Producer's Pride Sentinel Coop reviews?

[Raubkatze]

Do you still have the barn?
Almost any prefab would be brutal in our climate.

Yes, but the dog doors that I use to prop open for the chickens are gone. We are also working on renovating the barn to bring my soon to be retired horse home.

 

[Sefirothe]

Oh wow, that size difference is startling. Do you have any thoughts on the one in your picture next to it? Neither my husband or I are handy, so we are going to be relying on prefab for our coop.

Neither one looked to be of very good quality that might last more than a year or two out in the weather. The other one only looks bigger because of the height. I dont think it was much bigger in terms of footprint.

If prefab you must, and you can either safely free range or free range with acceptable losses, something like an OverEZ coop with added ventilation might work.

You can also check your local storage shed businesses, a lot of the ones around here will also carry chicken coops similar to the OverEZ or of other designs. Their appropriateness to actually housing chickens may vary.

I went with a 8x12 storage shed with a coop package tacked on from a business in Ohio. Its lacking in ventilation, the roost was a joke and the nest boxes are too high. But we are making it work and it was here and ready to go much much faster than we could have built it.

Edit to add: I'm also using a prefab of a sorta sturdier design and a cheap run from Amazon as a grow out coop. It worked while my 6 were little but they have definitely out grown it now. I'm hoping to have their permanent home finished in the next week or two. It should have been done a month ago......

 

[Evadig]

I have this exact coop.

It’s much more sturdy than other prefabricated coops.
The locks are much too easily opened by a raccoon. I have mini carabiners on all of them.
If you have snow the roof will probably cave in within a couple years (at least mine did). It is easy to change though.
It can fit four standard chickens max if you let them out bright and early in the morning, otherwise it fits two nicely.
It makes a really good pen for a couple ducks, a solitary rooster, and a broody/grow out pen.
That’s all for now .

 

[Penpal]

Ask around. You may find some one who can build one for you. My DH built ours years ago. He is a pencil pusher computer guy, but he managed a good little coop that lasted for years. Got the plans from a book.

My neighbor just built an A frame, it's gorgeous. You never know what you'll find.

 

[tlcmurphy]

Oh wow, that size difference is startling. Do you have any thoughts on the one in your picture next to it? Neither my husband or I are handy, so we are going to be relying on prefab for our coop.

Yes! We have the one on the right, still prefab but working for our 3 hens, and I can walk into the attached run… After the painful learning curve that I have to duck to go through the 5’ door. Please note the say it’s big enough for 8-10 full sized birds, it is NOT. I’ve had 4 in it but that’s max. We also have a larger run attached to it to give them more room when they aren’t free-ranging.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Yes! We have the one on the right, still prefab but working for our 3 hens, and I can walk into the attached run… After the painful learning curve that I have to duck to go through the 5’ door. Please note the say it’s big enough for 8-10 full sized birds, it is NOT. I’ve had 4 in it but that’s max. We also have a larger run attached to it to give them more room when they aren’t free-ranging.

I will say the nice thing about the taller one is the roost in the run. My grey prefab has one too, and the birds like to use it especially after snow falls so they can get outside but not have to stand in the cold snow

 

[tlcmurphy]

I will say the nice thing about the taller one is the roost in the run. My grey prefab has one too, and the birds like to use it especially after snow falls so they can get outside but not have to stand in the cold snow

For mine, it’s the summer sleeping digs. No snow here in Atlanta unless the world is coming to an end.
I’ve seen the other coop, I don’t know how you’d clean it unless you kneel the smaller coop is about 2.5’X2.5’ if I recall (2 birds max), while the one on the right is 4’X4’ (4 birds max).

 

[Raubkatze]

Yes! We have the one on the right, still prefab but working for our 3 hens, and I can walk into the attached run… After the painful learning curve that I have to duck to go through the 5’ door. Please note the say it’s big enough for 8-10 full sized birds, it is NOT. I’ve had 4 in it but that’s max. We also have a larger run attached to it to give them more room when they aren’t free-ranging.

We plan to start with 3, maybe 4. I think the max we would ever have is 6. The more research I do the more I think we will be sticking to small to medium size breeds. We are more looking for pest control (we have a serious tick problem) vs significant egg production.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

For mine, it’s the summer sleeping digs. No snow here in Atlanta unless the world is coming to an end.
I’ve seen the other coop, I don’t know how you’d clean it unless you kneel the smaller coop is about 2.5’X2.5’ if I recall (2 birds max), while the one on the right is 4’X4’ (4 birds max).

You have to kneel or move it to a clean spot and then clean up the mess. It does come with trays though for the coop you just take out and dump. Super nice if you don't put them too close together. I also don't stick with the whole 10/4/1 rule people insist on though. I go off the actual birds. I have some that handle stocking rates much differently than others.

 

[Raubkatze]

You have to kneel or move it to a clean spot and then clean up the mess. It does come with trays though for the coop you just take out and dump. Super nice if you don't put them too close together. I also don't stick with the whole 10/4/1 rule people insist on though. I go off the actual birds. I have some that handle stocking rates much differently than others.

You are making me think I might take a second look at the bigger of the two TSC ones. I’ve gone deep down the rabbit hole of what we can find prefab and what we can stretch our budget to accommodate. Right now I’m looking at Nestera.