Please help with purchase advice - coop for 10-12 chickens, kit or pre-built, MA

Blooie how big is your shed and how many chicken do you have in it. right now I have a 10 by 10 dog kennel with a panel on the top that is tarp and a cattle panel over that with a heavy tarp over that the front is covered also. so far it has held up and the chickens are happy oh there is a perch and a jumbo dog house with nesting boxes. but I really want a building of some sort. I am tired of getting on my hands and knees to get the eggs. I was looking at a building that has a window and a big door and 8by 8 garden shed. I have 6 ee and plan on getting a couple more .What do you
think. I since covered the front the door is open during the day. they also free range.

Our shed is 6x8. The roofline is 8 feet at the front and 6 feet at the back. We built it ourselves, which took some doing because Ken and I have no building skills between the two of us! Electricity he knows, and he's good at it! But carpentry? Not so much! But we do love how it turned out. Right now we have too many chickens and are in the process of culling the older birds since the pullets are laying now. So that will leave us with 11, a much more manageable number than the 20 currently in there.

Overcrowding is never good, but I have to admit that we have had no problems at all....everyone has space to roost and the nests don't take up much room. We also provide a lot of boredom busters in the run, so they always have stuff to do when they aren't out in the yard. There's half a large, hollow log that they love, a dust bath, two big roosts (one swings) and I use those little suet cages to keep them occupied. When it's really cold, I put homemade suet cakes in them and hang them up. They have a blast trying to get the last morsels out. In warmer temps I put in half apples, kale, watermelon - whatever I can cram in them, and they go for that big time. I'm lucky that my chickens love to be out in the yard regardless of the weather....it was 12 degrees the day I took these.





The run started out to be about 12xx8 feet, but we easily expanded that by adding taking off the end panel, adding another cattle panel, and then putting the end back on. That gave us a run of approximately 17x8. I'm not sure on the distance between the panels so it could be a little more, could be a little less. They lose a little of that when I set up the brooder out there for new chicks, but it hasn't seemed to faze them any. Those cattle panels are amazing, aren't they?

You can see our build by clicking on My Coop, under my avatar. We've been more than happy with how easy it all is to keep up, and how well it has stood up in our wild Wyoming weather. Hope I answered your questions!

thanks blooie your chickens are so funny walking in a row on the path you made them. mine don't mine the cold but are not thrilled with the snow. I noticed that one chicken looks like a EE.I need a rooster. the chicken keep tiring to breed with my feet. they squat down in front of my feet I am afraid I am going to step on one. What kind of chickens do have?

donkeydew2farms said:

thanks blooie your chickens are so funny walking in a row on the path you made them. mine don't mine the cold but are not thrilled with the snow. I noticed that one chicken looks like a EE.I need a rooster. the chicken keep tiring to breed with my feet. they squat down in front of my feet I am afraid I am going to step on one. What kind of chickens do have?

Click to expand...

Right now I have Red Sex Links, Easter Eggers, 2 Cuckoo Marans, a Buff Orpington, Buff Brahmas and Light Brahmas. But that number is going down this weekend. We have temps in the 50s and 60s (62 yesterday and 57 today) and we'll never get a better chance to do some culling. The only reason they were all running in the path that we've tromped down going back and forth to the coop from the house is because I stepped out the door with the camera in my hand and they were convinced it had to be edible! Silly chickens!