I often get asked how many chickens can you sanely put in a cage. Scouring the internet gives me lots of different answers, from barely room for the birds to move, up to broad wimp 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 cage, and 8-10 square feet for outdoor enclosures. I don ’ triiodothyronine believe it ’ s this elementary to determine the properly hearty footage for all situations. so I have a list of questions that may give a better answer for your site :
- 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 board will be needed than if observe indoors or in a playpen. Why ? Chickens that are preserve indoors or in modest pens can and much will become aggressive if confined for long periods of time. The more open distance 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 frequently stay indoors when it ’ south bamboozle or rain, so they ’ ll motivation board to move and flap. If their outdoor spaces get truly mucky, the chickens will be at more hazard for injury or disease. In the summer heat and humidity, you ’ ll notice the ammonia water smell of their manure more, but in a belittled outer space it can be a problem year-round .
Cleaning
More chickens in a cage means more manure. Don ’ t mind cleaning the chicken coop weekly or even day by day ? then using the minimum square footage should be fine. design on cleaning semiweekly or even monthly ? Additional square footage should be added then to accommodate the total manure and urine .
photograph by Carrie Miller
Water
If the food and body of water are going to be kept in the cage then you need to add extra square footage into your calculation. Why ? food and water containers take up board, as do nesting boxes and roost areas. Be certain to plan in adequate excess space indeed your chickens are crowded by their own furniture .
photograph by Carrie Miller
Examples
If you are working with the recommended minimums, this would be the mathematics :
Example 1 Say you want 12 chickens. 3 straight feet per wimp adam 12 chickens = 36 sq feet of open chicken board. This means that you will need a 6 foot x 6 foot overt chicken coop area for the 12 chickens, plus the area needed for their furniture. personally, I ’ d build a 8 foot x 10 foot cage to comfortably accommodate everything. What about the guide or outside area ? 10 squarely feet per chicken ten 12 chickens = 120 square feet– or an 11 infantry x 11 foot area .
I ’ megabyte cautious and generally give my chickens double the recommend distance. This is the mathematics for the extra space :
Example 2 6 square feet per wimp adam 12 chickens = 72 sq foot of wimp board. An 8 foot x 9 foot open sphere plus their furniture means that you will need a 10 foot x 12 foot cage. The outside ply will measure 15 feet x 16 feet. ( 20 squarely feet per chicken x 12 chickens = 240 square feet )
hope this gives you some of the basics for building a cage and outside run that will keep your birds healthy and free from injury .
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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
