Backyard Chicken Coop

[Hilltop Happy]

Hi, I am looking for a small backyard chicken coop to buy this week.
Does anyone know where I can get one?
Thanks all!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum! Glad you joined us!

I'm not going to recommend any readymade coop. There are probably some good ones out there but the ones I see are usually overpriced and usually not that functional.

What I suggest is buying or building a shed and converting that. To make a shed into a coop you need nests, a roost, a pop door, and ventilation. I don't know what size coop you are looking for but none of that is that hard to do.

A roost is simply a 2x4 or tree limb stretching from one side to the other. It needs to be the highest thing in there since they like to roost as high as they can get.

The nests can be as simple or complicated as you want to make them. Take a cat litter box, a bucket that cat litter comes in, a 4 or 5 gallon bucket you can probably get freee at a local deli or bakery, a cardboard box, or about anything and put straw, wood shavings, or such in it and you have a nest. There are several threads on this forum that shows what we have done. Here is one of them.

Nesting Boxes
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=41108

Depending on the type of shed you get a pop door can a little harder or it can be really simple. This is just a door maybe 12" x 12" or larger that chickens can go in and out. You can use the main door and lock it open but that might let in rain. With wooden buildings it is really easy. Just frame in where you want it and cut a hole. Then make a door on hinges that you can lock open or closed. With a metal building I'd cut the hole, attach some wood around the hole by screwing through the metal into that wood, then build a door with some type of hinges attached to that wood. Or you can build a guillotine-type door for either. It may sound hard but with a bit of thought the hardest thing is deciding how to do it and getting started.

For ventilation, cut holes at the top of the walls and under the roof overhang if you have any. Then cover that with hardware cloth to keep predators out at night. It does not matter how cold your climate is. As long as those holes are over their heads when they are sleeping it is hard to have too much ventilation in the winter. In summer it is easy to have too little.

The shed should be big enough for you to walk in or have a way that you can get to all parts of the coop. You need to be able to work in, clean, or retrieve eggs or chickens that don't want to be retrieved.