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Utilizing a wall-mounted, PVC, poultry-nipple watering and feeding system maximizes available run space.
#Chicken math coop run space calculator free#
Not only will this free up floor space inside the coop, it will reduce the risk of attracting rodents to the coop while keeping the litter drier and healthier when chickens are confined inside. If feasible, move feeders and waterers out of the coop into the run. Adding suspended roosts outside the coop also adds vertical space in the run and gives birds a refuge when needed. Adding a suspended droppings board beneath the roosts creates clean, usable floor space. Roosts can also be wall-mounted inside the coop versus a ladder-type roost system that attaches to the floor. If nest boxes are at floor level, they can be raised and wall-mounted to free up valuable floor space inside the coop. Acquiring bantam chickens provides a two-for-one Chicken Math opportunity. Bearing in mind the known repercussions of overcrowding, there are several ways to add flock members to an existing coop responsibly.īecause bantam chickens are much smaller than full-sized birds, they require approximately half the space required by their larger flock mates. Crowded chickens may begin pecking one another aggressively to enforce their places in the flock’s social hierarchy.
#Chicken math coop run space calculator skin#
One chicken investigating an emerging pin feather, an insect or a fleck of food on a neighbor’s body can result in a minor skin wound that risks becoming a life-threatening injury. Chickens explore their world with their beaks, and the closer they are to one another, the more likely they are to explore one another by pecking. A number of variables allow some flexibility within those parameters, but avoiding overcrowding must be the priority.Ĭrowding chickens into a coop presents many dangers. Outside the coop, 10 square feet per full-sized bird is advised. When calculating how many chickens can be housed comfortably inside a coop, the rule of thumb is 4 square feet of space per full-sized bird. However, with a little creativity, it’s possible to expand your flock without hiring a contractor to build an in-law apartment onto the existing coop, all while providing your birds with enough room to lead happy, healthy lives. The space inside a chicken coop determines the maximum number of chickens that can be responsibly housed in it. The desire to add different breeds and feather patterns to your flock and a rainbow of eggshell colors to an egg basket all contribute to this formidable force, and the only compelling constraint is available space. This urge is commonly referred to as “Chicken Math,” and it peaks in early spring when adorable baby chicks begin arriving in feed stores. If you can't remember the exact age, just make an educated guess.Anyone who has kept chickens for even a day knows the urge to add more birds to the existing flock. Enter your chicken's breed into the calculator.To make things easy, we've developed a calculator that does all the math for you: To estimate the number of eggs a chicken will lay in any given year, you just need the age and breed to make an estimate of the eggs you'll get this year and in the future. Some breeds will lay as few as 30-60 eggs a year at peak egg laying while champion egg layers like the Leghorn will lay as many as 300 eggs in year one. As noted in our previous article on selecting chicken breeds, there's a wide range of egg laying capacity. The second bit of information you need is the chickens breed. Know a chickens age and you are half way to knowing how many eggs it will lay this year. By year 7 will be laying approximately 35% of what they laid in year one. For example, in year two, most chickens will lay about 85% of the eggs they did in year 1. They will then lay progressively fewer eggs each year thereafter. Don't worry, our Chicken Waterer Egg Calculator will do all the match for you! However, here's the background information on how the calculator works.Īll other things being equal, the number of eggs you can expect a chickens to lay are a function of its breed and its age.Ĭhickens will lay the greatest number of eggs during their first year laying. In this article we provide a little information and a free tool we created to help you estimate how many eggs you can expect your chickens to lay.
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