Open air coop question

[Hei-hei]

Hi All, I am trying to figure out my run. I have a 4x8 walk-in coop that is basically 3 sides with a front that is mostly hardware cloth (nesting box is on the front and is solid in that place) It has a 7 or 8 foot long roost. My plan is to add a run off the front that is predator proof and still tall enough for me to walk in. … we have limited space and budget. How big of a run do I need to add for 8 medium sized birds? I attached a picture, but have covered the back and sides since this was built.

 

[NatJ]

The usual advice is 4 square feet per chicken in the coop, and 10 square feet per chicken in the run.

If your coop is 4x8 feet, and you have 8 chickens, you have 4 square feet per chicken inside it.

If you make the run 8 feet wide (matches the long way of the coop), you can make it 10 feet long, and that will give you 10 square feet per chicken in the run.

Of course more space is always nice, so check what size materials you will be working with. Sometimes you can build a few more feet without spending any more money, just because of the common sizes of boards, harware cloth, and so forth.