I need your opinions on Coops! What do you think of prefab coops?

[Kaiser Fertilizer]

Hello,
I'm a college student in product design and I want to hear your hate/love about certain coops and their features. I recently built a chicken coop myself, and much of the design was inspired by the takes of people I've heard on this website. I'd like to quote them in my presentation (anonymously) if anyone would provide them. In particular, please let me know about your opinions on these features/traits of prefab and built chicken coops (love or hate).

-Nesting Boxes
-Ventilation
-Predator Protection
-Build Quality
-Chicken Door
-Aesthetic and Color
-Cleaning
-Windows,
-Heating/cooling
-Ease of Use
-Roosting bar
-Poop Shelf
-Sickness Isolation
-Nurseries
-Chicken Doors
-positioning (features such as doors, nesting, boxes windows, relative to each other.)


If you have any opinions that aren't related to these topics, share them too.

The more passionate your opinion, the better, but avoid being aggressive.

Hate and love is appreciated


Thank you!

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Prefab coops, in general are a big disappointment in literally every aspect:
-they are built cheaply
-they are too small to house more than a few chickens
-ventilation is almost always terrible if it's even considered
-nesting boxes are never designed to keep birds from wanting to sleep in them (i.e. they're almost always level with the roost so chickens end up sleeping in them and you get poop on your eggs)
-hanging nesting boxes start to sag after a couple winters. At most.
-the removable tray to clean the coop is by nature of being cheap and part of a cheap coop, just a big mess that doesn't "slide out easily" but has to be shoved and prodded and forced out unless you actually clean half the bedding off first
-security is an afterthought in prefabs. Anything that can tunnel under them will. You will spend more on hardware cloth to build an apron than the coop is worth
-the hardware is also garbage and soon enough will either fall off leaving you looking for tiny screws in a pile of wood shavings and chicken poop or it won't line up properly because, again, cheap materials

I'm sure there's more but I'll shut up and let other people blow off some steam lol

 

[nuthatched]

Yoy asked the right people.
Most people here only keep prefabs for broodies, Integration, and sick bays.

Nesting Boxes -often not big enough and are a weak point for predators
-Ventilation- prefab ventilation is laughable at best, for the amount of birds they list.
-Predator Protection- they're better than letting your birds roost in a tree, maybe but I've seen coons break into these quickly.
-Build Quality- for the money, they should be better, I've never seen any last over 2 years.
-Chicken Doors- they definitely need to be more robust.
-Aesthetic and Color- this is why they're bought, they're "cute", but impractical.
-Cleaning- the poop trays warp quickly, and the coop is often too small for a meaningful cleaning.
-Windows- most prefabs are dark but this is also a weak point for predator access.
-Heating/cooling- because of lack of ventilation, they get hot and in winter, frostbite is a concern with vapor build up.
-Ease of Use- they're convenient to buy but anything is hit or miss.
-Roosting bar- roosting bars should be above the next boxes but below the ventilation. Most prefabs roostbars are 2 inches above the floor. Chickens instincts force them up
-Poop Shelf- these aren't particularly useful in tint coops.
-Sickness Isolation- this is a good purpose if they're reinforced .
-Nurseries- /\/\/\
-Chicken Doors- people Doors? Too small.
-positioning (features such as doors, nesting, boxes windows, relative to each other.) Poor.
Also, they use industrial space standards for egg farms (1 sqft per bird), those are inhumane measurements. Advertising 10 birds in a 4x4 coop is unethical.

 

[StinkyAcres]

Most people only keep prefabs for broodies, Integration, and sick bays.

I don't think this is true. Prefab coop companies want people to think that their prefabs are adequate for most backyard flocks and they are very successful.
The people who do their research (on BYC ) use prefabs only for broodies, integration, and sick bays.

 

[FrostRanger]

They're too expensive for what you get, complete waste of money in most cases. They're only worth it if brought used for cheap and used as a hospital, for a broody or for integration

 

[nuthatched]

I don't think this is true. Prefab coop companies want people to think that their prefabs are adequate for most backyard flocks and they are very successful.
The people who do their research (on BYC ) use prefabs only for broodies, integration, and sick bays.

Most people here keep them for only etc. I forgot the here.

 

[Logar]

Pros-

• They require less time than a DIY coop to plan/get all materials/put together
• Are good options for brooding cages/brooders/hospital cages
• Can be bought and have assembled very quickly if you need one asap

Cons-

• They tend to be small
• They don’t follow proper sizing (recommend much more than they should)
• The cheap ones are made with poor quality materials
• The expensive ones are way overpriced for what they are, even with slightly better materials
• Pretty much every single prefab lacks proper ventilation
• All require lots of modifications to ensure proper housing
• Roosts tend to be too small, too close to the wall, and/or to low to the ground
• Most nest boxes lack a lip to hold nesting materials (3 inches is what I like)
• the roofs of them, especially cheaper ones, don’t tend to last long and leak
• Nesting boxes are sometimes at the same hight as the roost causing them to sleep in them
• I despise the pull out trays as they just build up with poop and rust out in a year or two
• A lot of prefabs lack good latches
• Especially on TSC coops and others like them, the hardware cloth seems to almost always help on to the coop using standard wood staples
• Doesn’t let you pick and choose what you want to add without taking up too much space or even being doable (poop board, extra roosts, etc.)
• Not easy to clean in most cases due to small doors and lack of reach ability
• Most windows either don’t open or don’t have proper protection without modification
• Paint tends to not last
• the doors, human and chicken, are always too small
• Nesting boxes are very prone to leaking due to how they are designed
• Most of them lack proper overhangs to stop rain from getting into the coop
• just absolutely a pain to deal with

My coop is a prefab coop (large OverEZ) and I think it is ok. I put hours into modifying it and getting it to be actually suitable for my 6 chickens. I wasn’t able to build mine due to my parents being the ones paying for it so I just had to try and find the best option. I never see myself buying any prefab coop, currently on the market at least, for long term use.

 

[Perris]

Hello,
I'm a college student in product design and I want to hear your hate/love about certain coops and their features. I recently built a chicken coop myself, and much of the design was inspired by the takes of people I've heard on this website. I'd like to quote them in my presentation (anonymously) if anyone would provide them. In particular, please let me know about your opinions on these features/traits of prefab and built chicken coops (love or hate).

-Nesting Boxes
-Ventilation
-Predator Protection
-Build Quality
-Chicken Door
-Aesthetic and Color
-Cleaning
-Windows,
-Heating/cooling
-Ease of Use
-Roosting bar
-Poop Shelf
-Sickness Isolation
-Nurseries
-Chicken Doors
-positioning (features such as doors, nesting, boxes windows, relative to each other.)


If you have any opinions that aren't related to these topics, share them too.

The more passionate your opinion, the better, but avoid being aggressive.

Hate and love is appreciated


Thank you!

I reviewed the Nestera coop here
https://www.backyardchickens.com/reviews/nestera-chicken-coop.12115/

It seems many of the haters generalize from their single first (bad) experience of a cheap plastic coop. That's a bit like generalizing about all cars on the basis of driving a Trabant.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I reviewed the Nestera coop here
https://www.backyardchickens.com/reviews/nestera-chicken-coop.12115/

It seems many of the haters generalize from their single first (bad) experience of a cheap plastic coop. That's a bit like generalizing about all cars on the basis of driving a Trabant.

My critique of prefab coops has nothing to do with plastic, for the record. I have never considered buying a plastic coop and have owned many coops but only two prefabs-one of which I found on the side of the road and "upgraded" to use as a temporary grow-out coop.
You don't mention ventilation in your review but looking at more photos on the Nestera website I see none whatsoever. That would be a huge deal-breaker for me.

 

[Perris]

You don't mention ventilation in your review but looking at more photos on the Nestera website I see none whatsoever.

Look harder. It is under the eaves, and there is plenty of it. Maybe read some of the text too, not just look at pictures, on the Nestera website.

e.g. this bit "We at the Poultry Club of Great Britain are reassured Nestera offers a robust, red mite resistant coop with a good ventilation system that can be adjusted to suit the number of birds and weather.

Lee Grant​

Chair, Poultry Club of Great Britain"