Helpful hints for building coops

[Tortugamare]

I am currently building my biggest coop ever and thought about how many newbies are trying to build their first coop ever. Thinking of all you struggling to learn the use of tools and with questions on your mind about planning, i thought it would be helpful to share what i have learned and let others do the same. Even small tips can ease frustration in the building process. If you just want to share pictures of your progress, have at it. Let's share and encourage each other.
The usual back yard chicken rules apply. Please play nice, no need to be rude. Everyone has to learn sometime . Welcome to my coop building thread.

I am looking at coops on Amazon, but I am so confused where to even start. I am only looking at having two chickens, three at the most. What size coop would you recommend and do you have a brand or builder that you would recommend (even if it's not on Amazon). Truly, I would prefer to buy American and provide my business to anyone other than Amazon.

Thanks in advance.
Jamye

 

[jvls1942]

I am looking at coops on Amazon, but I am so confused where to even start. I am only looking at having two chickens, three at the most. What size coop would you recommend and do you have a brand or builder that you would recommend (even if it's not on Amazon). Truly, I would prefer to buy American and provide my business to anyone other than Amazon.

Thanks in advance.
Jamye

I am a builder. IMO any coop you purchase from Amazon, or your local farm store are way overpriced and made too cheaply to last any length of time.
If you cannot build one yourself, look up a local builder/handyman.
build the coop for your convenience, don't worry about what the chickens think.
you will soon enough learn that three chickens are not enough.
I started with seven. ended up as high as two hundred. as high as forty laying hens. it just happens.
make the coop at least as big as a playhouse for children. Tall enough for you to walk into it upright.
I don't know what part of the country you live in. If you are in Zone 4 , think about winter and snow.
look on youtube for ideas.
ask here for answers and opinions.

 

[3KillerBs]

I am looking at coops on Amazon, but I am so confused where to even start. I am only looking at having two chickens, three at the most. What size coop would you recommend and do you have a brand or builder that you would recommend (even if it's not on Amazon). Truly, I would prefer to buy American and provide my business to anyone other than Amazon.

Thanks in advance.
Jamye

Welcome to BYC.

A DIY coop will almost certainly be far superior in quality and suitability over anything you can buy except for the Carolina Coops, which are very expensive.

Warning, almost all prefab coops WILDLY exaggerate how many birds their coops will hold. You want 4 square feet of floor space per bird not including nestboxes.

Here's some rules of thumb:

• If it looks like a dollhouse it's only suitable for toy chickens.
• If it's measured in inches instead of feet it's too small.
• If your walk-in closet is larger than the coop-run combo you're thinking of buying think carefully about whether you have an utterly awesome closet or are looking at a seriously undersized chicken coop.
• If it has more nestboxes than the number of chickens it can legitimately hold the designer knew nothing about chickens' actual needs and it probably has other design flaws too.

That said, OverEZ coops are said to be better-built than most prefabs, but they will need to be modified to add extra ventilation and you will need to be aware that the dimensions they give include the nests.

 

[saysfaa]

I am looking at coops on Amazon, but I am so confused where to even start. I am only looking at having two chickens, three at the most. What size coop would you recommend and do you have a brand or builder that you would recommend (even if it's not on Amazon). Truly, I would prefer to buy American and provide my business to anyone other than Amazon.

Thanks in advance.
Jamye

In Bakerfield CA, the heat will be the biggest issue by far. A shaded open air coop will be the most comfortable for the chickens. Basically, posts and wire fencing with a roof over the roost (or more of it, especially if there isn't much shade otherwise) and, maybe a partial side or two or three... just enough to let them get out of the worst of a storm. Maybe sides that go on only when storms are forecast. One example is here https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/thoughts-open-air-coop.1382020/

I recommend three chickens, only because it is so much less likely that one will be left alone if something happens.

 

[jvls1942]

I looked at the coops on Amazon.
I was not impressed by any of them. the sketches of some of them are misrepresented. for instance, the one that is six square feet, shows chickens and geese with room to spare. those must be awfully tiny birds.

 

[3KillerBs]

I looked at the coops on Amazon.
I was not impressed by any of them. the sketches of some of them are misrepresented. for instance, the one that is six square feet, shows chickens and geese with room to spare. those must be awfully tiny birds.

A year or two ago someone caught one of the prefab manufacturers using toy chickens in the coop ads.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Yeah, anyone that can't build a coop may as well get a nice big coop built. And don't use chicken wire. Predators rip it up!
Prefab coops disintegrate pretty quickly and are really too small for anything but a few bantams. They are not sturdy.
Plus, chicken math happens, and you end up with lots more birds than you intended to.

 

[CapricornFarm]

And yay! I picked up the kiln i bought today! 7 hours worth of driving. Will add a picture tomorrow. It's a beauty!

 

[jvls1942]

And yay! I picked up the kiln i bought today! 7 hours worth of driving. Will add a picture tomorrow. It's a beauty!

I am so glad that you were not disappointed with it.
do you have a clay pit on your property ?
don't forget to put your mark on the bottom. so in a hundred years from now antiques road show will know it was made by you ..

 

[jvls1942]

Yeah, anyone that can't build a coop may as well get a nice big coop built. And don't use chicken wire. Predators rip it up!
Prefab coops disintegrate pretty quickly and are really too small for anything but a few bantams. They are not sturdy.
Plus, chicken math happens, and you end up with lots more birds than you intended to.

what struck me about the coops on amazon was the prices. If they used quality material, they could not sell them so cheaply.
I built a dog house. It cost me two hundred dollars and some of the material I had on hand.
If you are going to build a decent coop, don't be surprised if it costs more than eight hundred dollars.
don't fool yourself. I have been building for over thirty years. I know how to save money on building things for myself.
a well built coop will prevent deaths from predators.
I made my fences with cyclone fencing with two feet of fine wire added to the bottom to keep weasels out.
If you would like, I can give you some good ideas on how a coop should be built. warning, it is not cheap. but if you ever quit raising chickens, you will end up with a nice play house, or garden shed. and it will last for the rest of your life.