Reviews by karenerwin

Your coop looks very nice and cheerful! However, there are no details ( other than what I can glean from pictures) about how to build this coop.
Is this coop small enough to be moved around the yard? Did you put a roost inside the coop?
If you were going to build this again are there things you would do differently?
Do you get the eggs from the back of the coop?
About how much did it cost to build this coop?
How many birds are you keeping in there? I think I could see 3, but I don't know if that was all of them or not.
How is the wire fencing working out around the run? I had some that size and raccoons reached through and grabbed my birds that had chosen to sleep outside of the coop and killed them. I put smaller mesh wire over the top of the other wire and haven't had a problem since.
Thank you for sharing your coop with us. I hope you are enjoying your chickens!

What a lovely coop and run your husband built! I like your color combination. It's a bummer for us less handy people that you don't have a plan or blue print for us to look at.
I think you did a great job on making sure it is well ventilated.
How many birds do you keep in there?
Is there anything that you would do differently?

Thanks for sharing your coop with us.

Great use of recycled materials! I read through your article twice, but I never saw where you mentioned what size coop you were making (length x width).
You mentioned where you got your initial plans but I did not try to go to that site to see if there was only one set of plans or if there were multiple different types of coops to choose from.

It looks like you used chicken wire on your coop/run. Chicken wire is very easy for raccoons to tear through.

I like your idea of using one of the nest boxes for storage. Did you include a way to close it off to the chickens? Just in case they didn't get the memo!

Thanks for sharing your coop. I hope you are enjoying your chickens!

You were going along so well, and then you sort of stopped. Did you cover the outer walls with siding or anything?
How did the inside turn out? I am a bit concerned that you are just using chicken wire inside. I agree it will help with ventilation, but I am concerned that disease or illness will be able to sweep through your coop very easily.
I am guessing that each separate coop will have access to it's own separate run outside? Yes, I see that it does (I can see it in the finished outside view). How many birds do you plan to keep of each breed?
Did you put roosts in each coop? What did you put down on the floor? How is clean up?
Is the ventilation fan able to keep things comfortable in the coop for all of the birds?

Thanks for sharing your coop with us.

Well, I hope you have made more progress since 2009!!
I'm guessing life got even busier when your 2nd child arrived or else the city found out you had chickens and made you get rid of them .
Anyway, you have a good start on your coop build, but you never came back to document the completion of the coop.
If you do have time to come back and update this, we would obviously like to see what else you did to complete it; an estimation of cost; things that you would do differently if you were to build it again; and more pictures including what the inside looks like when it was completed.
Also, how many birds you house in there.
One more thing, it looks like the screen you put in on the back wall is just covered with window screen. You should remove that screen and cover it with hardware cloth/ welded wire mesh. The window screen will not keep predators out (neither will chicken wire, despite it's name).

I am not sure how this got into the chicken coop thread, because you are building an incubator not a coop!
It appears to be a great incubator though.

You did a real nice job on converting the horse area into a chicken coop! At first I thought the picture with the shavings on the floor was a picture of carpet on the floor!!

I would like to know how you finished out the inside. How many roosts are there, did you hang the food source or do something else? What, if anything, would you do differently if you were to build it again (aside from moving it back a bit so that the front was under the horse area roof)?

About how much did you spend? How many chickens do you keep in there? How many nest boxes?
Could you give us a supplies list that you used in the build?

Anyway, your coop looks good enough to live in! Thanks for sharing it with us.

Thanks for explaining why you used chicken wire instead of something more predator proof.
Does the roof keep out rain and snow?
Do the chickens use the pallets to roost on or are they just there to hold up the roost? Did you connect the 2 pallets together or are they just leaning on each other?
Where are you located?
Thanks for sharing your coop with us.

You have a good start, however the other threads that you reference to see how to construct the rest of the Chicken McMansion are not linked in this article. I think that once those threads are linked then you will have a really great article on how to construct your coop!

I love the egg shaped screened part you put in the man door! Did you do anything to seal off the open parts of the exposed inside of the door (you know the hollow part)?
I can't really tell where you have the nest boxes or how you get to them. I know you said you put them in the front.
Those must have been some really BIG pallets! The ones I get are not nearly that long. What a great find for you!

I would have liked more details about how you built your coop and what all you put inside of it.
Maybe a materials list? I know you used pallet wood, but how many slats? How long were they? That kind of thing would be helpful to anyone wanting to recreate your coop.
Additional pictures of the building process would have been nice too.

Thank you for sharing your coop with us.

I really like your idea of turning your old gazebo into a coop and run for your chickens! I am also very happy to hear that you added the hardware cloth over all of the wood lattice!! Your coop looks nice and bright and well ventilated.
Is your branch roost secured to the support beam? I would think it would get moved around and could fall down as the birds land and take off from the branch.
What are the dimensions of the actual coop? Did you cover the floor of the coop with anything or leave it wood with shavings over it? Is it easy to clean out? Did you build a clean out door?

I would have liked to see more details about how you actually built the coop, but I think it is a really neat idea and it looks like it turned out very well.

Thanks for sharing your coop with us.

Your coop and run look very nice, however you did not provide any details (other than the 1 picture of the coop half built) on how to build it. I also have no idea what you did on the inside.
I don't see any ventilation built in. Are there windows that open on the sides or back that I can't see?
Are there other light sources besides the small window in the front?
What all was on your supplies list? About how much did you spend to make this coop?
Are there things that you would do differently?

You have a lot of ideas on how to design and make tractor coops, but you did not provide very much detail about how to actually build them. You did refer to other threads for a couple of them.

What do these coops typically cost you to make? How many birds are usually in 1 coop? You mentioned bachelor coops, so I am not sure if some of them are for just 1 rooster or for a few roosters or what.

Thanks for sharing your ideas.

What a wonderful, well written tutorial on building a small coop! I believe that I can build this by following your directions.
I love how you built in the props to keep the windows open and how you keep the pop door open. Ingenious!
Thank you for taking the time to write this out and include all of the pictures.

Nice coop. I can see how it would be too heavy to be a tractor coop with all the 4 x 4's and 2 x 4's. That's how my husband tends to build things. He wants them to be sturdy and structurally sound!
On the vents that you covered with window screen and then topped off with hardware cloth, do you find that they are hard to clean? I have a couple of windows like that and they get very dusty & dirty. I wish I had left off the window screen.
How many birds do you keep in your coop? What did it cost you to make? Are there any changes you would make if you built it again?

Thanks for sharing your coop with us.

Your coop looks very nice. However, I would like to see a supply list, information about how much it cost you to build it, what would you change about it if you were to build it again, and some information about how you built (for those of us that don't do real well gleaning information from pictures) as well as what the dimensions of the coop and run are.

Also, it looks like you used chicken wire to cover the frame. Raccoons can tear through chicken wire very easily. Welded wire or hardware cloth would be a safer covering.
I love the shingle pattern or whatever is on e the roof.
Thanks for sharing your coop, I hope you are enjoying your chickens!

What a fancy coop you were able to build for about $200!! I wish you had more pictures or descriptions of how you put the whole thing together.
I also wish you had reflected back about what, if anything, you would do differently if you were to build this again.
I am wondering how easy is it to access the slanted upper parts that are above the run, or do you not need to get in there? I'm thinking that each side has a nest box, but maybe they are on opposite corners on the other side?

I love how you considered making sure you would have enough square footage for the birds if they had to be shut inside for a while and how you also made sure that there was ample roost space for them!

Thank you for sharing your coop with us! I hope you are enjoying your chickens!

I like your coop. How is the storage overhead working out? How do you keep the chickens out of it? How do you get in it ? Or are you tall enough that it isn't a problem for you?
I like how you made your windows.
I am concerned that the run is partly covered in poultry cloth/chicken wire ( I don't remember which you said). My concern is that raccoons will climb up the hardware cloth/welded wire and then tear through the chicken wire.

The homemade feed holder/feeder looks like a great idea too. How is it working out? Does the food stay mold free? Do the mice stay out of it?

All in all, I think you made a real nice coop. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Wow! That turned out really cute!
What did it cost you overall to build this? Can you add a picture or 2 of the finished inside?
A materials list would be good. As would a little more detail about the floor build and the details of the wall construction. From the pictures I am trying to figure out how many 2 x 4's 4 x 4's or whatever, you used.
I like how you included the things you tried to do yourself but then ended up having your hubby help/do. I would be the same way. I want to do things myself, but my husband wants to take over! However, there are things that I know he can do much better than I can.

I also liked how you added that it would have been better/easier to do some of the wall building before you put up the walls.

I am not sure that you need to add the insulation and plywood inside. The ventilation inside will help prevent frost bite and chickens actually do really well in the cold. To me it seems like they have the hardest time with the heat.

Thanks for sharing your coop with us. It looks great! I can't wait to see the Outhouse project!!

I love your coop! I hope you will update it with a front view picture when you get the little windows installed up high!!
You gave very detailed instructions and I liked how you explain things that you thought most people might not understand, like soffit and fascia.

I think the skill level of your build is way above me, but I am sure that others with more skill would be able to build a similar coop following your pictures and descriptions.

Thanks for sharing!