Anyone have GreenChickenCoop.com experience?

[Time-Out]

I couldn't afford a well-built one, nor could I afford to build one myself, so I took the best of the worst and fixed it up.

I posted this on the "show us your coop thread"

We bought ours off ebay. It's a 'cheap import'. This is it:


We made some modifications. I removed the tray and put a wedge in. To clean out, I only have to park the wheelbarrow in front of the coop and push everything out through the gap. I also bought window vents and put one on each side. They're permanantly open to allow for air circulation without letting draughts in.
This is the winter location. We get very strong winds here and that area is just behind the garage, so relatively sheltered.



This is it from the other side. I put a window in, so they can stay indoors during the day if they like. It's had two coats of wood preservative.



Here is a view of the inside. Insulated, plyed, caulked and painted with high gloss. We relocated the perches into 'better' positions.

I only have two hens in there: a Sebright and a Friesian and I wouldn't put an extra one in or any larger ones. It has 7sqft of space inside in total, no matter what the ebay listing says!
I would like to make the side door larger in the future. Reaching to the back is difficult. It actually a good job there's a wall around it, as I can reach in through the roof.

 

[cajunchik]

I too am having buyer's remorse. My husband was ignoring all my lovely coop plans including 8 x 8 coop, 8 x 12 run and an attached shed for feed etc. He hates chickens (terrible early childhood encounter with a rooster). So I spent hours and hours on line looking at coops and runs. The prices were staggering. I finally settled on the extended Alexandria for several reasons. There was a picture of a young woman pushing it around on wheels. I now know she had to be an amazon and could lift significant weight much less push it around! I also loved the look. It matched our home and other outbuildings, so Martha Stewart....We also have to worry about hawks, snakes, raccoons, coyotes etc. so I had it predator proofed.

The 6 ' run is impossible and my husband, bless his heart, retrofitted it to be more move able but he has to bend over to push and pull the coop when moving the darn thing. The coop weighs several hundred pounds and I can't budge it. I am 65 and he is 70 so this has been a terrible disappointment to me that I have to ask him for help once a week to move the thing.

I have had it since April 2012 and the chickens (six hens including two buff orps, no roos) 5 months old are doing fine in the space, but I notice they are getting a bit unruly in the run area. I give them lots of things to do in the run, dust bath, salad bar, swinging fruit, along with feed and water. But everything is too much work. So my husband is finally going to help me build the run and attached shed I originally designed and continue to use the pricey coop pulled into the run. I know a whole lot more now and will hopefully not make too many more pricey mistakes. I like the coop and the hens seem happy in it. At night they sing, cuddle and purr themselves to sleep. They were all raised together since 2 days old so they have a "history". They are now checking out the nesting boxes because they will soon be laying (I hope).

Anyway the coop and run are very lovely to look at but not at all the chicken tractor it is advertised to be. The people at Green coops are wonderful and I enjoyed working with them but they need to be more deli gent in matching people to their coops.

Good luck to all of us newbies and hope that learning curve flattens out soon!

 

[cajunchik]

Here are today's pictures, lovely but labor intensive. I am looking forward to the eight foot high, brick floor run with running water and easy feeding and care. I am sure the girls will benefit from more room, roosts, large dusting area and space to get away.

 

[JOSEPHC]

Hello Cajun Chick,
I am sorry that you are not satisfied with your coop. I am currently very interested in the Extended Alexandria and as you also ordered,(as I ca see in the photos), I plan to add an additional nesting box. However, I am not ordering the tractor version. Therefore, my questions to you are: Is the company worth dealing with? Is the coop of quality construction? What options did you order and are you happy with them? Would you change your options and/or the coop in any way? Am I wise in ordering from the company? Any suggestions you may wish to give me?
Thank you for your help!

 

[cajunchik]

Hi Joseph, Sorry just got back on BYC, been busy.

Green Chicken Coops is a great company and very people friendly. I think the problem is they hooked up with Williams Sonoma and have been overworked. Anyway, I love my Coop and my 6 girls love it too. They are just now starting to lay and have decided that even though there are six nesting boxes and six chickens they would prefer to lay in the same box! Sometimes there is a line to get in....go figure. I got the extra 3 boxes mostly for more square footage in the coop. I have two Buff Orps and those girls are voluptuous! I mean big everywhere! We live in the south Louisiana and the double screen doors with window inserts are great for rainy days (Hurricane Isacc, lordy 3 days of pouring rain) and wonderful for hot, sultry summers. My husband is fairly impressed with the construction. I think it is great except the nest boxes tend to leak during really hard rains. They need better weather stripping. It is easy to clean. I replace the shavings every two weeks. It takes about 10 minutes. Every three or four months I do a "deep clean with vinegar and water. That takes about a half hour. I got the linolem floor. I just thought the screen floor was too scary, especially when there are baby chicks. I also ordered the light but I doubt I will ever use it. We get plenty of sunlight and it does not get cold enough for heat.

All that said the run is the pits. I put up with it but it is impossible for an adult to move around in it. My husband is finishing up a wonderful run that will have an shed for chicken assessories and feed. We moved the girls in last week and they love the room and different activites. My hold outs immediately began laying finally.

The whole chicken coop, run # 1 and run # 2 has been incredibly expensive for six little chicks but I love watching, feeding and caring for them. They give me a sense of peace as well as full fillment. And, now I get beautiful blue, green, chocolate brown and dusty pink eggs!

If you have any other questions I will try to be more prompt in my answers.

 

[cajunchik]

I am sending pictures of our "run in progress". It will have a metal roof by this weekend that goes over the coop.

 

[JOSEPHC]

Hi Cajunchik and DH),
First, I wish to thank you for the wonderful photos and advice. That was extremely nice of you both to supply me with so much information. Kudos to the resident carpenter;perhaps you should build coops and runs and sell them. I understand the obvious advantages in the stand-up run style, but I am not sure if I should spend $150.00 more for this option ( the 8' wide x 6' long A-Frame run is replaced with a 6' x6' x 6 'High walk-in ; Green Chicken Coops sells this stand-up run that you can see on their website). What are your thoughts?

I do not think I will have a problem servicing the A - Frame run, but I am totally new to this backyard chicken venture (today, I just received my first brooder and the chicks will arrive in the last week of March). I will certainly appreciate your thoughts on this as you certainly have more experience than I.

Also, please elaborate on the nesting boxes leaking and what you and your DH think should have been done to make them better. I am planning on adding an additional nesting box, linoleum floor, gable vent, additional window/ vent, small coop electric package, trim pain, interior painted ($25.00) and the 6' A- Frame run.

Whatever you and/or any other forum members think or can advise me on, will certainly be appreciated.Thank you for all your shared wisdom!

 

[cajunchik]

Your coop will be great! My advice is spend the extra 150.00 for the stand up run. You will be so glad you did. They had not come up with that feature until a few months after I purchased. I'm sure it is because so many people, especially men, could not move around inside the A frame run. I am 5'2 and I hated it. Also you may want to plan for extending the run another 3 feet. Once your girls get big the TOP HEN shenanigans begin. Mine would strut and fuss and chase each other especially late in the afternoon. I guess by that time of day they were tired of tripping over each other. Anyway not enough room to move increases the chances of pecking behaviors and you do not want that to start! Also think ahead about when your hens slow or stop laying. I did not. What will you do? There will be no room for new chicks in the coop. Your beautiful coop will turn into an "old hens home". That is something I have worried about. I could not possibly eat them but I would certainly miss the regular supply of eggs.

The nesting boxes are great just need a little twitching by new owners. We put 1X4x3 stops between the nests and the "great room" to keep the shavings in the boxes and to keep eggs from rolling out into the main coop area. There is a nice little space where the boxes attach to the coop that just fits a 1x4x3 board. I just remove it when cleaning out shavings or scubbing the floor. Just get good weather stripping for the boxes. I hope you are good at directions and simple work tools. It took my husband a full 2 days to attach nest boxes, wire predator panels, wheels, handles etc. We had to go online to have Dan send the instructions once the coop and run arrived. Also that sucker is heavy so when they say you need help to move it YOU DO! The 18 wheeler pulled up on our country road not down our driveway. I had paid extra for the lift option and am so glad I did. We attached a 6X12 foot trailor to our golf cart and the coop/run was placed on that by the driver with a big hydraulic fork lift. He drove away and my husband and I looked at each other and figured one of us would end up in the emergency room if we were not careful!

The little door we put on the new run to the outdoors will pull up and we are attaching the old A frame run to let them have access to grass. I cannot let them free range because we have a hawk that has every hen house for miles on his radar. My neighbor recently lost 2 of his americaunas to said hawk. My neighbours across the road gave up on chickens because fox and coyote attacks decimated their flock twice.

Good luck and keep us posted on your adventure. I know when I was in the exciting first stages of raising chicks I wish I had planned better. They don't call us New Eggs for nothing !

 

[cajunchik]

The first picture is a peek through the back nesting box to the main room of the coop. There are two roosts. The coop goes up about 3 feet to the peak. It looks very small but there has not been a problem with them going in or sleeping. As a matter of fact in the hot summer they often go in and sleep for a few hours in the dark, cool area.

The second and fourth pictures show the nest boxes and the stop board to keep the shavings and eggs in. We had a very hard rain all night and as you can see the shavings are dry except for a few spots right under the hinge where the weather stripping is not adequate. The whole coop was very dry this morning.

The third picture just shows the hinged door that will open out into the old A frame run once we get finished with everything and dirt shoved back with delicious new grass planted.

 

[JOSEPHC]

Good afternoon CajunChik,
Again, Thank you for your wonderful insight. All the information is very helpful. I will discuss these items with Dan when ordering. Do any other forum members have any similar advice? Thanks to all!