Chickens must have adequate space to be healthy.
Building the right size chicken coop depends on how many chickens you want and whether or not they will have free range access. A chicken kept wholly in the coop will need 6 square feet of space to itself. A chicken allowed free range access requires a minimum of 2 square feet of space. The space you have available and your city's chicken codes are the other two deciding factors as to the size of coop you can build. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Call your city and ask for the city code department. Tell the city employee your lot size in square feet. Tell him you want to keep chickens and that you are trying to find out how many chickens you can legally raise on your property size.
2. Multiply the number of chickens by 2 if you are going to allow your chickens to free range around your yard. This will give you the floor size requirement in square feet. Multiply the number of chickens by 6 if the chickens won't have free range access. If you are allowed to have 6 chickens with free range access then the floor of your coop will need to be 12 square feet. No free range would be 36 square feet.
3. Measure the area where the chicken coop will be built to see if the space is adequate to accommodate the size of chicken coop required by the amount of chickens you want.
4. Read about the breed of chickens you will be raising to find out how tall they grow. If the chicken grows to 12 inches tall, then triple the height to know how high to build your coop. The roosts need to be built 12 inches off the ground and when the chicken is on the roost it will have 12 inches above the top of its head for clearance. The formula for determining the height of the coop is multiplying the average height of the chicken breed by 3.
Tags: free range, square feet, free range access, range access, coop will