How many chickens should I keep

[BrahmasMama02]

Hello!

I was wondering how many chickens I should cap out on?

My coup/ box is 5*5 with two roosting bars that extend all the way across. It’s going to have internal nesting boxes that will slide out.

My run is 14*5 (it includes the space under the coup)

That would make the coup 25 square feet and run space 70 square feet. So 95 square feet total.

They will be free ranged on days I’m home and can have my Pyrenese mix who has worked as a lgd in the past home. I don’t want her outside when I’m not home because she’ll run off in the case her collar isn’t working.

What do yall think?

Here’s a photo of my corgi: Artemis checking out the chickies !!

 

[21hens-incharge]

At most 20- 25 birds.

I disagree. Their entire coop is 25 square feet with internal nests taking up some of that space.

The maximum I would suggest in that amount of space is 5.

 

[aart]

You can not stuff 25 chickens in a 5X5 coop!

Well, you could, but it would be a stupid and cruel thing to do.

 

[Chicken_tiger_catt]

At most 20- 25 birds.

 

[TaylorGlade]

Hello!

I was wondering how many chickens I should cap out on?

My coup/ box is 5*5 with two roosting bars that extend all the way across. It’s going to have internal nesting boxes that will slide out.

My run is 14*5 (it includes the space under the coup)

That would make the coup 25 square feet and run space 70 square feet. So 95 square feet total.

They will be free ranged on days I’m home and can have my Pyrenese mix who has worked as a lgd in the past home. I don’t want her outside when I’m not home because she’ll run off in the case her collar isn’t working.

What do yall think?

Here’s a photo of my corgi: Artemis checking out the chickies !!

At most, 5 birds with that size coop assuming it's standard breeds. 20-25 is far too many.

Edit: fixed typo

 

[Mrs. K]

Almost all problems with chicken behavior comes from not enough space. And the rule of thumb comes from that. However, there are some quirks.

• Some birds, (not necessarily breeds, although breeds can influence this) can take crowding in stride, and some are highly intolorant of that.
• being raised together has almost no influence on future behavior
• what seems like more than enough space when they are tiny, rapidly becomes not enough space when they are grown
• free ranging for an hour or two, absolutely will not make up for too small of space the rest of the time.

The really sure thing, is to be able to adjust your flock so that the remaining birds live peacefully and healthily together. It is a quick fix, where as for most of us, building takes money and time. It is a slow fix.

With birds, the number needs to fit the space you have NOW. If you want more birds than that - build first, and then add in more birds. Keeping too many birds in too small of space with the idea that they will wait for you to build later is a recipe for miserable and unhappy birds.

Mrs KK

 

[21hens-incharge]

Okay, good to know .I won’t be getting anymore chickens haha. 4 square feet sounds like a lot per bird inside a coup tho … I mean you have to take in account that they will be more than likely be using the roosting bars to sleep too… I do understand the run being a measurement to watch out for, but the coop should hold the 13 comfortable if 5 birds can roost on each bar at minimum…I’ll have to reevaluate the number of birds that I have once they get full grown

Full grown birds have much different personalities than chicks or half grown birds.
The 4 square foot recommendation is a starting point. Some birds can be quite cranky and require even more space.

 

[FunClucks]

So, I live in north alabama, where we get one day of snow a year (read no snow load), and only maybe a week of freezing temperatures on a normal year (this past year has not been normal!). I keep mine confined 24/7 due to predators in a covered run entirely covered with 1/2" hardware cloth and with a 3 ft apron around each coop. I don't have a traditional coop. I put perches in their run, and I'll put up plastic outside the coop and pieces of plywood up for wind blocks in the winter time as needed. It gets so hot here in the summer, we need as much ventilation as possible - both ends of my hoop coops are full mesh. My best coops are a hoop coop and a green house frame hoop coop, with a tarp over the top of both.

I found that if I give my chickens less than 15 ft of space per bird, I get awful problems with feather picking in the winter time, and bullying year round, and overmating when roosters are involved. Need a cluttered run, things to do, and stuff to hide under and run around to block line of sight. My chickens have access to that 15 ft of space per chicken 24/7, and that helps to have a calmer flock and less drama/fighting/bullying. I've tried to do 10 sq feet or 12 sq feet per chicken, and it didn't go well. My flocks are mixes of ISA brown, golden comet, orpington, prairie bluebell, starlight greeen egger, etc.

 

[tlcmurphy]

Sounds ok, but like I said, 25 birds are the absolute most.

You can not stuff 25 chickens in a 5X5 coop!

 

[BrahmasMama02]

No. It's definitely untenable at best and cruel at the worst. Thankfully, OP came here for advice and was willing to heed it.

NO!!!! stop telling people this and do some research! So many very informed people on this thread, including @21hens-incharge (an official moderator and respected chicken keeper) have already reiterated that the most that you can put in a 25 ft² coupe is five chickens. That is no where near 25! Not to mention that part of that 25 ft² space is actually taking up by nesting boxes. So five is squeaking by. If you are putting one chicken per square foot, you might as well be running a factory farm which is absolutely the opposite of what backyard chickens is about.

It’s obvious that most people are advocating for a much larger setup. 25 chickens in my coup wouldn’t even be possible. They would be cramped like sardines, even with the roosting bars… I couldn’t even imagine 25 chickens in this thing.

Even if 5 birds comfortably roosted on each bar that would leave 15 chickens squeezing into 21 sq feet on the floor. The thought of that sounds cruel.

I might consider rehoming some of the 13 birds if I can’t manage making the box any bigger, but I will for sure update the thread once they start growing.

For research purposes I think I’ll designate this thread to report any problems I start facing until the coop can be expanded. I suspect that many of you are right. I might infact have to clean it way more often than I should, deal with bullying, feather pulling behavior etc….

Which is stuff I don’t want to do for sure.

I appreciate everyone for the advice! I want to again mention that I do care about the wellbeing of these birds. I love chickens! They were a huge part of my childhood. Regardless of what I decide to do, I am so lucky that backyard chickens is a thing!! I’ve had to battle illness, surprise cockerels, expanding brooders with moving boxes, had a chick drown in a waterer that had rocks in it because a brooder plate broke and moving chickens almost 3 hours away in my car with two dogs in tow (ended up being okay) every single thing I mentioned I came here for help and have been helped every time!!

I appreciate everyone here!!