Origins of run and coop size rule?

[codybird]

Is there a source for the 4 ft/chicken coop, 10'/chicken run rule?

I've got no problem with it, I'm just curious as to where it came from.

Is it anecdotal, scientific research, or did Aunt Mamie do it because her grandfather's cousin-in-law always did it that way?

I've searched to no avail.

 

[Dixiedoodle]

I can not answer your question but I do know I read it on one of the many college web sites that I have googled about chickens. I guess you could say it's a 'standard' that most chicken people use..

I know many have many more sq. ft for their birds and some have a lot less... Which varies to include lots of other things such as : YOUR weather, if YOU free range, if YOU have layers or meat birds, if YOU have bantams or standard size chickens, if YOUR chickens are bored quicker than someone else's, AND the other variable of HOW much you know better than a 100K others who have tired this before you! RE: I followed that rule because I did not know anything better!

 

[elmo]

My experience with other rules of thumb about cage size for birds is that these minimums are way too small. The more space a creature has the more active it will be, and thus the more happy and healthy (since smaller enclosures poop up faster and require more frequent and more intensive cleaning).

I have five young bantam chickens in a 64 square foot pen, and it seems way too small to me. I've been letting them free range under my watchful eye, and I'm building them a chicken tractor about the same size as their pen so they can get more time out of their pen.

Bottom line, I don't think you'll ever find you've made your chicken housing too large.

 

[MIKE555444]

I don't have your answer either but wanted to comment my thoughts.

I believe the main idea is to give the chickens a clean, safe, and happy life in order to keep them healthy and happy. I can't imagine chickens who walk around in mud up to their tail feathers being as healthy as ones that are kept dry and clean environment.

I have the hardest time with runs that are full of mud

My new experiment is a run that offers about 50 s/f per bird and seems to holding well so far without loosing to much of the vegetation

 

[patandchickens]

I think it's debatable whether it should be called a "rule". It is one OF MANY DIFFERENT guidelines that are commonly advanced in various sources, but there is nothing that inherently makes it truer or more absolute than other attempted rules of thumb.

Frankly I am not happy with less than 10-15 sq ft per chicken indoors, plus run space -- because, having seen them at that density *and* (same individual birds) at 4-6 sq ft density, I gotta say they really do behave a lot differently and 'happier' at the larger space allowance.

But, it depends SO much on your individual circumstance, and if you live in an Eden-like climate and the birds are genuinely outside all day every day without fail, then all you're really building is a roost box and that doesn't take too much room; run space is of course a whole nother kettle of worms, but, same idea there.

Also, why do people keep saying that the "rule" is that you should have 4 (or 2, or 3) sq ft per chicken indoors and 10 (or 8) outdoors, without adding that it's a MINIMUM recommendation, not an ideal situation? Hmpf.

Anyhow, if you try to trace similar things back, and I betcha that these coop size numbers work the same way, it generally turns out that some gentleman-farmer Victorian pulled some number out of his butt when he wrote a pamphlet 150 years ago, and the number has been repeated and repeated ever since then, with suitable mutations according to each writer's own preferences. The thing to pay attention to, IMHO, is that many people over the years *have* found that sort of square footage to be workable. So, it is not bizarrely off, at least in terms of what gives you a reasonable chance of keeping chickens from becoming unduly cannibalistic too much of the time. Thus, irrespective of the origin(s) of the number(s), I'd argue that they do have some empirical validity.

Particularly if a person has otherwise-ideal conditions, and a rather relaxed attitude to how happy a chicken needs to be.

Hardly anybody on BYC (there *are* a few) are depending on their chickens to keep themselves alive or solvent, though. For upwards of 98% of the forum, it is a hobby, plain and simple (even if you do get eggs or meat or the sale of hatching eggs/chicks as a fringe benefit). On a hobby basis, I'd argue that it's a mistake to treat chickens as collectibles and see how many you can fit on the shelf. More space per chicken is kinder (and easier to manage!) than less space per chicken -- so perhaps the focus should be not so much on being limited by space, but rather on limitING one's collecting whims.

JMHO,

Pat