Looking for coops!!

[ilovemychickens2]

Hey everyone! I'm currently looking for a coop for my chickens, my mom's saying to buy one online, but I'm worried that with our weather it can get that it'll get destroyed during tornado season. Please, please give me some good recommendations! I'm using my birthday money to buy what I can for the coop.

I have 2 chickens (looking for a third), and they're around 13 days old. They are of regular size and they won't be able to free range because we have dogs. We have a pretty big backyard but I am on a budget.

 

[Debbie292d]

You would be much better off trying to remodel a shed or putting that money towards building a new one. Stick built coops can last decades, while those prebuilts some don't make it past a year or two. I'd look on Marketplace for your area for a shed, coop, or ice fishing house for sale if you're where they have the latter.

Here's a link to thousands of coops our members have built. Check them out and see if there's not something you'd think was possible for you in there.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/categories/chicken-coops.12/

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Hey everyone! I'm currently looking for a coop for my chickens, my mom's saying to buy one online, but I'm worried that with hour our weather can get that it'll get destroyed during tornado season. Please, please give me some good recommendations! I'm using my birthday money to buy what I can for the coop.

How many chickens; what ages; how big is your (protected) run outside the coop; will they also be free-ranging (turned loose outside the run)? Oh, and all bantams, or mostly/all standard-sized?

Sad to say, most online coops are complete junk and aren’t big enough for maybe a third of their advertised capacity. But we might be able to point you to some alternatives!

Please rely to the questions in the first paragraph.

 

[nikniks]

What location or geography? I'm selling mine.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-500-original-cost-1800-palo-alto-ca.1671717/

 

[paintedChix]

Anybody who has seen/read my posts know they can be long. Grab a cuppa your favorite drink, as w/o pics this is a ONG one...

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Did you ever decide on a purchased coop or building one yourself? I see you are still here but never responded again on this thread.

WELCOME to BYC. Thank you for posting where you are.

Tornados & microburts can be/are very destructive. They are either becoming more "normal" & a lot more destructive here in NC or seem to be due to FB, YouTube & other social media formats.

A chicken coop of any type (or house, barn, shop, carport) surviving any force of nature is relative. Really depends on the type of weather, it's direction & speed of travel & how long it "hangs out".

I'm sure that there are folks in OK who have the pre-fabs & really haven't had weather related issues from singular storms. Reasons could be varied.

I have noticed on our own property (current & last) that in some areas wind can pick up & move chicken tractors & COOPS regardless of build type. In other spots, coops, tractors & roofing on such last much longer as they are protected by stands of trees & shrubs or location around buildings to include our 3 stall shed row barn, shop & house (spread out over about 10 acres that is cleared).

In 1999, we had direct damage from a microburst (2 properties ago) - a 10x12 shed set on a cemented in platform was "unbolted" & it's contents were distributed across the 50 acres of the horse boarding facility we leased a mobile home plot from. I watched as the shed picked up & turned around, not destroyed when hit the ground, but rolled over & over. That destroyed it while spreading all its contents over that acreage. Some things I'm pretty sure we had stored in it were never found. We were still moving in...

In 2011, a friend , her hubs, one grandaughter & i had hauled ponies & equipment to a draft horse event. We were 3-4 hours from home. The weather where we were got a bit windy & part of the sky turned black. When we left for home, we were stopped about half way as several hwys were completely shut down. We were directed into a huge truckstop complex by State Troopers, then proceeded to run out of diesel fuel as they had no power. Thankfully, cell towers not completely down as we got through to my hubs & he brought 2 tanks of diesel to us many hot, sweaty, uncomfotable hous later. A "set" of tornados ripped thru several areas all around our two properties - affecting 2 major towns and many outlying areas. You can still see some damage today where businesses, farms/ranches & homes haven't been rebuilt.

In both 2016 & 2018 during Hurricanes Matthew & Florence - we suffered both wind & "flood" damage at our current & last (?) property.

In 2020 - another microburst (we think? as no tornado activity registered on local radars) picked up & moved 2 of our 6 chicken tractors - in our front yard. 1 just picked up, spun around & dropped w/ the 5x8' wood base crushing several juvenile chicks. The other, more than 75' away initially, moved about 100' from our yard, across a curve in our gravel drive to an unfenced area & stopped against some shrubs. No chickens hurt. Just a few feet away from those 2 tractors were several more tractors, 2 of which were less than 1/2 the size - not touched. 2 chicken coop/pens along pasture fence, again just feet away from 2 moved tractors - no damage to one year old tarp roofs & chickens weren't even flustered...

Soo... Sorry for long story!!

On a budget, you could also look at doing a permanent hoop coop or even a pallet based structure. There are many examples here on BYC in the coop articles. I have done wood based CP hooped tractors, permanent hooped pen/coop, hooped CP over chainlink dog kennels & used CP hoops over 3 of the pens that are permanent on our property. You can use materials other than tarps or bill board vinyl - making them look nice.

I happen to LOVE cattle panel hoop structures - in various forms. If you want pics, I can do another post...