To anyone thinking of getting one of those cute little coops….

[Jenni Hen]

I am glad to hear someone with experience say I am not crazy LOL

That was the nightmarish part of my experience - thinking 'but that can't be right... am I crazy??' when people and websites are saying that it is ok, and there appears to be no alternative.

 

[BDutch]

…
I don't know how else to help, it's really sad that so many people get sucked in.

When I think of all the things we didn't know when we got started and how easy it would have been for us to fall for it... thankfully we knew a carpenter at the time who offered to build us something so we had to go hunting for coop guidelines and learned that way.

Leave a rating on this platform for prefab coops. And leave a rating on the platform of the shop /trader were you have bought the prefab.

In general (from what I have seen) the prefab coop are only a way to go for less/bantam chickens in a mild climate with more ventlation and extra run space.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/reviews/categories/coops-runs-housing.15/

 

[SourRoses]

Leave a rating on this platform for prefab coops. And leave a rating on the platform of the shop /trader were you have bought the prefab.

In general (from what I have seen) the prefab coop are only a way to go for less/bantam chickens in a mild climate with more ventlation and extra run space.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/reviews/categories/coops-runs-housing.15/

Pardon? I haven't bought one, so I can't review them. I just walk past some set up outside my local feed store.

It's not that hard to build a coop, convert a shed, or make a hoop coop.
So, there are lots of options. BYC has tons of great examples.

Our own latest build is a 8x8 ft Open-Air coop we divided in half for breeder quads and made uncovered runs on both sides. It cost us about five or six hundred (sorry I can't remember at this hour) which is what those tiny prefabs go for.

 

[BDutch]

Pardon? I haven't bought one, so I can't review them. I just walk past some set up outside my local feed store.

It's not that hard to build a coop, convert a shed, or make a hoop coop.
So, there are lots of options. BYC has tons of great examples.

Our own latest build is a 8x8 ft Open-Air coop we divided in half for breeder quads and made uncovered runs on both sides. It cost us about five or six hundred (sorry I can't remember at this hour) which is what those tiny prefabs go for.

Mmmm. Not possible then to give a real review. An opinion is not the same as the experience (for many it seems to be more like an experiment )

For those who ever did buy a prefab. I made a poll. But non-prefabers are welcome to the poll too. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/did-you-ever-buy-a-prefab-coop-give-a-review.1566471/

 

[SourRoses]

An opinion is not the same as the experience

No humans have that experience. Chickens do. They're the ones who have to be miserable.

I haven't been to prison either. In my opinion I would not enjoy it.

(for many it seems to be more like an experiment )

Agreed. I thought the most commonly shared reason for getting chickens was to treat them better than factory farms. But it seems less common than I thought.

 

[NatJ]

No humans have that experience. Chickens do. They're the ones who have to be miserable.

Some humans have the experience of buying the coop, opening the box, handling the parts, seeing the finished coop, seeing chickens in the finished coop, watching the coop leak or overheat or have other problems in the weather, and so forth.

When it's a matter of leaving a review for a coop, that's the experience that matters, because a chicken cannot actually leave a review. Anyone who tries to leave a review saying "I never saw the product in person, but it's bad because___" is going to be unconvincing to other people. (I've seen reviews like that for some other kinds of products, where some people say "I used it and it worked" and other people say "I haven't used it, but it can't possibly work the way they say." One tends to assume that the people who actually tried it are correct about whether it works right.)

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

I agree with OP!

I wish I never made the mistake of getting a prefab, but as someone with no building experience and recovering from a serious injury, I decided to go for it anyway. Not worth it. I have gotten a new coop since. I have the old one up for sale online now but I'm VERY CLEAR in the description that it is for no more than 2 standard size chickens.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Any new chicken tenders this year thinking of buying one of those cute little coops from Tractor Supply - DON’T do it!

We made this mistake and IMO it’s really easy to do. They’re cute and small, advertised for up to 6 chickens. You just don’t realize how big they will grow, they grow for almost a year! But other than that issue, check out what your chickens will be stuck in if you live in a winter climate.

Every day I am so thankful that we did something else for them. I will say this is a nice little grow out coop or isolation unit in the right temps!

I have one of those, at least I think it's the same thing. A desperation purchase when it was the only thing locally available at a bad time of year after a bizarrely failed integration of 2 chicks. Didn't have time to build anything. Later when those two chickens have moved to a bigger space it'll make a good broody house in the summer to avoid having a flock of tiny house chickens, since I think my husband's had enough of that lol. Even my big setup will fill with snow so I put shower curtain around the sides of the little one with a few inch gap for ventilation and it has stayed pretty dry without being stinky. Mine came with weird circular things for some of the top ventilation though that are terrible for snow; not sure if yours came with those square slatted covers or if that was an add-on but that gave me some good ideas for what I can use to replace the annoying little circle ones on mine by removing the little circle thing and then some sort of vent cover screwed over the top. Just have to find a good cover now but I see there are some that have curved plastic hoods that look like they would keep rain/snow out pretty well.

 

[BDutch]

No humans have that experience. Chickens do. They're the ones who have to be miserable.

I haven't been to prison either. In my opinion I would not enjoy it.



Agreed. I thought the most commonly shared reason for getting chickens was to treat them better than factory farms. But it seems less common than I thought.

Experience or not. I am glad that most BYC keepers on this forum provide at least reasonable living conditions.

I do have a prefab myself for 1- 2 my tiny bantam chickens, but I do agree this small prefab is not a suitable coop for most climates or larger chickens.
I added an extension at the end of the tiny run (3.5x*4’) with 2 roosts because it was getting too small after chicken math. Also added an auto pop door. The chickens can chose where to roost and can enter the build on run from sunrise until sunset.

Were I live we have mild winters with just a few days with snow or a week with freezing temps in a row during winter. That’s why they don’t need a large coop for shelter.

 

[BDutch]

I agree with OP!

I wish I never made the mistake of getting a prefab, but as someone with no building experience and recovering from a serious injury, I decided to go for it anyway. Not worth it. I have gotten a new coop since. I have the old one up for sale online now but I'm VERY CLEAR in the description that it is for no more than 2 standard size chickens.

You can sell it for rabbits too. I had 2 rabbits in my chicken coop for a few years.
After the rabbits came Dutch bantams (half the size of most bantams).