Which is more space effecient.

Just from looking I'd say the first one, would fit more birds, but it would also put them within pecking range of one another.

and 300?? your definately crazy. I'm not even sure you should keep that many together, I'd hate to see them trying to work out a pecking order between 300 individuals. Maybe they'll form mini-flocks within the big 300 flock... hmmm

 

I would do the first one, but it is all speculation as I haven't had over about 50 at a time. Reason for the first one is that all the birds would be at the same height so no fighting for top roost or pooping on each other if someone sits backwards. Regardless of number, there will always be pecking order issues, and arguably, potentially less when they have a harder time singling out and mobbing a single individual. Grandpa had thousands of chickens and the pecking order issue was never a big deal. Not sure what those roosts looked like back then though.

 

1st one would be best for large numbers of birds.

 

The first configuration is AFAIK by far the most commonly used in old commercial poultry barns -- I would imagine that they probably knew what they were doing and would go that route myself.

Be real careful of trying to be too tricky and space-efficient though. 300 chickens will not necessarily distribute themselves evenly or get along equally well with each other, and a problem arising with 300 chickens is a lot BIGGER problem than one in a flock of only 30. You might consider not trying to scrimp on space any more than necessary, making sure there is extra roost space available, and possibly even splitting the roosts into several distinct areas.

Reading older poultry books would probably be the most informative, like from around the turn of the century and shortly thereafter, when a 300-chicken flock was a reasonable commercial flock (none of this 3 million hens stuff like today) and a wealth of practical experience was available for manageing that sort of size flock in a non-technologically-complicated way.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

With 300 birds you are going to need some quarantine and chicken hospital space...are all the birds coming from the same source? Vaccinated? Same ages? You know, it might be wiser to increase your flock gradually. And that's a lot of manure...