Topic of the Week - How much space for your flock?

[barred2rock]

For five Barred Rocks I have an 8x8 (12.8 sqft per) walk-in coop and an 8x18 (28.8 sqft per) run. I feel the 4/10 minimum is way to small for most birds. I'm a backyard chicken keeper not a factory farm.

 

[perchie.girl]

I dont have chickens right now... The coop rebuild will happen before I start back up.

With the guineas I have 180 square feet reserved, for the chickens 72 sqare feet each... off the chicken house will be a 50 x 24 run covered with net. Guineas are runners so they get more room and perch space. So technically 45 guineas but I would want to keep it around 30. For chickens it would be around 18 each...
so around 80 birds conservatively a covered run means 800 square feet minimum. I have set aside 1200 Square feet because they cant free range we have predators galore everything except bears..

Here in the desert the concern is shade and wind protection. The whole 24 x 24 structure will have a roof... two full walls covering prevailing winds..... on the other sides walls will only be half height.

I am almost in a wheel chair so all access needs to come from the aisle... Automatic Feed and water and easy egg collection.

deb

Yeah I am dreaming if I expect the guineas to lay in a nest.... LOL.

 

[TattooedChicks]

I have a flock of 15 young, small bantams. Their coop is 4x8, which gives about 2sq feet to every bird with 3 levels of roosts for sleeping as well as a corner for the food and water pans. Their run is currently an 8x32 foot long covered pen that they have access to from 7:00 am to whenever they choose to go to bed. That averages about 17sq feet outdoor space, including perches, swings, and a box of small stones that aborbs the sun's heat for them to melt on. I'm hoping to attempt letting them roam the backyard later this year as more mature birds, or at least making a 5x10 lawn tractor to graze them with for a few hours a day.

 

[sbhkma]

I'm hoping to attempt letting them roam the backyard later this year as more mature birds, or at least making a 5x10 lawn tractor to graze them with for a few hours a day.

I use a 5 x 10 foot covered dog kennel and my husband welded retractable wheels on one end so we can lift the other end and haul it to fresh ground (our coop is mobile too). Works great! They also get free range for a few hours a day but that's about to change for a month (hawk migration).

 

[wolfinator]

I have 3 coops/runs for my chickens. 1st is 28x18 with a 8x10 coop that houses 21. 2nd is a divided space of 24x18 with a 5x8 coop that houses 11 Bantams. Inside that run are my 6 ducks with their own house and 15x7 run. My 3rd is 18x11 with 11 in it and a 3x6 coop that I'm adding on to for winter. All have 7ft high fencing with netting over them.

 

[FeatherWeather]

I have 4 large breed hens & I have a 6' x 11' coop / hen house. They're never locked in there except at night. It's not super cold here in the winter, so except if it rains (they go in there themselves), they're out in the yard. We have a 50' x 25' section of our backyard fenced off for them. I think if I wanted, I could add a couple of birds, but I'm good for now.

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

I'm not a factory farm either, so while my coops are each 4 x 8 for an average of 8 birds each, my runs are each at least 20 sq ft per bird, and my new run (under construction) is 30 sq ft per bird. Because of predator pressure I cannot free-range my flock so I try to give them as much space as possible. To me, anything less than 20 sq ft per bird seems unkind. Better to have fewer birds but provide a chance at a good life than a large flock but skimp on space. The quality of their lives is my responsibility!

 

[Sh1nyH4ppy]

Right now we have 13 hens & 1 roo (survivors of a horrible stray dog attack last summer). They sleep in a 10' x 10' hoop coop with 3 roosting boards (two high, one mid).

We let them out at dawn in our now fully 5'-6' fenced yard, and we lock them in at night. Our own dogs & cats are friendly and/or tolerant.

In the coop, we keep two dry feed buckets w/4 feeder ports each, a water bucket with 6 water cups, 6 stacked nesting boxes, and Buddeez black icemelt dispensers for feed bags/BOSS/dried black fly larvae, a dirt bath, and a pyramidical ladder made by our woodworking friend.

I'll take pictures in the daytime if anyone likes/shows interest.

We are brooding 13 more from the feed store here in the house. They'll grow out for a few weeks in our separate enclosed coop (our starter coop from before we moved from the suburbs to the country. We expect to lose or sell a few before it gets too crowded.

 

[Loving my girls]

I live off grid in the woods. We have every predator known to NH from short tailed weasel up to black bear and everything in between plus hawks and bald eagles

My birds are not allowed loose ever, they'd be dead in a week.

They are confined to a very bear proof barn that the entire front opens up i the day time they live in runs no coop since the runs are indoors. They get 4-6 sq ft per bird (depending on current population) and seem just fine

Better safe then dead

Huge amounts of envy heading your way