BUNGALOW BUNGLE FINAL TOUCHES HOPEFULLY SOON SEE END OF THREAD

[Pasadenachicken]

Ps. I'd return it! Get your doghouse!!

 

[Kim95037]

Well I would have to pay for shipping if I sent it back. And it came on a pallet so it wouldnt be worth the trouble. The My Pet Chicken people offered me 100 bucks to help offset the cost of the repairs Im going to have to make. So thats cool. They forwared all of my info to the manufacturer. I put peices of tape all over the thing and took pictures so they could see where its leaking. I think if I do keep it, I will probably replace the entire roof, making it bigger for more coverage and then probaly apply some kind of shingles to the outside of the thing. Like I said, no more buying prebuilt chicken coops for me.......

 

[Kim95037]

So I went to Home Depot and bought some roofing material, which I needed for the addition to my chicken coop anyway and I bought some shingles. Im going to totally cover the outside of the Bungalow with shingles, it will look like a miniature house when I get done. I cant stand it, it HAS to be 100% weatherproof for my girls. One of the doors Im going to completely eliminate, I bought a thin peice of plywood to stick inside of it to permanently close it. Im going to leave the side door for acess, I may put a light and a heater in there eventually. The shingles will also help keep the heat in as well. The my Pet chicken people have been pretty cool. I took detailed pictures and put tape all over the points where the thing is leaking. They are going to forward it to the manufacturer. Doesnt anyone test anything that they build anymore?? Im an electrician and if I do a crappy job something blows up or someone dies. I just hate it when people dont take pride in their work no matter what it is. Call me old fashioned if you will but its getting more and more rare. Anyway, its 100 degrees outside or I would be out there right now working on the coop. I'll post some pics of the Bungalow after I get started on it. I took the roof completely off yesterday, Im not even going to use it, Im making my own out of a solid peice of plywood and making it bigger for more coverage........

 

[nono]

I was just chatting with Kim after he commented on the coop we just built. It might be a solution to what some of you are discussing. Here's the link to our coop, the Schoop! https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/the-schoop

 

[Kim95037]

Yeah, I checked out their website, they make nice stuff. I wish I would have seen it sooner!

 

[Kim95037]

I have a pretty good plan now on how Im going to fix the coop.Im hoping the My Pet Chicken people will forward all of my info to the manufacturer, as I am providing exact details with all of the snafoos along with pictures! Aside from making my own roof and making it bigger, covering it with composition roofing, adding a 2 x 2 trim around the roof nest coop for better rain coverage and covering that with shingles as well, eliminating the door on the side of the coop where the tray pulls out because of the huge 1/4 gap all the way aound the door and the cheesy latch, covering the exterior of this thing with shingles, and caulking the seams, Im adding another layer of wood slats from the roof that Im not using to the side of the coop where the tray pulls out at the bottom so it doesnt get water in it when it rains. The tray is sticking out further from the rest of the coop which is the opposite of what it should be. It should have been inset a little bit so the water runs off of the side of the coop and down onto the ground and NOT into the tray, which is exactly what will happen when it rains. DUH! Just like you build a house, you have the edge of the house sticking out past the foundation. You would have to get a little creative with the latches but that would be better than having a rain catcher on the bottom of the coop. Hope these guys will really take a look at this thing and fix it for future customers. Out of the box as is it would be ok for an INDOOR birdhouse..........

 

[rhwebster]

I am really considering getting the bungalow from MPC because we don't have the time to build our own. This is our first coop as I am a new chicken raiser. Based on what you have gone through, would you still recommend it for someone as an option for 4-6 standard chickens?

I was also considering the Bedford Chicken Barn and Pen as it is about the same size, but made out of the plastic/wood hybrid that seems much easier to clean.

http://www.wayfair.com/New-Age-Pet-...nd-Pen-in-Natural-Cedar-ECOCH101-NEW1064.html

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[Kim95037]

Well if you're willing to do a little bit of upgrades to it, it might be ok for you. Im pretty anal about my chicken coop because the one I built is pretty nice, it doesnt leak, its warm and SOLID. It also took a lot of work, which is why I didnt want to build another one. But with all of the upgrades Im doing Im wondering if I would have been better off just building my own. Where you live is something to consider, whats the weather like in the winter time where you live? It can get pretty cold here and I tested this coop by just letting the hose rain down on it, nothing major, just a sprinkle and I ended up with a lot of water inside, mostly thru the nesting box roof. Its not a big deal to put some composition roofing on the outside of it in some places. Predators is something to think about too. Racoons are pretttyconsistent and I definitely dont trust the latches that came with this coop, but its not a big deal to put better ones on. I guess it would be ok for a starter coop depeding on where you live and what your conditions are, you have plenty of time to weatherize it and customize it before winter comes, which is I think is bogus that you have to do, but even a little bit of caulking would help it too. I think they still have free shipping, which is a big deal. Its really easy to put together, that was kind of cool. It doesnt come with a run tho like the other coop and I think 6 full size chickens would be a stretch. I think 4 would be the most I would want to put in there, unless you get bantams. The other coop you're looking at seems pretty cool too. But thats what I thought about this one. I dont know if I will buy anymore prebuilt coops, tho these Amish ones are VERY well built, but they're pretty expensive. But I would have rather paid a little more money and had more of a solid coop. I wouldnt buy another one of these let me it that way. If it was me and I had known about all of these problems, which in my opinion shouldnt even be there after spending almost 500 bucks, I wouldnt have purchased it. I mean COME ON! What were these guys thinking? Its a chicken coop and its going to be OUTSIDE and SHOULD not LEAK!!! Being easy to clean is HUGE too, I learned that one after I built my first chicken run. The next one I built I made it so the whole entire top opens up so I dont have to crawl inside an my hands and knees to clean it out. Here is the one I built. https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/the-peach-parlor. The slide out tray in the Bungalow is VERY COOL, I built one into the coop I built. So like I said, I wouldnt have bought it if I could have seen it hands on first, but if you're creative and willing to spend a little bit of time, I guess it would be an ok coop for you. Theres a TON of chicken coops out there so make sure you look around, Amazon has a bunch too., Did you read the whole thread? There was some dog houses at the Tractor store that could easily be converted into a chiciken coop that were NICE and I could have easily put 4 of them together had a coop 4 times bigger for less money. Anyway, hope this helps!

 

[rhwebster]

Awesome!

I'm actually in San Mateo (between San Jose and SF), so the winters are not too bad here.

I was really interested in purchasing something that was easy to use and clean. So the slide out tray seemed like a must-have. Most of the other well built pre-fab ones don't seem to have a slide out tray or if they do they are just a slab and not a tray (which seems useful to me).

Some people in my neighborhood have the Eglus and seem to like the plastic since they can clean it well. Although they don't have experience with wood, so I wasn't sure if plastic was really all that.

I just don't want to spend $1000 on my first coop. I want to start off with 6 chicks with the hopes of having 4 survive and want to get a coop with a pen that we can put together in about a day and spending like $500-600. I just keep going back and forth and can't decide as the reviews for the different coops all have people who love them and people who hate them. Why is finding a decent starter coop so hard?!

At this point I'm just going to decide between the plastic wood one and the bungalow and just call it a day. This whole thing is stressing me out. But the plastic one only has 1 nesting box, so grrr!!

 

[nono]

RHWebster, do you have a feed store or tractor supply in your area? Or even google Chicken coops locally? My feed store carries one, but also has referrals to coop builders. That might be an option for you....first you could look it over yourself to see if it's sturdy and has the options you're looking for (and if not, if it's being built for you they could add what you wanted, and second, being local it might cut down on cost (savings on shipping.) If you don't have anything local, try your first nearest rural town. Chickens and livestock are everywhere...so the grain stores or Tractor supply/Agways have the merchandise for them (or the referrals.)