq ft / bird), but with zero items cluttering the flor. Wide open wall to wall to wall to wall.

32 - Linear feet of roosting. Two at low level and parallel. One at mid level same direction. One perpendicular at highest level. Almost zero chance of pooping on one another.

450 - Square foot run (21 sq ft / bird)

24 - Hour access to run.

19 - Most eggs I've seen from 21 hens. They were hatched March 30

2.5 - Bales of pine shavings in coop in late April

0 - Times changing the shavings.

6 or 7 - Times I've stirred the savings

0 - Odor from coop

0 - Signs of bullying, sickness, or unhappiness

__________________________________________

Just goes to show that while 64 square foot coop for 21 birds might sound small, that one stat doesn't really paint the whole picture. I'm new to this, but tried to think it all through and use some common sense. All they do in the coop is sleep there and take turn laying eggs. I gave them ample floor space with which to fly up and down, ample roosting options, ample nesting boxes... that coupled with 24 access to run, and the coop is plenty large. I would say the system is likely at capacity, though. Anyway, the coop vents like a dream, they love the boxes, and quite frankly... I believe they are about as happy as a chicken could get.

 

[ronkonkoma]

Run - 63.6

 

[FLXCHIX]

1. 4sf
2. 16sf
3. 2 acres for 6 birds

 

[3KillerBs]

My coop is admittedly over-crowded with 6 chickens where 4 ought to be (I'm still trying to sell Dumpling), but my pen is exceedingly generous with the same 6 chickens in the approximately 250 square feet provided by 100 feet of Premier1's electric netting.