I was looking at a coop on Horizon Structures website (the 8x8) and it says it is built to accomodate up to 30 birds. How can this be? If you're supposed to allow 4 sq ft/bird and an 8'x8' structure is only 64 sq ft, that only come up to 16 birds. Can some one explain this to me? Thanks in advance.
Everybody has different ideas of what's the minimum area you can give a chicken and get away with it. Industry standard for caged layers and for noncaged broilers is in the vicinity of 1.25-1.5 sq ft per chicken. On that basis, an 8x8 coop, 64 sq ft, would hold up to 50 chickens. (I am not recommending this, mind you, just sayin'). People who are trying to sell you a coop tend to estimate on the crowded end of the spectrum, for fairly obvious reasons. That does not mean it is a good idea to go with their numbers. There is nothing magic about 4 sq ft per chicken, in *either* direction Pat
