Buying Coops: "Up to _ full size chickens"....Really?

[katelk]

I am a newbie. However, I have spent countless hours on BYC and have gathered that 4 sq ft inside the coop is a minimum per bird.
Why then does it literally seem impossible to find any coops that follow this guideline? I am building my own, but I am just wondering if I am missing something? Even coops on Craigslist that are built by people instead of companys do not seem to follow this guideline. What is going on?

 

[JackE]

With the rising popularity of chickens, a lot of different folks see an opportunity to make some cash. A lot of them don't know a chicken from an ostrich, from some of the junk I've seen offered. Even if one looks to be halfway decent, they ALWAYS overstate how many birds it can handle. So your research and build your own, and you'll be probably be better off.
Jack

 

[MoonShadows]

Ditto what JackE said.

 

[cphinney]

A coop doesn't have to be big (i.e. 4' per chicken) if you have a run or free range them to make up the sq', I see two types of "coops" for sale here, first being a coop which is simply the laying area (not a run). The second thing I see are the light "Mobile" coops, which seems to me to be more of an adition to your normal coop and run area. The mobile ones have wheels and can be moved around and helping keeping the area your birds are in clean and giving them fresh areas to search for bugs.

I think if you plan on having more than a few chickens your will have to make your own eventually. I kind of look at the ones your purchase as "starter" coops.

 

[katelk]

Ok it is making more sense now. I currently have a large pen with the coop inside it so there is that space then I am in the process of getting a large mobile run built so they can free range safely (can I call that free ranging?)
I would let them just free range normally, but we have a crazy amount of hawks that have even tried to attack my small beagle mixes right in front of me. So I feel like without close supervision, they need to be under something!

 

[cknkids]

Wow if the hawks will go after your dogs I agree the chickens would be easy pickings. We've only had our 3 chickens a year. I love having their house and enclosed run predator proof. We leave the pop hole open so they can get up and out when the sun comes up, and we don't have to lock them in the house if we're going out for the evening or will be gone a few days. We don't have the aerial issue so they're allowed out most every day, all day, ok they're move pampered pets that give us break-feast then live stock. In your case I might consider a larger covered chicken yard in addition to the run and/or a large tractor. Good luck and enjoy.

 

[SobbaChickens]

I seriously searched multiple times a day for months hoping and praying to find the "perfect" coop on Craigslist or one of the many "garage" sale time facebook groups in my area. It never ever happened. Thankfully we got a carpenter and had a 6'x8' (hugely tall) shed/coop thing built. I'd never ever want anything different. I'm use to chickens being in barns so anytime I really looked into something called a chicken coop, I just knew I wasn't going to be happy. Right now I'm using a dog kennel as the run with deer netting all over it. I'm hoping that once the chicks have been around longer that they will bond with the dogs and I'll be able to let the chickens free range a bit.

Bigger is better in chicken coop world. They will be happier and healthier IMO

 

[katelk]

I seriously searched multiple times a day for months hoping and praying to find the "perfect" coop on Craigslist or one of the many "garage" sale time facebook groups in my area. It never ever happened. Thankfully we got a carpenter and had a 6'x8' (hugely tall) shed/coop thing built. I'd never ever want anything different. I'm use to chickens being in barns so anytime I really looked into something called a chicken coop, I just knew I wasn't going to be happy. Right now I'm using a dog kennel as the run with deer netting all over it. I'm hoping that once the chicks have been around longer that they will bond with the dogs and I'll be able to let the chickens free range a bit.

Bigger is better in chicken coop world. They will be happier and healthier IMO

That is how I feel! I want a coop that I feel like I can really get into and clean and let air out. All the coops I can find seem so cramped. I have to definitely make everything safe from aerial predators. We have dogs and foxes pretty heavy around here, but I have the smallest flock in the area plus a vigilant border collie
What type of price range did it take to build a 6x8 with a contractor?

 

[cphinney]

I just finished my run this weekend. I live in a community so had to be cautious of it "sitting out" as a coop. I attached it to our shed (to the right)

 

[mandelyn]

I've noticed this too, as I had hoped to skip the building process and buy an insta-coop. We ended up buying a shed kit and outfitting it for chickens to get the space I wanted. Builders have to be aware of moving it... so many are small and capacity is over rated. To get something that will house 8 chickens through bad weather without a covered run, you'd basically need to hire a shed hauler for transport. Built on a skid helps too for transport. So a lot of them are like 4x4 or 4x6, something that can get into a truck bed. Hard to sell things that aren't easily moved.

I've even seen open air rabbit hutches sold as chicken coops, and with this being zone 3 with legit winter, that's a terrible idea, for chickens and rabbits.

Some were designed in the strangest ways too... hard to clean, bad access, not enough floor space, just generally not efficient at all and $500 on top of it! The shed kit we got was $280 and an 8x10. Just swapped the doors and cut some window holes out, and did a better floor covered with linoleum. Outfitted an x shaped roost, and some stackable totes as nesting boxes. Built a 10x10 covered run attached to it, and then fenced a buffer area around it and the compost area, for minimal free range and turning of the compost, then I have the choice to let them into the whole yard or not. So they get a total area of about 16x50-ish. Our yard out back is 50x120, so they don't get full time yard access. Too much free time would have them eyeballing the 4 ft fence around the yard for escape.

But yes, there are enough bad coop designs out there to scam a beginner that isn't sure what they're looking for. I've seen some home built jobs too that are dark, lacking air flow, and built from unpainted particle board on top of it!