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Hello, just a heads up prefab coops never hold the chickens they say they will- you are so much better off to either build your own or convert a small shed.
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Hiya, Jay, and welcome to BYC! :frow

Prefab coops normally hold less than half the chickens they say they will and after a couple of years are junked unless a person does a lot of reinforcements. Here's our Coop forum you could browse through. Many coops were built by amateurs.

Facebook Marketplace is a place to find coops or sheds too.

We're glad you're here!
 
Hello and welcome to BYC! :frow Glad you joined.

Jayw5565 said:
I love the idea of NOT having to go to a store to buy eggs
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You will soon look forward to going to the feed store and buying chicken food instead!
Jayw5565 said:
I already have checked out prefab coops and have picked out one i like.
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You need to trust us when we say that no prefab coop is going to be worth the money you pay.

They're expensive, extremely cheaply made, terribly designed and always violently overstate the number of birds that can actually house if you want them to be healthy and happy. Please consider converting an old shed or part of a larger old shed into your coop instead.

You need to spend quite a bit of time in the Coop and Run forum as well as reading the higher rated coop articles and their comments to educate yourself on what chickens require. Not to mention you need to bear in mind that routine care of your birds can be made much easier if you have a walk-in style coop that is properly designed and sized for your flock. Then keeping chickens becomes a joy.

If you buy a coop that is very tiny, not predator-proof and you are either struggling to keep their housing sanitary or your birds are being killed routinely because of predators breaking in you will not enjoy this adventure at all.
 
I was thinking of building a Hoop style chicken coopand covering the hoops with corrugated metal. That way i could make the coop and run in one shot
 

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It's good to meet you, Jay, and it's great that you are checking out options before you actually have chickens.

If you have the ability to build your own coop, that's generally the best route. Most pre-fabs greatly overestimate the number of birds they will properly house and many are flimsy. However, not every pre-fab is horrible just as not every chicken keeper is a carpenter. If I'd had to build my own coops, I'm sure all of my chickens would be dead by now.

I've seen photos of well-built "hoop coops," and your plan looks good to me!

Welcome to BYC, and feel free to ask anything, anytime. There's a wealth of knowledge in this community and folks who are always willing to help.
 
I started to build one of these for the purpose to use it for a greenhouse and i had some good ideas how to make it stronger than the plans suggest to build it. I am thinking of using this same plan to build a chicken coop with run on it, but to screw corrugated metal on the hoops which would make it a very strong coop. And to build a closed in section in one end for the chicken 'house'. Then build my own roosts and laying places for the hens to lay there eggs in.
 

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