MyPetChicken coops

[ChloeSilkie08]

I would say the bigger the better because chickens are a farm drug (once you get one you can't get enough) so I would highly suggest doing the maximum you possibly can.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Good golly. That red for for 8k, let me just tell you about how we are 80% finished building our own coop that is 10x20’. It is elevated 2’ off the ground and has the roof extends and additional 10’x20’ for a total of a 400sq covered run. We put lots of “extras” in the coop including many nice windows, a pretty bronze roof with an insulating moisture barrier under it, 16 gauge 1/2” hardware clothe. The inside has a storage area and a 4x6’ smaller “coop” for injured or broody chickens or chicks. We spent about $3,800 in materials with pandemic-level jacked up lumber pricing. Definitely build your own!!!!

 

[Alex S]

If cost is an issue, consider CP hooped coops. You can search here on BYC in the coops sections. There are many different designs that can be either permanent or tractors. I can build a hooped coop (semi permanent - w/ t-posts driven into the ground instead of a wood frame) in a weekend by myself. I'm older, overweight, 40+ hr/week desk job condition (w/ animal care added-chickens, rabbits, ponies)... The costs can be as low as you want or much much higher - depending on how/ what you want to do. You could even use all wire & tarps to start - have it done for the arriving chickens (chicks?) and then add wood or better protections later as time and $$ permit...

What I like about hooped coops made from CP - I can build them with little to no building experience; take less time to build (well if framing out in heavy lumber - no), they are pretty inexpensive, they can be made into tractors or permanent housing, I CAN WALK INTO THEM - which makes my back, shoulders and hips much happier than any of those little prefab coops do. You can add hoops (as long as you have space) to account for more chickens. They can be taken apart and reused in other configurations.

Aart has a beautiful hoop coop- article in the coops section. I dare to say it was not built in one weekend, though. Not sure it could be moveable/loadable onto the trailer they moved it to new home with, by one person either. But it is predator proof and will last a long, long time while looking pretty darned awesome.

Google - cattle panel coops, cattle panel uses, hooped chicken coops - you get the drift.

I've now used CP to make some 8'x5' chicken tractors w/ minimal wood (wood rots quick here in my area, no matter how treated. Got 6" of rain the other day when we weren't supposed to get any - Eta changed course and came much further over the western NC mountains than thought). I'm working on another project with CP as well...

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Using pallets as a base for a coop - these pallets were free. I attached 2x4" wire to the pallets (not pretty as I was using cut offs from other projects and in some cases joined pieces together with wrapped haystring) and now want to go back and put HC on them, all in good time. These coops are 1 CP - hooped they are 50" deep by about 8' wide. I didn't measure them as I made the size to fit the pallets I had. I didn't cut the CP. They were less than $100 each to build these coops - since I had a lot of the materials. Those were the light weight tarps - they shredded earlier this year on both of the two coops - so lasted about 1-1/2 seasons. They cost $4.99 during a sale at TSC. The gates, 2 years later, are still hung by haystring even though I've purchased screw in eye rings to make them hang. The pallets sitting directly on the ground are rotting at the base - but what can I say...

Math for chickens - 4x8=32' square. Nest boxes, feeders and waterers set up high enough that chickens can use floor space underneath them - this can comfortably house up to 8 chickens. I've had up to 6 with the feed/water on the floor. Works for me. I can walk in, standing and can access the feed/water/eggs and chickens easily.

You can make this more solid and visually appealing by adding solid boards to the inside and outside of the pallets, a different roofing system (many types!), making a proper pop door, building an actual frame for the people door and putting in a door (either build, buy, repurpose). That takes time and more resourses than I had when I built these. I'm not in an HOA, but have 21 acres at the end of a 1/2 mile private, dirt road - and my front yard is screened from neighborly view by trees, distance and positioning. Indeed - these two coops can barely be seen from our own front porch! That picture is at the bottom. O - and to remove? Just cut haystring and zip ties. All wire, including the panel, is separable, posts pop out of ground and you can put it up somewhere else or completely use for other things instead of a chicken coop. The CP will be hard to completely flatten out and use as a straight line for any type of fencing but not impossible.

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Our tractors are defintely not the same as Aart's. BUT we built them in 2014, have moved them to a 2nd and then 3rd property (on a friends' flatbed trailer - both times) and originally used them as actual "tractors". Here at our Cameron property, they don't work well that way. Too sandy w/ large clumps of various grasses/weeds that really took a toll on the frames (left out supports that would have made that better and we don't have wheels on them either). So they became permanent. Bottom edges, 2x4 on 2 and 2x6 on 3rd - in 2019 - rotted enough to be a problem - for chickens getting out and things getting in. Wood framed doors rotted and wasted away.

This Saturday, our youngest daughter and her fiance will be coming and helping me start to take apart the wood frames, raise them 2' on each side allowing them to go to 10' wide. To start, will only have wire on outside rear - but plan on at least a partial solid wood back - where the nest boxes will be. The fronts are dog panels - from TSC - so I do not have to construct (frame/fit) OR very little wood - with a decent sized door I can get through. I got them on sale after selling two ponies. The chicken wire is coming off where damaged, but will be kept on where it's ok. HC is going on where chicken wire is removed. On the outside of the coops, there will be 2' deep by 2' wide raised beds along the lengths of the coops - growing crops the chickens can eat. Both behind barn coops are set and where one pony pen was will now be a combined run/garden area. The ponies did a good job over the year or so they were in the pens - pony manure, hay, straw and sand grow wonderful things when allowed to age!

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The new tops will still be tarps for a while, but other things are in the works. Again, I can't complain. The two coops back to back? Those same silver tarps have been on them since originally built before the two moves - in 2014 and have had plenty of other damage besides weather!

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Can see the stars through the tarps at night now, LOL.

Ok great advice, but how long did you take to type all that?!

 

[Alex S]

Good golly. That red for for 8k, let me just tell you about how we are 80% finished building our own coop that is 10x20’. It is elevated 2’ off the ground and has the roof extends and additional 10’x20’ for a total of a 400sq covered run. We put lots of “extras” in the coop including many nice windows, a pretty bronze roof with an insulating moisture barrier under it, 16 gauge 1/2” hardware clothe. The inside has a storage area and a 4x6’ smaller “coop” for injured or broody chickens or chicks. We spent about $3,800 in materials with pandemic-level jacked up lumber pricing. Definitely build your own!!!!

Yep, I found great plans! I found a coop that can hold 8 chickens (I'm only planning to keep four for starters but going to buy 6 to be safe) and I found out that prefab coops suck by everybody saying that

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Yep, I found great plans! I found a coop that can hold 8 chickens (I'm only planning to keep four for starters but going to buy 6 to be safe) and I found out that prefab coops suck by everybody saying that

I would still consider building one for at least ten chickens, unless you have regulations that strictly limit you to the amount you stated. Medium to large breed chickens need 2-4 sq feet per bird inside the coop. Ideally more. If you are ever trying to train or re-train them to lay in nest boxes or have an emergency or bad weather situation, being able to lock them in the coop without fear of overcrowding is an enormous benefit. I have 17 chickens in a 4x6 coop and its an emergency just to let them out at dawn every morning The ruckus is unreal and they are squashed on the nest bars. Also, by the way, I only ever wanted eight chickens until I got chickens.

 

[paintedChix]

Ok great advice, but how long did you take to type all that?!

dunno - wasn't really tracking that! I did while drinking coffee, making brunch after chores and taking a break...

I do have a tendency to write a lot, LOL.

 

[Alex S]

I would still consider building one for at least ten chickens, unless you have regulations that strictly limit you to the amount you stated. Medium to large breed chickens need 2-4 sq feet per bird inside the coop. Ideally more. If you are ever trying to train or re-train them to lay in nest boxes or have an emergency or bad weather situation, being able to lock them in the coop without fear of overcrowding is an enormous benefit. I have 17 chickens in a 4x6 coop and its an emergency just to let them out at dawn every morning The ruckus is unreal and they are squashed on the nest bars. Also, by the way, I only ever wanted eight chickens until I got chickens.

I found plans for a coop that can hold up to 16 chickens so I guess I'll use that