How to make (the factories) improve the flaws in the DIY chicken coops. 🤩

[BDutch]

hi BYC members, readers, posters and lurkers,

I wonder. Is it a good idea to ask people to give feed back to the sales department/factories about the flaws in the chicken coops they are selling?

This was discussed with @ManueB on the ex-batts thread (by @Shadrach ) about the allotment where he works as a extraordinary chicken crack volunteer. He made several improvements on a recycled plastic coop.

My experience is that the shops sells the same stupid wooden prefab I bought 10 years ago without him any significant changes.

I would love it if the factories improve their products.
Maybe it’s worthwhile if we tell the factories and shops what we did to improve their chicken coop.

I think we can contribute to improvements if BYC starts an action towards the factories and the shops were we our ready made /easy to sssemble coop.

This thread thats open for ideas, the letters we wrote with our findings as an example. And maybe the reactions of the sellers/factories.

General tips to improve the wooden and recycled plastic coops are welcome too.

Regards Bdutch

 

[BDutch]

shadrachs-ex-battery-and-rescued-chickens-thread

 

[3KillerBs]

Don't buy them.

Advise newbies who ask before purchasing against buying them.

Spread knowledge of chickens' actual requirements for space and ventilation.

The companies who make those awful prefabs will not stop doing it for any reason other than if properly educated consumers refuse to buy them. Therefore consumer education is the only thing that can possibly be effective.

 

[NatJ]

Don't buy them.

Advise newbies who ask before purchasing against buying them.

Spread knowledge of chickens' actual requirements for space and ventilation.

The companies who make those awful prefabs will not stop doing it for any reason other than if properly educated consumers refuse to buy them. Therefore consumer education is the only thing that can possibly be effective.

I mostly agree, but there is some chance that the companies might CHANGE the design with the right kind of feedback. Then, instead of telling people not to buy any such coops, we could tell them to "buy this one instead." If the companies see that one kind (improved) is selling much better than another (not improved), they are likely to make more of the better ones.

Increasing the ventilation could make certain prefab coops acceptable for small numbers of chickens, when the current form is not suitable for any chickens at all.

Changing the label to correctly state how many birds it can house would also help. An improved label might say, "houses up to 3 bantam chickens," instead of a current label saying "houses up to 8 chickens."

 

[DickMidnight]

companies are in the business of making money, and bigger margins are better for their bottom line.

the improvements you’d like these companies to make cost money. money in R&D, manufacturing, labor, etc.

those costs get passed down to the consumer. so now that “starter coop” costs more than you can build, or have someone build, a small coop for.

like @3KillerBs said, just don’t buy them. vote with your dollar.

the number of birds thing is just marketing fluff. it happens in every industry in the world. they can claim X number of birds because they’re technically not lying. there’s not much that can be done about that one.

 

[3KillerBs]

I mostly agree, but there is some chance that the companies might CHANGE the design with the right kind of feedback. Then, instead of telling people not to buy any such coops, we could tell them to "buy this one instead." If the companies see that one kind (improved) is selling much better than another (not improved), they are likely to make more of the better ones.

Increasing the ventilation could make certain prefab coops acceptable for small numbers of chickens, when the current form is not suitable for any chickens at all.

Changing the label to correctly state how many birds it can house would also help. An improved label might say, "houses up to 3 bantam chickens," instead of a current label saying "houses up to 8 chickens."

Any change that's going to increase the cost of production isn't going to happen unless people refuse to buy it as it was. I've worked in factories in the sewn products industry and we cared about process efficiency for things that saved a few seconds per item because time really IS money and labor is the most expensive part of many products.

As for the accurate size labels, new people who don't know what they're doing will go buy the other one that *must* be bigger since it says it holds more chickens.

We actually looked into building and selling copies of the Little Monitor Coop and figured that we couldn't possibly make a profit selling a well-ventilated, 4x4 coop for 4 chickens built with a craftsman's hands from sturdy materials because we'd be competing with these cheap prefabs for the newbie market.

 

[sdm111]

hi BYC members, readers, posters and lurkers,

I wonder. Is it a good idea to ask people to give feed back to the sales department/factories about the flaws in the chicken coops they are selling?

This was discussed with @ManueB on the ex-batts thread (by @Shadrach ) about the allotment where he works as a extraordinary chicken crack volunteer. He made several improvements on a recycled plastic coop.

My experience is that the shops sells the same stupid wooden prefab I bought 10 years ago without him any significant changes.

I would love it if the factories improve their products.
Maybe it’s worthwhile if we tell the factories and shops what we did to improve their chicken coop.

I think we can contribute to improvements if BYC starts an action towards the factories and the shops were we our ready made /easy to sssemble coop.

This thread thats open for ideas, the letters we wrote with our findings as an example. And maybe the reactions of the sellers/factories.

General tips to improve the wooden and recycled plastic coops are welcome too.

Regards Bdutch

They won't care, won't listen because the target customers that buy way overpriced prefab coops are usually the ones with little to no experience building things thus will buy the prefab whether or not they improve construction. Now if those same folks decided to build thier own and not buy prefab because of quality then they may change cause sales would go down. A neighbor has 3. They know they could have built a massive coop for the price they paid but they don't have the skills or tools to do it so they're at the mercy of the prefab

 

[janiedoe]

I upset a sales person at tractor supply the last time I was there.
They were showing someone a "large coop that could hold the twelve chicks" that they were about to buy. The customer left without buying a coop or chicks. I'm not sure if they changed their mind because I educated them, or just annoyed them.
I'm not one for butting in, but when child or animal welfare is at stake, I can force myself to speak up.

 

[samanthaoverton]

Good topic yall. Never had a prefab but have had hubbies attempts at a mobile...(cough). He umm makes them sturdy. So sturdy you almost can't move it and the thing has wheels. We made a mobile and moved it but they were in a big grazing area and it was just for sleeping. The pricing floors me on these mobiles. The runs in them are so small. Its sad seeing a chicken in mud.people have to know thats not good. Hubby built me an 8 by 8 recently and the mobile will be used for something else.

 

[janiedoe]

shadrachs-ex-battery-and-rescued-chickens-thread

View attachment 3270962

That's interesting. It could be a futuristic military bunker/fall out shelter for hobbit like creatures.