Buying a Coop

[ChickenCanoe]

X2
That too.

 

[jwebb418]

What about for those of us who can't have many chickens. My area only allows 3 hens, is it still more cost effective to build one over buying one?

*Edit*
What I should have explained is, is it cheaper to buy the tools and mats and plans; then attempt to build a coop for 3 hens vs just buying a pre-fab.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

In that case, probably not.
For 3 hens, a prefab is probably fine. This is just a cautionary tale. Rather than read what they say the coop will hold, get the actual inside floor measurements and use the rule of thumb of 4 sq. ft. per bird for interior space. 3 birds therefor need 12 sq. ft. of floor space. The minimum would be 4'X3' interior dimensions or some combination thereof.
IMO, manufacturers use the square footage allowed for caged layer hens in their calculations. Even high end companies do the same.

I'm an organizer of a local 700+ member backyard chicken group that covers well over 150 municipalities and unincorporated areas. Each of those cities have ordinances that range from no chickens allowed to unlimited and roosters too. The cities are tiny and mashed all together to where the end result is a person may only be able to have 3 chickens, their neighbor across the street can have unlimited numbers and down the street they may be illegal. This situation is common around hers.

So we have perhaps close to half our members that are limited to 3, 4 or 5 chickens and many of them have bought prefab coops and they seem happy with them.

Another option is to go to the learning center tab at the top of the page, click on coops and then small coops.
Many have complete plans, schematics, bill of materials, etc.. Find one you like, go to craigslist and hire a carpenter to replicate the coop of your dreams. It probably won't cost more than a pre-fab and you may end up with a better product.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

How do you move a shed though? Planning on building one next spring myself.

Build a small simple coop and put it on wood skids, old snow machine skis or just tack roof flashing to the wood skids if pulling it is an issue. I built a light 4x7 coop on skids and with bedding material and chickens in it is hard to get moving with lawn tractor if soft ground or hill. Knowing how folks like to over build coops I'd think a 4x4 with external nest box mounted would pull fine on wood skids. I used two 2x6 for each skid and cut the 1/4 circle on ends with a saws all. I may end up tacking roof flashing on it this spring for less friction. By over build I mean folks like to use 2x4's and even use them with all framing pieces then slap on 1/2 inch plywood making for a really heavy coop. The only 2x3's (instead of 2x4) on my coop are corners and floor holding the only 1/2 inch plywood. The rest is framed with 2x2 and sheathed with 3/8 ply.

With stilts built like the Purina chicken hutch design that is 2 2x4's screwed together to make an L you just have the outer board longer to be able to lag bolt it to the skids. Also with that corner design they continue from stilt all the way for coop corner so there is no joint to flex. I used 2x3's for the corner. Much nicer and fits well to the 2-2xboard skid.

Look at the skids: 2x6 with 2x3 corners (outer corner longer) and bottom photo shows it's lag bolted with a washer. Just make sure you have it squared up before lag bolting. Doing it myself before roof on to square up just leveled the skids using wood shims under skid then plumb the corner post. The entire coop is perfectly square once this is done so is better to do it before putting on plywood sheathing. Things will go quicker if you do.