Coops for the Severely Unhandy

[rosemarythyme]

I am admittedly not only un-handy, but not terribly interested in learning to be handy either. Best bet if you truly have no inclination to build is to hire a shed builder/woodworker that can build something to your specifications.

(I did end up assembling my own nest box and roosts but even then I had someone else cut the wood for me, so I only screwed things together.)

 

[Strong Bad]

Thank you everyone for the encouragement and advice. Lots to take in, but I’m feeling good.

 

[Sammster]

I am looking for a calf hutch for another purpose. Those things are sure useful!

Now, I'm curious. Care to share?

 

[Krugerrand]

Now, I'm curious. Care to share?

I'm curious too! I never knew calf hutches existed. Now I'm trying to figure out why I need one!

 

[Aunt Angus]

Now, I'm curious. Care to share?

Goat house.

 

[jake and pippa]

A calf hutch attached to a floor of 2x4x8s. A power drill and some bolts to attach hardware cloth over the openings. The bonus is that you can staple clear plastic over the openings in the winter and they still have good light during the day.
View attachment 3404198

I was thinking of using a calf hut for goslings this spring/summer. What do you think makes more sense, a calf hut or a hoop house? I am from the Hudson Valley NYS.

 

[fuzzi]

More things to consider.

First and foremost, check your local laws and ordinances. It may impact how many chickens you can have, if you can have roosters, where a coop may or may not stand on your property.

Your location will make a big difference on the type of coop that will work best for you. The best coop for the hot humid south east is different than the mid-west or near artic conditions or the southwest desert.

Try and determine your chicken plans. Are you raising meat birds exclusively? Their needs are different than egg laying hens. Do you intend to raise chickens for show? Again, they have some special considerations. Do you expect to let some hens raise chicks? Again, that will impact space and next box designs.

How many chickens do you intend to keep at any one time? Many people with smaller flocks like raised coops. But, if you get over 5-6 chickens, that gets very impractical and you'll need something you can walk into.

Assuming you're interested in eggs ... their production slows down over the years. Do you plan to cull and replace? or, will you support older hens in their 'retirement.' Many people will add a percentage of their total target size to start and increase that gradually over the years so that they always have a group of younger better producing hens. Existing hens can be shockingly mean to newcomers if you haven't yet experienced that. The biggest solution for that is extra space. If you plan to add chickens over time, you'll need even more space than bare minimums to accommodate that integration process.

What is your waste management plan? Lots of people around here go for poop boards. Others go for deep bedding. Lots of users of wood chips in the run. Some do sand. But, your location often dictates what can and cannot work where you are. Your waste management plan can drive what features you will want to include in your coop.

Finally, ask questions about any and all of these things as your ponder them. Lots of people here are glad to help.

 

[Shadrach]

Krugerrand has most of it covered.
The most important factor is how you intend to keep the chickens; free range (out of the coop from dawn till dusk) ranging (sometime out of the coop and run), fully confined (no time out of the coop and run).
Get this wrong and the coop will never be satisfactory.
Getting this right requires knowledge of what predators one has in the area and perhaps more importantly, what one can do by law to protect your hens and what you are prepared to do.

For most people chickens are not like other pets and not like other livestock either; not many people want chickens in their houses should something outside go horribly wrong so getting the keeping circumstances right is very important.

Throw enough money at the project and one can cover most eventualities, but it will end up being a lot of money if one doesn't have the required skills.

You'll get lots of advice on this type or that type of coop. The probability is whatever type you choose will prove inadequate when reality meets romance as aart likes to state.

Lots of people decide often with almost zero experience to keep chickens. Most haven't thought further than getting eggs. Lots of these people find that chicken keeping isn't as simple as my pet makes me breakfast and think again about the the whoe chicken keeping business. One doesn't read much about when this happens.
It doesn't matter very much about all the recommendations on coop sizes, chickens will adapt to pretty much any form of shelter you provide. Give them a massive coop and you may well find them squashed in one corner, using a couple of feet of the twenty foot of roost bar you've thoughtfully provided.
Give them two or three nest boxes and they'll all want to lay their eggs in just one.

Start small and cheap. Buy a cheap prefab that will hold 3 or 4 chickens and find out what chicken keeping is like where you live. Don't go out and spend thousands on a massive coop because if you get it wrong you'll have wasted a lot of money.

In general BYC isn't a fan of prefabs. However, many people buy them and while it is true many people find the shortcomings unacceptable over time, during that time they will have learn't what exactly it is that they and the chickens want and make informed decisions for the future.

I've built over 20 coops (some of which can be seen on my coop page) for all sorts of fowl over the years and like many here on BYC would never have considered a prebuilt or prefab coop. Not one of these coops adhered to the square footage rule that gets trotted out here on BYC and the chickens thrived.
I have learn't a thing or two in the last couple of years and now I have a recycled plastic coop which I have altered to make more suitable to the keeping conditions I currently deal with.

 

[horsekeeper]

I was thinking of using a calf hut for goslings this spring/summer. What do you think makes more sense, a calf hut or a hoop house? I am from the Hudson Valley NYS.

I have had this in place for over 10 years and with the hardware cloth bolted on and a 2x4 door frame it has been absolutely predator proof. I am not so sure a hoop house would be as impregnable. It is also easy to move if you screw it to a base. Just take the screws out, drag the base to a new spot and put the screws back in the same hole. If you decide you don't like it, it fits in the back of a pickup truck and someone else can enjoy it. I have an extra one I use as a storage space for garden tools, bales of straw and shavings, fencing and posts, and bundled up feed bags to keep them dry until garbage day.

 

[GCrumb]

@Strong Bad
My set up is pretty prefab.

I have two of those Formex Snap-Lock 'big coop' plastic coops. They are absurdly expensive. I wouldn't have bought them new, but I got both second-hand for about $200 each. They just pop together. Maybe with a rubber mallet. Building stands for them out of 2X4's doesn't test one's handiness. They are small, not a lot of space for the birds to just hang out, and the roofs will slump under a heavy snow load, but since they're about waist high it's not hard to clear them off.

My plastic henhouses are inside a couple of those metal walk-in dog/chicken runs you probably saw looking online at prefab coops. I put hardware cloth/cage mesh around the bottom edge and used the cheap chicken wire it comes with for the rest. Don't bother with the plastic-zip ties, wire it on to the frame and get cage-building J-clips to attach the sheets of chicken-wire mesh to the hardware cloth and to one another.

I've got two of those runs tied together with metal tubing so there's another 10' wide space between them, so two 10'x20' runs make a 30'x20' one, but this was kinda handy of me.

The tubing frame of a 'garage in a box' is very similar but usually better quality, and people are always selling those cheaply once the cover's worn out and torn off, but you'd have to make the door.