How many chickens should I keep

[Wyorp Rock]

I thought it was @Wyorp Rock but I'm not sure.

Nope, not me.

 

[TaylorGlade]

Nope, not me.

Hmmm. Ok. I don't remember who it is then.

 

[CochinLady61]

To find out how many chickens you'll actually cap out at go here: https://www.heritageacresmarket.com/chicken-math-calculator/
Take the quiz and you'll see what you'll wind up with.

According to the calculator I need to build several more coops and a goat shed.

 

[The Moonshiner]

According to the calculator I need to build several more coops and a goat shed.

Ya, why the hell would I have 2 goats?

 

[my spoiled chickens]

Maybe add some bantams if you are really desparate for more chickens but you could also extend it with pallets

 

[TaylorGlade]

Ya, why the hell would I have 2 goats?
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I had goats as a kid. They were fun pets. They would follow us around eating wild blackberries.

 

[K0k0shka]

A lot of answers already given, so I'm just going to agree with those who said 5-6 LF chickens at most in that space, it's too small for more.

I’m in Virginia. It doesn’t get too hot

I didn't see if anybody addressed the temperature question. I'm in MA so a lot further north than Virginia, and by southern standards MA wouldn't be "too hot" either, but it's still really hot for chickens in the summer. Especially now that summers are getting hotter and hotter. We have sustained periods of 90-degree days that we didn't used to get at all. Coops heat up and retain heat well into the night, and the temperature inside can climb WAY above the max outside temperature. So you're going to need a lot of ventilation, and not to overstuff your coop. To illustrate my point - my coop is 5"x7" and in full shade during the day in the summer. My first summer with this coop, I had 5 chickens in there and 14 square feet of open ventilation (wraparound vents under the eaves and two windows). Outside temperature during the day was in the 80s, with the occasional 90-degree day, sometimes a stretch of several 90-degree days in a row. My chickens were panting at night so I put a thermometer in there and it read 110 degrees at midnight!!!! Long after sundown and after the ambient temperature outside had dropped significantly from the daytime high. So I removed the human access door and replaced it with a hardware cloth screen door, and added 2 fans. That helped a lot, but the coop still retains heat. I can imagine what this is like further south, and with several times as many chickens breathing in there all night.

Over the years, I've had periods where I put more chickens in there than the recommended 1 per 4 square feet. At one point I had 16 chickens in there. I regretted it every time. It got stuffy and smelly, it got dirty a lot faster, there were more conflicts, it sucked. The chickens are outside all day, but getting ready for bed and laying are high drama times of the chicken day, and having too many in there at those times is just not worth it. Not to mention that sooner or later there will be a day when they just don't want to go outside. Like if there's a storm. Rain storm, wind storm, etc. - even with a covered run, maybe they'll decide they don't like the high winds, and will want to stay inside. But if they are packed too tight, it's disaster waiting to happen (chickens are mean animals). So don't think of the coop as a place where they will *only* go to sleep at night, or to lay in an orderly fashion, patiently taking their turns. They need to have enough room in there to peacefully spend extended periods in the coop, if need be, because you never know.

 

[The Moonshiner]

I had goats as a kid. They were fun pets. They would follow us around eating wild blackberries.

I had goats when I wasn't a kid. They were only fun pets when they had kids.
Never again.