Chook Me!

What size chicken coop do I need?

Iv been looking at plans for chicken coops. I have 12 baby chicks that I intend to raise for eggs. How big should my coop be (size of open area and size of closed in roosting/laying area) for 12 chickens and how many individual stalls for hens should it have? 12? Thanks for the info.

Public Comments

1. According to Storey's Guide for Raising Chickens (by Gail Damerow), it's a MINIMUM of 4 square feet per chicken if they have access to a run and 10 square feet if they don't.
2. The gentleman is correct; you should plan on a minimum of 4 square feet per adult chicken. Since you are raising these birds for eggs you will also need to have nesting or laying boxes available. Optimally you should have a 1 nesting box per 2 hens but can get away with 1 for every 2.5 hens unless you start finding eggs being laid outside of the boxes.