A note on Urban Northern coops...

[alknoll]

Because others on here have said they also have purchased coops from Urban Northern. I purchased the Farm House coop for 6 hens, and it is only big enough for two hens (others on here have alerted me to this and I can also tell by looking that the hens are getting squished as they grow...). I tried to post a review on urbannorthern.com, but of course they haven't approved it/posted it. So I thought I'd post here and perhaps save someone else the hassle of ordering, building, and then having to buy a different coop.

If you have adequate space (4 sq ft / hen), these coops are fairly well made. A few pieces came damaged, but nothing we couldn't fix with items we had in the garage.

I also was not impressed by the fact that they posted to Craigslist like they were a local company.. I live in Michigan, they are in the PNW. They tagged themselves as being located in Ypsilanti, MI. Very odd.

Anyway, I hope this helps someone!

 

[aart]

Yep...scoundrels!

 

[hhuang1312]

Because others on here have said they also have purchased coops from Urban Northern. I purchased the Farm House coop for 6 hens, and it is only big enough for two hens (others on here have alerted me to this and I can also tell by looking that the hens are getting squished as they grow...). I tried to post a review on urbannorthern.com, but of course they haven't approved it/posted it. So I thought I'd post here and perhaps save someone else the hassle of ordering, building, and then having to buy a different coop.

If you have adequate space (4 sq ft / hen), these coops are fairly well made. A few pieces came damaged, but nothing we couldn't fix with items we had in the garage.

I also was not impressed by the fact that they posted to Craigslist like they were a local company.. I live in Michigan, they are in the PNW. They tagged themselves as being located in Ypsilanti, MI. Very odd.

Anyway, I hope this helps someone!

Check this out, I couldn't agree more with all issues we all experienced from very bad customer services to very bad product. I too experienced so much trouble and stress with the same coop I ordered in May 2020 for my 11 yo daughter as a bd gift. The complaints are real: https://www.bbb.org/us/wa/lake-stev...rthern-coops-1296-1000030400/customer-reviews

 

[brad2048]

Too bad I didn't see this BEFORE I bought one of the Urban Northern coops a few months ago for our four hens. They list this model for eight chickens. Their prefab coops seemed better than the farm store ones, though more expensive. Lots of bad reviews on BBB at the link posted above. Because we live close enough to their distribution site here in Washington, we were able to pick it up and didn't have to deal with their customer service. Apparently that saved us some potential damage in shipping, which was a common complaint in the reviews from people who had one shipped.

It hasn't fallen apart yet, but it hasn't gone through a winter yet either. The run space is way too small for half the number of hens the company rates it for. I've made some improvements and adjustments, but some of the cheap materials, including flimsy wood and thin-wire hardware cloth, are there to keep. I replaced some of the hardware (hinges and latches) during assembly.

The latest improvement was over the weekend. I replaced some of the short screws attempting to hold the roof together with some bolts and nuts with washers. The roof panels are some kind of masonite or chipboard covered with asphalt roofing sheet. The boards are linked together with some wooden strips. Some of the screws had pulled out of the roof panels. Also added a few ventilation holes high in the "hen house" wall under the roof.