It's all about quality of life. The books all recommend 4 sq ft per bird IF they have access to a run and 10 sq ft if not. They also tell you to allow 8-10" of roost per bird. So, for example, if you have a 4 x 8 coop with one roost 8' long (that's 96"), that roost could hold 9-12 birds, depending on the size of the birds. Leghorns, which are small birds, would need the 8" each and heritage Dellies or RIRs the 10" each.
Personally I kept 10 heritage RIRs in each of my 4x8 coops (that's only 32 sq ft or 3.2 sq ft per bird) and gave each coop a 10x24 run (that's 240 sq ft or 24 sq ft per bird). I was tracking bloodlines, and this setup worked nicely. So you can see that if the smaller sq footage per bird inside the coop is offset by more space in the run, it can be successful. But I would not recommend cutting that inside space too drastically--you still need to supply the 8-10" of roosting space per bird for this to work. Also, I am in Alabama and my chickens have access to their runs every single day here, and that is a BIG factor too. I would not recommend cutting the inside space if the birds will need to be confined the way they often are in the North.
HTH
Rusty
Personally I kept 10 heritage RIRs in each of my 4x8 coops (that's only 32 sq ft or 3.2 sq ft per bird) and gave each coop a 10x24 run (that's 240 sq ft or 24 sq ft per bird). I was tracking bloodlines, and this setup worked nicely. So you can see that if the smaller sq footage per bird inside the coop is offset by more space in the run, it can be successful. But I would not recommend cutting that inside space too drastically--you still need to supply the 8-10" of roosting space per bird for this to work. Also, I am in Alabama and my chickens have access to their runs every single day here, and that is a BIG factor too. I would not recommend cutting the inside space if the birds will need to be confined the way they often are in the North.
HTH
Rusty
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