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

[RWD]

There are many definitions of a "coop", so therefore there are no hard numbers on design capacity. The numbers that I use on my own coops come from years of raising chickens. My 6x14 will carry 15 large hens to 20 bantam hens with no problem. The key is how often it is moved by the purchaser. The upper house adds more sq. footage than just the 6x14 footprint. So when using 4 sf. per chicken know what type coop it refers to.

 

[katelk]

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!

I have been looking at shed kits for awhile now and am just not sure what would be best. I have been afraid to make the wrong choice since animals are not their intended purpose. What type of shed kit did you end up with? Are the metal ones okay or would they get too hot? I would add windows, roosts, etc. to whatever I got.
Thanks for your post!!

 

[katelk]

There are many definitions of a "coop", so therefore there are no hard numbers on design capacity. The numbers that I use on my own coops come from years of raising chickens. My 6x14 will carry 15 large hens to 20 bantam hens with no problem. The key is how often it is moved by the purchaser. The upper house adds more sq. footage than just the 6x14 footprint. So when using 4 sf. per chicken know what type coop it refers to.

Have I seen this on CL? I love this mobile coop/run. When it was on CL my DH and I were constantly kicking ourselves for not having more wide open space to be able to buy this and move it around!

 

[RWD]

Yes, I advertise on CL.and have been building and selling this design for going on 4 yrs.

 

[cphinney]

The mobile ones look great if you have the room, I'm sure it helps with the mess.

 

[RWD]

I move a mobile coop in my small backyard, you are only moving forward 14' every 3-4 days. Moving all the way across my yard (75') takes 2.5 weeks and then back again takes 2.5 weeks, etc.. After 5 weeks you can start over on the original spot if you needed to.

 

[katelk]

I move a mobile coop in my small backyard, you are only moving forward 14' every 3-4 days. Moving all the way across my yard (75') takes 2.5 weeks and then back again takes 2.5 weeks, etc.. After 5 weeks you can start over on the original spot if you needed to.

Good point. The main negative about our yard is that we have a ton of trees, so it has been difficult to find anything mobile that is not too tall or too awkward to maneuver around. You would think the trees would help with the hawk issue, but the jerks just shamelessly sit in the trees and wait for an opportunity to swoop down. Every time we hear one get a bird (horrible sound!) my roo hits the ground like a pancake haha
Do you make other coops too?