Official BYC Poll: How Many Square Feet Per Chicken?

[BantyChooks]

Opinions on various aspects of chicken-keeping vary greatly, and how much space to provide is no exception. How many square feet of space do you have per chicken in your coop(s)? Select an answer corresponding with your current situation, not with what you consider to be an ideal.

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!)

 

[cluckmecoop7]

Mine have about 75 square feet per bird.

 

[FortCluck]

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.

 

[Compost King]

I go by a Minimum of 4 square foot per chicken in the coop (most of the time) and 10 square foot per chicken in the run. All my coops/runs are designed at a ratio like that but I rarely max it out. The only exception to this rule are my Seramas which I do not have an official measurement/guideline yet. Just observe their behavior and look for signs of over crowding.

I found that if you have plenty of space for foraging you can squeeze in a lot of chickens in a small coop provided you are there at sun up and sun down ... and have a great ventilation set up. Depending on your set up you can get away with as many chickens as you have roosting bar space. I found where they spend the day (including rainy days) is more important than where they roost at night. Provide shelter from rain inside of the run or in their free range then their coop size does not mean much.

 

[middle TN Nancy]

I have a little over 5 sq fr per bird in my coop plus nest boxes. Coop is sleeping/roosting and laying only. I have almost 20 sq fr per bird in my covered run. Planning on adding additional run space soon, to be covered with netting.

 

[Ridgerunner]

When I'm down to my basic laying/breeding flock I have just under 14 square feet per bird in the coop and 440 square feet per bird in the two runs.

When I'm up to my summer maximum I may be down to about 56 square feet per bird in the two runs. These are mostly juveniles growing to butcher age. I don't how much room per bird I have in the main coop. These birds are scattered in the main coop, in my grow-out coop, or in a shelter in the run to sleep. Pretty sure the per bird number in the main coop is well under 3 square feet per bird. But this is just to sleep.

 

[woodworm]

I don't have mine yet, still building the coop and run, but it will be 8sq ft in the coop and 24ft in the run.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Currently? 8 sq ft/bird in the house (5 sq ft/ once the "littles" are incorporated), about 40 sq/ft per in the enclosed/fenced/protected run (drops to 25 when the "littles"....), and most of 2 1/2 acres in which they can free range (though they restrict themselves to about 1 1/2 acre by choice, rarely going more than 250' from their house).

The "littles" have a grow out box that works out as about 6.5 sq ft/bird, with an outside run to help the flocks integrate of about 50 sq ft/bird. Its "fenced", but in no way protected, unless you count my lazy chihuahua mixes (I don't) and the need for predators to cross at least 100' of clear field and larger birds (again, I don't) to get at them.

I'm currently putting up, oh so slowly, high tensile livestock fencing around the perimeter of my clearing, but that will only keep the large predators out - like the neighbor's dogs they use in their business hunting hogs.

 

[David61]

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) 8 sqf
2) 40 sqf
3) 1000 sqf

 

[aart]

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

1. 6 sqft
2. 33 sqft
3. 0 sqft