Pre-made coop, which one?

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My three hens fit fine with extra roosting room for them..two on one and one on another...have seen all three use just one bar. They just sleep in it. The pen has outside roost with the feed and water. The size of them, guess about medium, the Australorp is kind of chunky :) where my leghorn is leaner and EE is medium. They are not bantams and laying age..don't know if they will get bigger. When does a chicken stop growing?
 
I think I made a mistake in counting sq footage in my last post.

This coop: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chicken-Coo...542?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5afae8c576

Looks good, but they count nesting boxes as total sq footage. With the nesting boxes it is indeed looks good on paper 17sq feet. However, without nesting boxes this coop is only 9 sq feet. I think it may be toooo small for even 4 large chickens such as Rhode Island Red and NJ Black giant.

Urgh, back to the internet.
 
With the costs of good quality sheds, etc., I found it cheaper to build my own at the time. I was glad I did. It was built to my specifications without skimping on materials and cost me $500 less than buying a prefab. Anyone who can use a tape measure and draw up their own plans can do it, unless you have some physical disability.
 
Yes, you have to be very careful about the dimensions listed, they often include the run and nest boxes. You need 4 square feet of floor space in the coop per bird, and 10 square feet of run - those coops all look much smaller than that. A nine square foot coop would comfortably house 2 standard birds, or maybe 3 bantams. For 4 birds, you need at least 16 square feet (eg a 4'x4' large area).
 
With the costs of good quality sheds, etc., I found it cheaper to build my own at the time. I was glad I did. It was built to my specifications without skimping on materials and cost me $500 less than buying a prefab. Anyone who can use a tape measure and draw up their own plans can do it, unless you have some physical disability.

Problem is I have never hold chickens and never had a chicken coop. I am sceptical I can do a good job making it not just a nice big box, but have a good ventilation, easily removable tray to clean the poop, nesting boxes, etc.
I am willing to build run, but doubt that I can do good job of building coop without ever laying my eyes on the one.
 
I understand being hesitant to things never done before. So long as you don't waste building materials, you should be fine. Just take your time and plan ahead. One of my coops is an 8 x 12 coop. I have 4 nests and plenty of room for 12 hens and a rooster. I pictured what I wanted, drew it up, bought sections of material as I built it. I investigated plans like this compared to what I grew up being used to: http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/2902/2902-1092/2902-1092_pdf.pdf
I wanted a coop I could walk into without bumping my head or crouching over. I wanted a coop that was easy to clean out as well. I wanted the floor high enough to keep rodents out, and moisture away. I wanted to be able to route electricity to it if I wanted. You want it to last a lifetime, so taking the time to consider all those things are important. I hope that helps.
 
Just a word of caution with pre-fab coops--don't ever go by how many birds the manufacturer says it can hold! Ever. They lie. Go by how many square feet the coop is. For 4 birds you'll need a coop of a minimum 16 square feet, and a run of at least 40 feet. 6 birds will be a coop of 24 feet and a run of 60 feet. More space is always better.

Completely agree, we have 2 manufactured coops here, they hold nothing but banties, the one isn't really bad.. super solid but i got a sale price on it otherwise it would have been absurd. The other is a more typical cheapy type it only holds a pair of banty roos i seriously see none of them holding much in the way of a standard chicken.

For a simple build i like the minimal coop from chicken coops for dummies, we built one but i house call ducks in it lol still way less money than most pre-builts and super durable, well made will last. The super cheapy coop we have i don't see making too many winters.
 

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