Those general recommendations are if you have to coop your birds full time. Mine only use the coop to lay eggs and roost. Otherwise they are in their spacious run or out in the yard living their best life.
I see it all the time myself. A coop and run that is 2 feet wide by 3 feet long. Claiming to accommodate 6 chickens. Sadly someone purchase it and cram that many chickens in it.Just wanted to see that clarified since, as you know, the manufacturers claim wildly exaggerated capacity based on the legal minimums for commercial birds.
That book written by Purina is for backyard chicken keeping.
I agree that's why I let them out before sunrise.
They wan't you to stuff more birds in so they can sell more feed
Is that really commercial "legal" limits? Maybe caged chickens have 12" of space per bird? I guess that doesn't seem like much if you cram as many as you can in there. I mean the definition of free range by commercial standards is laughable. As long as they have access to the outdoors, its considered free range. Have you seen the access? If the poultry house allows their birds to run around in the coop vs being caged its considered cage free. Ha. Ok - Marketing gimmicks vs realism.
We backyarders ought to do better for our birds than the minimums required for commercial flocks.
The numbers referenced in the usual guidelines come from poultry science before the advent of forced mechanical ventilation, the breeding of birds specifically to tolerate close confinement, and the widespread practice of debeaking to prevent cannibalism.
They are, of course, *guidelines*, not hard-and-fast rules -- I myself have 5 hens in a coop intended for 5 thanks to a vastly-oversized run and a mild climate where they never need to be cooped during the day (I opened the pop door and allowed them to choose whether to be in or out during tropical storms last year).
But lack of space is probably the number one cause of behavioral problems asked about on these forums and lack of ventilation is a major cause of illness in every species, including humans.
In all the pictures posted on this thread. I did not see any signs of the chickens picking at each other. Plus none of them have been debeaked. Everyone is saying and showing that they are ventilating their coops. I can’t speak for everyone, but for myself. I have a lot of time, energy and resources wrapped up in my chickens . I do not have low grade, hatchery quality chickens. That I can just run to the nearest farm and home store to replace. I have in some cases, decades of selective breeding to get my chickens to where they are. They are not all show quality, but they are all as true to breed in color, pattern, size, etc. As they can be. I live in a high predator concentration area. So keeping my chickens contained for part of the day is part of keeping them alive. Otherwise the area that they can roam is measured in acres. When choosing proper housing for my chickens. I don’t just go by measured square footage. I go by the actions, behavior and appearance of my chickens. Which it seems the others who posted do also. To determine proper space, nutrition and preventive care needs. As any good caregiver should!We backyarders ought to do better for our birds than the minimums required for commercial flocks.
The numbers referenced in the usual guidelines come from poultry science before the advent of forced mechanical ventilation, the breeding of birds specifically to tolerate close confinement, and the widespread practice of debeaking to prevent cannibalism.
They are, of course, *guidelines*, not hard-and-fast rules -- I myself have 5 hens in a coop intended for 5 thanks to a vastly-oversized run and a mild climate where they never need to be cooped during the day (I opened the pop door and allowed them to choose whether to be in or out during tropical storms last year).
But lack of space is probably the number one cause of behavioral problems asked about on these forums and lack of ventilation is a major cause of illness in every species, including humans.
This is the coop or the link I should sayDo you have a link to the particular coop you're considering?
A lot of those "Amish" coops are poorly ventilated, have way too many nestboxes at the cost of needed floor space, and, like almost all pre-fabs, claim to hold far more chickens than they actually have room for.
