7 Tips More Space For Your Chickens (Alleviate Overcrowding)
Adequate space and facilities are essential to the health, happiness, and productivity of your backyard flock. Chickens have basic space and housing needs. When those needs aren’t met, chickens can become aggressive, ill, and suffer from a variety of ailments which negatively impacts their productivity and development. It is very easy to purchase too many chickens for your space without realizing it. In approximately 8-10 weeks once your chicks are fully feathered, they will be ready to transition outside from their brooder to their permanent housing. Especially if you are new to backyard chickens it can be surprising how large your adult chickens are compared to the small chicks you brought home.
Typical standards for spacing for backyard chickens include 4 square feet of coop space per standard size chicken and 8-10 square feet of run space per standard size chicken. Bantams will require approximately half of that. Larger, heavier breeds need more space. Some breeds are far less tolerant of confinement than others. Signs that your flock is struggling with inadequate space include but are not limited to things like: feather pecking either themselves or other flock members, excessive aggression, pacing, constant loud distressed noises, excessive conflicts for access to the food and water stations, frequent flock fights resulting in wounds, difficulty maintaining sanitary conditions, poor productivity, and others. Without enough space chickens will demonstrate poor health and many negative behaviors. Providing for your chicken’s needs including adequate nutrition and sufficient space for the size of your flock promotes harmony, health, and productivity. Proper spacing for backyard chickens is especially crucial for flocks that will be living partially or in fulltime confinement. If you’re able to allow your flock to graze safely in your backyard or you have access to fresh pasture, this is the ideal for your chickens but that isn’t the case for everyone. The following are ideas to make the most of your current space as well as ideas to add space for your backyard flock to promote their overall wellness.
Adapt housing and pens for large animals to suit your backyard flock. Once modified with the accessories and appropriate wire your flock needs to be safe, structures intended for larger animals like dogs or livestock can be customized to suit your backyard flock. Garden sheds, truck caps and bed toppers, high tunnels, and other items can be combined, modified, and adapted to give your flock more room to explore. These types of housing and pens will need to be changed in order to become safe, appropriate housing for chickens including things like a roof to protect them from the elements and hardware cloth to keep your flock safe from predators as well as other necessary modifications.
Use livestock panels to create a fenced area or adapt them to form structures. Livestock panels can be augmented with chicken appropriate wire and or hardware cloth to create an additional fenced area for your flock. Livestock panels can also be shaped and combined to form structures like a cattle panel hoop house. Use proper enforcement, wiring, and secure your fencing or structures to ensure the safety of your flock. Panel housing will not be appropriate for all terrains or weather conditions depending on your region. If your region experiences severe seasonal weather especially extremely cold temperatures in the winter (-20 degrees F or colder) it will be necessary to invest in more substantial chicken housing.
Incorporate additional perches and roosts. Adding additional perching and roosting space for your flock can help alleviate overcrowding. Perches and roosts can be made from things like a 2×4 placed with the flat, wide side down, large natural branches at least 3 inches in diameter, and other chicken safe objects. Perching ladders, perch trees, and adapted sawhorses are also additional options. Remove any sharp edges or protrusions from any perches or roosts you provide for your chickens to prevent foot injuries and conditions like bumblefoot.
Create enrichment items for your chickens from found objects. Boredom is a form of stress for chickens and can result in poor health and unwanted behavior. Enrichment for your flock does not have to be elaborate or expensive! Items like a thrifted chair, a pallet with all of the sharp objects removed, a bale of straw or hay to scratch through, sturdy parrot toys, healthy kitchen scraps, vegetables hung for them to explore, all offer ways to combat boredom and keep your flock engaged, curious, healthy, and productive. Enrichment helps make the most of small spaces for chickens.
Utilize temporary or moveable fencing to provide your flock with extra space to explore during the day. Moveable fencing and wired chicken tunnels (chunnels) are ways to provide your flock with additional space to explore during the day.
Construct a run attached to your coop. The coop is where your chickens will roost for safety at night. Many designs also including nesting boxes inside the coop. A run is an exercise and activity area for your flock that allows them to move and express natural chicken behaviors like perching, scratching and digging, and exploring. You can build a run with purchased or salvaged materials or adapt structures like a dog pen or storage shed to be appropriate housing for your flock.
Utilize multiple food and water stations. Chickens organize their flock in a social order called the pecking order. Providing your flock with multiple food and water stations reduces the competition for basic resources and allows older, smaller, or less dominant flock members who are lower in the pecking order to access food and water without harassment. Supplement stations for calcium oyster shell and grit are also important for flocks living partially or in fulltime confinement. Calcium helps your chickens create strong eggshells and assists with feather regrowth. Grit is important to help your chickens digest their food properly. Grit also helps prevent conditions like impacted crop or sour crop. There are many different dispensers and station designs to choose from. Hanging and wall mounted dispensers can also help save space in your chicken area.
If your flock will be living partially or fulltime in confinement you can also build your flock with breeds that perform better in those conditions than others. When constructing your chicken area err on the side of extra space as it’s likely you may want to expand your flock in future and adequate space helps chickens stay calmer and healthier. No matter the size of your chicken infrastructure regular sanitation and maintenance, removing excess droppings, either by spot clean and scoop method or deep bedding method is essential to maintaining your flock’s health and productivity. As a last resort, you can consider rehoming or culling excess flock members. *Do not attempt to cull an animal without doing proper research and obtaining the proper equipment first. The American Pastured Poultry Association, I’m not associated with this association, but they offer a variety of free online resources about this topic. There are also books dedicated to the humane processing of chickens for the small-scale homestead.
I hope this has been helpful information about ways to expand the space available to your backyard flock. If you enjoyed this post, check out Chuck’s other social media for more backyard chicken and homesteading content.
Chuck and the Chicks 