Official BYC Poll - How Many Square Feet Per Chicken?

[duckinnut]

16 Layers and 1 Rooster in 64 sq.ft. of coop space, approx. 190 sq.ft. of run,64 of it under the coop and another 600sq. of a fenced in pen area. Averages out to 50sq.ft. per bird. Then the occasional total free range day when I am with them then it's over a half of acre in my front yard and more in my neighbors old horse paddock. Got to keep an eye on them as there are far too many opportunists milling about. Both air and land.

 

[TonySorrento]

I will have 20 birds - 9x12 coop for 5.4sqft per bird and 10x28 run for 14 sqft per bird ...

 

[wayne hulgan]

we have a coop 32 sqft. with 5 chicks. the run is 1500 sqft. for the same 5 chicks. They keep every sq. inch picked clean, no grass, so we have to let them out some.

 

[mong7769]

Well we don't 'techinically' have square foot/chicken right now as we don't have the chickens! But we are getting 16 female chicks (it will remain to be seen how well the hatchery determines girls) and the pen will be 8'x8'. And the run is 6'x10' (or will be when the whole endeavor is finished). They will be in the enclosed pen and coop most of the time and allowed to range in the yard in the evenings/weekends. It is 60'x74' and fenced. They will also get to range in the hoop house when it is finished and the plants are established enough that the ladies won't hurt them. We are going a little bigger on the coop because if the laying hen experiment goes well and proves to be easy we will add meat birds next year.

 

[Gofygure]

Right now our hens are free ranging on a portion of our property, so they have 19 square feet/bird in the coop and about an acre each outdoors.

We're bringing the numbers up a bit though, so when the new young ones head out it'll be 21 birds at a bit more than 4 square feet/bird. Then we'll be culling the excess cockerels, so it should go back down to about 15 birds at over 6 square feet per bird.

Then we're going to add a 3000 square foot enclosure for three goats around their coop, so that'll be a little less than 200 square feet per bird outdoors.

Doing the numbers it seems I'll have to build another coop soon. (Yay!)

 

[Velvet Hairpiece]

We currently have 8 birds (6 hens, 2 roos) in a 6x8 coop, and 16x6 enclosed run.

Coop: 6 sq ft per bird
Enclosed run: 12 sq ft per bird

They also get to free range outside for several hours to most of the day anywhere between 2 and 5 days a week. They get the run of the six acres we have, but they rarely go more than 100 feet from our house or their coop.

They seem pretty happy.

 

[haemony]

1. Inside space per chicken : 4.8
2. Secure run space per chicken : 12.8
3. Extended run space per chicken : 38.4
4. Free-range space per chicken : 3000
5. Hen Spa : 8

My ten chickens spend very little time in their coop. They sleep and lay eggs in the hen house and that all the time they spend in there. They have a secure attached run that is 8 x 16 with a roof where they can be comfortable and dry even in bad weather. If the weather is decent (not pouring rain or snow) they are only in the secure run for an hour or two in the morning, which is from the time they wake up to the time I wake up. After I have at least one cup of coffee, I let them out into the extended run for a few hours (until about 11 am) waiting for all the possible predators to have their breakfast. They spend most of the day free roaming the fenced in half acre portion of our property. They go back into the extended run or inside run if I see a predator problem or if I will not be home..errands, work related, etc. I am almost always home though. These chooks have a lot of space. They also have a plastic greenhouse tent full of dust baths and firewood called the hen spa where they like to hang out.

 

[elsasmom]

Each bird has 6 square feet in the coop, 10 in covered run, 330 in fenced yard and they free range on acres when my dog and I are out with them

 

[hallerlake]

1. 3 feet per chicken in the coop
2. 8.5 " " " " " run
3. 1250 " " free range.

 

[Graham and Eggs]

Three hens have 7 feet plus 2 for the roost inside; outside they each have about 1000 sq ft... their space will decrease dramatically in the summer but they'll have a new garden to play in...about 100 sq ft each.