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- #11
Littlesquare
In the Brooder
- Jun 13, 2020
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So the coop situation.
As you might know, we got our chickens pretty abruptly. This left us little time to do any research or anything on coops. Hindsight is 20/20 they say - and that is so true. Looking back on it, we should have either just built a coop ourselves (which we are preparing to do) or sent the coop we bought back, because it was horrible. As in the only good thing about it is that it has a functional roof and three separate roosts.
It was sold via Rural King’s website, but I don’t blame Rural King for the failure of the coop because they weren’t the ones who manufactured it. This coop, named the Innovation Xtra Large Chicken Coop, came with split wood, random drill holes where screws didn’t go, pieces that weren’t on the instructions, and instructions that referenced pieces that didn’t exist. Nevertheless, we needed a home for the chickens, so the coop was assembled and placed. It has been three months since we bought that coop and it has already had a ramp rung and a door lock fall off, two of the doors warped with the first rainfall and take some serious muscling to lock into place, and no protected place for the chickens once winter comes.
There is a good nesting box area, and in front of it is a (supposedly, although ours doesn’t even fit it’s frame) removable waste tray that we kept our first flock in with a heat lamp for the first week since it was still kinda chilly out, but the only thing is, the space is left unprotected because there’s a large, wire door on the side of the waste tray that makes for easy cleaning, but no protection. We had to cover it with a towel to keep rain out because there’s no sliding panel to cover it.
Now, we were planning on maybe just trying to renovate the coop to make it better and more winter-hardy, but then the tragedy happened and all the sudden our flock doubled in size when four chickens were lost and 10 were added, we went from 6 to 12 real fast without thought of the coop, which is only made for up to 6 chickens. This problem became apparent very fast as I realized our big girls weren’t done growing and there would not be enough roosting space, even with three different locations.
So, spurred on by our recent purchase of a new, completely enclosed run, I started researching easy coop plans and finally came across one called the Pallet Palace from this website! Work on it will commence as soon as we acquire the pallets and wall material because we want to get it done before the little girls come out into the enclosure full-time.
Winter here is always a trip because a few years ago, we had single-digit temps all season but no snow, then we had a really snowy winter, and this past one was our mildest yet with a brief period of freezing temperatures. But there’s always that one period and that’s when our girls will need a coop with protection, not a flimsy towel covering a flimsy coop.
As you might know, we got our chickens pretty abruptly. This left us little time to do any research or anything on coops. Hindsight is 20/20 they say - and that is so true. Looking back on it, we should have either just built a coop ourselves (which we are preparing to do) or sent the coop we bought back, because it was horrible. As in the only good thing about it is that it has a functional roof and three separate roosts.
It was sold via Rural King’s website, but I don’t blame Rural King for the failure of the coop because they weren’t the ones who manufactured it. This coop, named the Innovation Xtra Large Chicken Coop, came with split wood, random drill holes where screws didn’t go, pieces that weren’t on the instructions, and instructions that referenced pieces that didn’t exist. Nevertheless, we needed a home for the chickens, so the coop was assembled and placed. It has been three months since we bought that coop and it has already had a ramp rung and a door lock fall off, two of the doors warped with the first rainfall and take some serious muscling to lock into place, and no protected place for the chickens once winter comes.
There is a good nesting box area, and in front of it is a (supposedly, although ours doesn’t even fit it’s frame) removable waste tray that we kept our first flock in with a heat lamp for the first week since it was still kinda chilly out, but the only thing is, the space is left unprotected because there’s a large, wire door on the side of the waste tray that makes for easy cleaning, but no protection. We had to cover it with a towel to keep rain out because there’s no sliding panel to cover it.
Now, we were planning on maybe just trying to renovate the coop to make it better and more winter-hardy, but then the tragedy happened and all the sudden our flock doubled in size when four chickens were lost and 10 were added, we went from 6 to 12 real fast without thought of the coop, which is only made for up to 6 chickens. This problem became apparent very fast as I realized our big girls weren’t done growing and there would not be enough roosting space, even with three different locations.
So, spurred on by our recent purchase of a new, completely enclosed run, I started researching easy coop plans and finally came across one called the Pallet Palace from this website! Work on it will commence as soon as we acquire the pallets and wall material because we want to get it done before the little girls come out into the enclosure full-time.
Winter here is always a trip because a few years ago, we had single-digit temps all season but no snow, then we had a really snowy winter, and this past one was our mildest yet with a brief period of freezing temperatures. But there’s always that one period and that’s when our girls will need a coop with protection, not a flimsy towel covering a flimsy coop.