We've Been Had.

[AllisonD]

My friend and I are keeping chickens together. Chicks are about two weeks old so not ready to be outside full time yet. Anyway, my friend purchased a used coop from someone for three hundred dollars, and I just got a look at it today. The coop is a screened in pen, with a removable roof. The only enclosed area is a raised box with just enough room for the three next boxes. There's no ramp to the opening to the boxes, but there is a rail just outside for them to fly up to and then hop in. The entrance to the boxes has no closing door, and there's no roost apart from the rail outside the nest boxes. Needless to say I've looked at a couple of prefab coops suitable for our four bird flock online and found prices starting just over three hundred dollars and I'm pretty sure we were tremendously overcharged. Do you guys think that this coop will be sufficient to keep the birds warm and safe and happy? The person we bought it from says that he kept four chickens in there, but there's nowhere enclosed for them to sleep but in the nest boxes, and no way to close them up inside except for the door on the screened in run. Thanks for your advice.

 

[2Old2Crow]

If ya give us a pic we could probably do a better job of figuring out what U can do.

 

[AllisonD]

Fair enough. I'll see about getting some photos tomorrow. Thank you!

 

[moetrout]

It certainly doesn't sound like much from your description so yeah a pic sure would helps us tell you if you were overcharged. Chickens don't need much. I recall reading apost on here from a guy that used a open coup design and he was is a cold weather state. I think a lot of times WE worry about them when they are just fine. One of the farms down the road has a coup that is about 8' x 16' with 8' walls. All the way around the coup the last foot at the top of the wall is nothing but hardware cloth. That coup will not hold in any heat. All it does is keeps the wind, rain, and snow off them. They had about 30 chickens in there a they were thriving just fine.

 

[Nicole01]

It doesn't sound secure or safe from predators.

I believe you've been had. You should of went with your friend together. My husband built a 12x5x9 coop inside our garage using particle board, plus fully insulating it. Our run(22x5x5) is what costs us a fortune. We used welded wire, which I found out later hardware cloth is better. We also put a full corrugated steel roof and side paneling for shade. It cost us 800-1,000 or more to build the entire thing and our coop and run is a nice size. We even researched a year prior and it we were not prepared for the price of the finished product. There are people who build them for free(my neighbor included) with all recycled material. Their coop and run is just about the same size as ours and it looks awesome!

We had no idea that we'd be spending triple what we were expecting to make the coop safe and secure. I do free range, but always under supervision due to dogs and hawks. Our chickens are behind a steel door at night with a concrete floor, nothing can get inside when the door is locked.

Since owning chickens, the wildlife animals have shown up in pretty good numbers. We have raccoon, weasels, skunks at night, hawks, eagles, owls, and dogs by day. It's so important to have a secure coop.

I guess I'd refurbish what you have and maybe find free wood and build and addition to your existing coop. Wood pallets are usually free, plus construction sites are always throwing away great wood. We have a lot of free wood from construction sites in our garage. You can't take back what you bought.

I also would rather own my hens anyways. I spend a lot of time with my hens. Raising our chickens has been such a positive experience even though it did cost a bit to start up.

Good luck, I hope you both can find a solution to fix your situation. You can also try to resell that coop and try again.

 

[AllisonD]

Okay, so I got some pictures of the "coop" that we have. It's about four feet by six feet by four feet total:

Here you can see the rail used to access the "coop" area... no ramp at all. The box used for housing has no door, and is two foot by two foot by four foot.



And here's the inside of the box, divided up into three sixteen inch wide next boxes:



I guess with a ramp it could be used to house the four hens when they're still adolescents, but I feel like we're going to have to start again from scratch and maybe use this enclosure just as a run... although it's small for a run for four birds. I'm feeling pretty disheartened about it, to be frank.

 

[15littlem]

You guys got cheated like a teenager with a used car salesman (no offense to used car salesmen, I have family who are such, but you get my point). That coop is worth a maximum of $100, much less $300. I am so sorry for y'all. Hopefully you can just build extensions and upgrades yourselves.

 

[Melinda35]

I would take the nest boxes out since they don't need them right now. Make a ramp up to the coop area. Make a door where the opening is. Put a roost and poop tray where the next boxes are/were. While they are growing I would make nest boxes on one end (it would be top in the last picture) that stick out of the side of the coop for easy access to eggs. Not sure that would give you enough room but it would be a start. Hope I explained this okay.

 

[Nicole01]

That would house 2 chickens max! Wow, so sorry.

 

[AllisonD]

Yeah, I'm not sure at all that the box would have enough space without serious renovation, and honestly I feel like the wood is not of good quality... I think that the best case scenario for this thing is to take the plywood off and replace it with hardware cloth and use it for a run in addition to an entirely new shelter.