purchase a prefab coop for 6-8 chickens

[weagle251]

so i have no desire to design and build a coop. i just want to buy a kit from one of these prefab deals for now. we just got 6 chicks (5 days old), they are inside now till they are ready but i do want to go ahead and start planning. They are 2 leghorns, 2 barred rocks, and 2 americanas. now there is a chance that if 1 or 2 don't make it then we might get another 4 chicks later, but never any more than 8. I am desperate for a good recommendation for a prefab unit i can purchase and build. any advice is greatly appreciated, thank you so much in advance.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Welcome to Backyard Chickens sorry when they say 3 full size in the one your talking of please buy a building at home depot dig down 10 inches around your building lay hardware cloth then set building on I love having no floor in mine do as you wish there need ventilation go the coops section you will get great help there also going to tag special friend @aart for other help on it

 

[rosemarythyme]

Best "prefab" for 6 to 8 would be a small shed or shed kit. There's very few prefab coops that would comfortably hold more than 2 to 3 chickens.

 

[aart]

so i have no desire to design and build a coop. i just want to buy a kit from one of these prefab deals for now. we just got 6 chicks (5 days old), they are inside now till they are ready but i do want to go ahead and start planning. They are 2 leghorns, 2 barred rocks, and 2 americanas. now there is a chance that if 1 or 2 don't make it then we might get another 4 chicks later, but never any more than 8. I am desperate for a good recommendation for a prefab unit i can purchase and build. any advice is greatly appreciated, thank you so much in advance.

I'm afraid you have succumbed to the Romance of having chickens and now the Reality is setting in. Too bad you didn't start planning the coop before you got the birds.

@rosemarythyme summed it up nicely.
Chicken coops are not just plug-n-play, some building is almost always required, unless you go for the big expensive($$$$) ones.

But Welcome to BYC! @weagle251
Tell us more about your goals for keeping chickens,
starting with....
Where in this world are you located?
Climate, and time of year, is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, (laptop version shown), then it's always there!

 

[TooCheep]

Welcome to BYC, weagle251. I have personal experience with this.

I have a Tractor Supply prefab coop that was rated for 8 chickens and it is a little tight for my three grown girls now. The usual numbers quoted for coop sizing are 4sqft/bird in the coop area and 10sqft/bird in the run. Keeping them crammed together will increase stress, behavior and disease problems. Please consider this carefully.

 

[RoosterML]

My advice is try to find something on Craigslist. You’ll likely be disappointed with the inexpensive prefabs. Good luck
I build new ones for people on Craigslist but needed to stop late spring as I got swamped at work. The average price I was charging was $30-$35 per sqft. I also wasn’t the most expensive so that should give you an idea of what you will likely pay for a well built unit.

 

[Cryss]

Welcome!
Oh boy did you come to the right place for great information on keeping chickens, besides having some of the friendliest bunch of people here.

I started exactly like you. I had chickens coming in any day and went shopping for a good coop. I got one that said it held 8 chickens. Perfect since I was getting only 4 but hoping for a few more once I got some experience with chickens. Took it home and assembled it easily! Cute looking , didn't take up much room, perfect!
My woes began. I found BYC and decided to start seeing what I could learn. Chickens need ventilation but not drafts. Every door and even several wallboards had gaps. I had to seal them up fast, chickens were coming! Some predators like raccoons can open locks like slide bolts! I had to install extra hardware. Many predators can just dig underneath. Great. Several can just rip doors off. *sigh* Ok, I surrounded the entire coop in chain link dog fence and 1/2 inch hardware cloth with apron and hardware cloth roof.
Chickens arrive, all seems good...wait, what? Each chicken needs 4sqft inside the coop (not including the nests!) and 10sqft in the run? A quick tape measure shows me my coop for 8 birds actually will only hold 1.5 birds.

Crowding your birds will cause fighting among them. They can even kill each other. Believe me, from experience (not always good ones), it is worth doing it right, starting at the beginning. If it wasn't for the help I got here my birds would probably be dead. So ask lots of questions!

The quick answer is exactly what @rosemarythyme has said. A prefab shed is the way to do it. You'll need to make a pop door and 1sqft of ventilation per chicken at the top of the walls covered in hardware cloth and of course a roost. Add a couple nest areas and a predator safe run and you're in pretty good shape.

I hope you post lots of pictures of your feathered babies and their new home!

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Welcome to BYC! Glad you decided to join our community. Please listen to the previous posters. A pre fab shed or kit is the better way to go. I bought a pre fab coop with a 4 chicken capacity for my rooster and he was too big for it. I had to double the coop size just to accommodate him and he still barely fit in it. Also, the prefabs are not even remotely predator proof. Good luck with your new flock.

 

[so lucky]

I don't know where you are, but it is possible that someone near you makes chicken coops. Real chicken coops. Check on Craig's list and on Facebook. You might find someone who is concerned about the welfare of the chickens. Probably wouldn't be cheap, but sometimes cheap turns out to be expensive in repairs and replacement.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hi, welcome to the forum, glad you joined.

We are not trying to be mean or harsh, just trying to warn you. A lot of people do use the prefab coops but there are practically always issues. Most of them are not well designed for chickens, but are closer to a generic "pet" house that they added nests (usually too many) and a roost (often in the wrong place). If you an find one and give us a link we can critique it for you but we are not likely to be favorable. Occasionally you see one that isn't too bad. Since we don't know what country you are in it's hard to even suggest where you might get one, let alone what your weather might be so we could comment on what kind of coop.

If you follow the link below in my signature you can get some of my thoughts on how much space they need. Some of those things will not apply to you but many will. For example you may integrate new chickens later, that takes more room than if they are already integrated. Aart as some interesting links too.

With a maximum of eight chickens you can probably (depends a lot on climate) get by with one of those relatively small elevated coops. Anything over eight and I recommend a walk-in coop. You need to be able to reach everywhere inside the coop and that gets really challenging if you get much larger than a 4' x 8' elevated coop. If you are in a climate where they will be restricted to the coop only for extended periods of time a 4x8 may be too small for eight.

A shed is often a good option, whether it is a used one you find or one of those prefab ones you can put together. Don't forget you will need some type of foundation. To convert a shed to a coop you add nests (two nests for eight hens should be enough), roosts, and a pop door. You can use a human door for the chickens to go in or out but a small pop door keeps more of the weather out. You will probably want to build a run.

Regardless of where you are you need ventilation, even in winter. Where you are and what the coop looks like can influence how you go about that. Depending on your building skills this could be the most challenging part of the shed to coop conversion but there are ways. With those prefab coops you often need to add ventilation anyway.

Another option is to go to the "Articles" tab at the top of this page and look under the coops section. There are a lot of coop designs to chose from, often with instructions on how to build it. You could maybe build it yourself or possibly hire a handyman/contractor to build it for you.

Once again, to the forum. People do this all the time so don't get too discouraged.