The Indoor Coop, photo by Carrie Miller
I often get asked how many chickens can you reasonably put in a coop. Scouring the internet gives me lots of different answers, from barely room for the birds to move, up to spacious chicken palaces. There are lots of considerations here, including, the more room chickens have, the lower the threat of disease and/or injury.
Minimums
Most chicken owners (and city regulations) say that chickens need a minimum of 2-3 square feet per chicken inside the coop, and 8-10 square feet for outdoor enclosures. I don’t believe it’s this simple to determine the right square footage for all situations. So I have a list of questions that may give a better answer for your situation:
- Are you free ranging the chickens during the day, pasture raising, keeping them in a secure run, or confining them to the coop?
- What are the yearly weather conditions, temperatures, and average perception?
- How often do you plan to clean the coop?
- Do you plan to keep the food and water indoors?
- How many nesting boxes and how large of an area is going to be taken up by them?
- How much roost space do you plan to include?
Living and grazing conditions
If the chickens are going to be free-ranged or pasture-raised, less room will be needed than if kept indoors or in a pen. Why? Chickens that are kept indoors or in small pens can and often will become aggressive if confined for long periods of time. The more open space they have to run about the better. Pasture-raised or free-ranged chickens typically require fewer square feet per bird.
Photo by Carrie Miller
The weather matters!
Chickens will often stay indoors when it’s snowing or raining, so they’ll need room to move and flap. If their outdoor spaces get really muddy, the chickens will be at more risk for injury or disease. In the summer heat and humidity, you’ll notice the ammonia smell of their manure more, but in a small space it can be a problem year-round.
When the snow won’t ease up. Photo by Carrie Miller
Cleaning
More chickens in a coop means more manure. Don’t mind cleaning the coop weekly or even daily? Then using the minimum square footage should be fine. Plan on cleaning biweekly or even monthly? Additional square footage should be added then to accommodate the added manure and urine.
Photo by Carrie Miller
Water
If the food and water are going to be kept in the coop then you need to add additional square footage into your calculation. Why? Food and water containers take up room, as do nesting boxes and roost areas. Be sure to plan in enough extra space so your chickens are crowded by their own furniture.
Photo by Carrie Miller
Examples
If you are working with the recommended minimums, this would be the math:
Example 1 Say you want 12 chickens. 3 square feet per chicken x 12 chickens = 36 sq feet of open chicken room. This means that you will need a 6 foot x 6 foot open coop area for the 12 chickens, plus the area needed for their furniture. Personally, I’d build a 8 foot x 10 foot coop to comfortably accommodate everything. What about the run or outside area? 10 square feet per chicken x 12 chickens = 120 square feet– or an 11 foot x 11 foot area.
I’m cautious and generally give my chickens double the recommended space. This is the math for the extra space:
Example 2 6 square feet per chicken x 12 chickens = 72 sq ft of chicken room. An 8 foot x 9 foot open area plus their furniture means that you will need a 10 foot x 12 foot coop. The outside run will measure 15 feet x 16 feet. (20 square feet per chicken x 12 chickens = 240 square feet)
Hope this gives you some of the basics for building a coop and outside run that will keep your birds healthy and free from injury.
***************
Carrie Miller has a do-it yourself website/blog that is full of fun chicken projects. Her family is raising all-natural chickens with no antibiotics, no medications and no pesticides in Kinsman, Ohio.
You can follow her on Facebook, Instagram, Website, and Twitter.
Grit Magazine, Mother Earth News Magazine, Community Chickens Blog, Homestead Hustle Blog, Chickens Magazine, Hobby Farms Magazine, and The New Pioneer Magazine
