prefabricated coop with custom run?

[chicagochick]

Hello BYC community!
Anyone have any experience with a prefabricated coop and then modifying with your own run? I'm in an Urban (Chicago) environment and need a coop suitable for 4 large breed chickens. I would like an attached run but have not had much luck finding anything that is both asthetically pleasing and the size that I'm hoping for. I love "the garden coop" (www.thegardencoop.com) and think it would be perfect for my chickens and would fit the look of my backyard but am intimidated by the construction, I have zero experience building anything besides 6 inch tall lincoln log houses.
My other option is to place an add on craigs list looking for someone with chicken experience to pay to put together a coop for me.
I hope to have the chicks at the end of February (got my brooder setup ready) so my coop clock is ticking!

 

[elmo]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

I had never built anything myself either, but tackled building a chicken coop and run on my own, and with no plans, to boot! It came out fine (not perfectly square, but who cares?), and I learned a lot throughout the process. I was too scared of cutting off my fingers to use a power saw, so I used only a handsaw and an electric drill/screwdriver.

I agree with you about the garden coop setup, and would encourage you to try building it yourself. Use screws, instead of nails. It's much easier to fix your mistakes that way. If you don't fancy tackling the construction yourself, you certainly could buy the garden coop plans and find a local handyperson to build it for you. This is what I did when I wanted to build a shed size coop, although I did add the attached run to it myself.

The one bit of advice I would give you is not to scrimp on size. I ended up building three set ups before I finally got something I was satisfied with. It would have been so much easier (not to mention cheaper) to build big to begin with.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I always thought that was a nice looking coop. I really like it that they use hardware cloth on it, too.

I think you could do it. You would get a lot of support on here, if you get stuck on how to do something. They can even help you figure out which tools you'd need, if you don't have any.

There seem to be more photos of construction on that coop site now, which is nice for people that are new to building.

Another option for you would be to hire someone to build that exact coop. Then they wouldn't need any chicken experience. They'd just need to build that design. That would be a large pool of people to choose from.

 

[mikecnorthwest]

I've seen the Garden Coop in person and I've also seen the plans. The plans are so complete and well written that you'll have no problem following the step by step instructions. I recommended this coop to a friend and he built it without any issues. I think the Garden Coop is the best coop out there for someone who wants off the shelf plans. Good luck.

 

[chicagochick]

Bought "The Garden Coop" plans today! can't wait to get started, thank you for the confidence boost!

 

[mikecnorthwest]

Make sure to post some progress pics. And remember that the designer of the coop is very open to answering questions via email so if you run into any problems just send him an email. He lives about 20 minutes away from me and I met him on the Portland Coop Tour a couple of years ago. He'll help you as much as possible.

 

[ThinkingChickens]

I purchased an Eglu Go, and then added a second Eglu Go. However, we wanted a walk in run that followed the outline of an odd shaped lower yard. So, we built the walk in run using simple framing and hinging the "walls" that are at an unusual angle. It really wasn't so hard to build the run and it's skirted with hardware cloth. So far, after about six plus months, we've had zero issues, though we do plan to add a corrugated UV protected roof this spring.