What About This As A Quick And Easy Pre-Fabricated Coop Option?

[User48]

Wow, thanks for the heads up about the coyotes & for the link to the video on the coyote roller. Even though we are surrounded by farms and families with cows, no one else seems to have chickens. The previous owners of our place had a bunch of Emus, but, of course, they're huge & probably scared the coyotes. I am going to try to track down more info on the coyote roller. I really appreciate your taking the time to write. I am grateful for all the great advice available here. Truly grateful!

By the way, I'm leaning now towards this "tractor" setup: http://www.coops4you.com/ Someone on this forum drove to their facility and purchased a coop. If anyone has any feedback on these, I'd love to hear it. My husband has been very supportive overall of adding chickens to the household, but when I presented him with the "playground coop" idea & the plans on Ebay (didn't buy them, just showed him the link on Ebay), he was a bit disenchanted, to say the least. He was especially unhappy with the expected cost of the materials (someone on this forum said the actual cost was close to 700.00 by the time they were finished). So I'm thinking this tractor option, which is easy to assemble & not ridiculously expensive to buy or even to ship, might be a good alternative. It also offers expansion options down the road, if necessary...

I think I may be tempted to sleep out back with the chickens until I know for sure that they're predator safe.

Laura

 

[TreyClark281]

thats really cool i want that on top of my fence! no more squrials to get into the feeders i just have to cut away the branches away from the fence and tu da!

 

[arwmommy]

The other "predator" issue that many may be referring to, are snakes, rats, minks and others that may be able to slip through the chain link. There is also the concern that a raccoon would be able to reach through it and get a chunk of one of your babies.

Chain link would (I believe) protect from a coyote (assuming the top was covered and the bottom was on concrete or was otherwise dig-proof). However, those of us that are hyper about predator proofing use either 1" or 1/2" welded wire. It blocks out everything.

Good luck!

 

[greginshasta]

Quote:
Hi Laura,

I just updated my photo gallery with chick pics and a few of the coop, assembled as received from the coops4you.com folks.

My next step, sometime between now and the end of August, is to disassemble the unit, remove the hardware and prime/paint the coop (to match the house of course.) Then I will re-assemble and prepare for "moving day" for the birds.

We planned on this unit for 6-7 birds we had ordered, then ended up coming home a few days later with 10 chicks, and am plotting what I might do to accomodate the extra chickens. An extension is available, which I may order, or I may just rig up a larger run and build a couple more nesting boxes. Not sure yet...

Anyhow, just wanted you to see the coop in its factory form so you have a good sense of what they offer.

Greg

 

[User48]

Thanks for the link to your photo gallery, Greg! I really like the simplicity & solid construction of your coop. I can see where there's a need for some expanding, especially with your flock larger than you had originally planned, but its nice that they offer extensions & that you're handy enough to build your own, too, if you choose to. I'd love to see what it looks like once you've painted, added on, and it's actually occupied! Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Laura

 

[User48]

Quote:
Thanks for the feedback, Leanna. We have several cats who prowl our yard - I know there will be an adjustment period for them with the chicks, but the chicks will be in our enclosed shop/barn until they're old enough to hold their own. Anyway, the cats take care of all of our mice problems & we've never had issues with any other varmits. My husband insists there are no raccoons near us, and a farmer down the street agrees. Enemy number one is definitely the coyote, though I continue to feel that our two labs (both of whom are HUGE & very protective of us/our place) offer some good protection. Meanwhile, I'm going to be locking up the hens at night anyway, so I'm hoping we'll all be in good shape. I think the fence around our property must be "welded wire" - it's very heavy duty, can't bend it, and it was professionally installed with the coyotes in mind.

Laura

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Hi Laura,

We bought a kennel from Costco.com - the Yard Guard Backyard Kennel. i ran hardward cloth all around the perimeter and then chicken wire on top underneath the cover. Around the door i snipped and attached some of that plastic chicken wire to fill in the gaps where a chicken head might stick out and get caught.

Inside we have a rabbit hutch bought on craigslist for fifty bucks, where our girls sleep at night. i feel fairly predator safe with this set up. i looked and looked on craigslist for a cheap or free kennel, but could not find one. This one we bought was $340 including shipping, which i thought was reasonable.

Colleen

 

[User48]

Hi Colleen,

Thanks for letting me know about your purchase. Was Costco's shipping relatively quick? It sounds like you made some smart additions to your kennel. Since I last wrote, my plans have changed slightly in that I managed to convince DH to allow me to use the old shed in our backyard as a coop. It was filled with old boxes of stuff that we'd managed to accumulate but didn't really need (except all the old books, which are now back in our livingroom where they should have been all along). Anyway, after encountering numerous black widows - always a fun time - and making a couple trips to the dump, the shed is looking good. It has a concrete floor and some good ventilation, so all we'll have to do is add a window or two and arrange the nest boxes. We also still have to pull out some shelving because the locationof it is bad/will lead to much pooping on shelving & a unnecessary cleaning. I'm really trying to simplify as much as possible. I also need to paint the outside of the whole thing & have already sanded it down and stripped off the chipping paint.

So now my need for a kennel is more as an extension to the coop (which is about 9' long by 7' wide and maybe 10' high.) While the girls will be coming in at night & I'll be locking them up, I'm growing increasingly anxious about predators, and I'm trying to find a kennel that uses at least 9 gauge wire. It sounds like, from what I've read, it's very difficult to get through that. Of course, your predator proofing/hardware additions accomplish the same thing. I did find this one: http://www.tractorsupply.com/detail.asp?pcID=7&paID=1053&sonID=204&page=1&productID=26065 It is the same as the "professional AKC" one at Costco but not as expensive because it doesn't include the roof. Like Costco, I also wouldn't have to pay shipping - would just pick it up at the store. While I'd love to have the roof, it would be nice to save 150.00 and still get the 8 gauge. I know I'll have to predator proof the top with something strong (hardware cloth), but after I do that I might just get a tarp of some kind for now. We'll see. DH is still talking about trying to put a run together himself, but I'm worried about it not getting done in time & I know the cost of materials will be a lot anyway.

It's funny how baby chicks have motivated me to clean out a shed that I spent a couple years avoiding because the task seemed so huge. This shed was such a sore spot, we'd actually lock it up anytime company was coming over because it would have been an embarassment had anyone wandered over and opened out the door. My motivation level/general behavior in the last week is almost the same as how I felt when I was pregnant - It almost feels llike I'm nesting. Funnier still is that I've gone from initially being drawn to an Eglu, to running through at least 5 different housing scenarios, to ending up where I am now with a recycled shed that might well have sat filled with junk and chipped paint for another few years. Definitely not as styling as the Eglu, but also not as expensive - and it will hold a lot more hens should the mood strike! Here's to baby chicks.

Laura

 

[greginshasta]

If folks have a www.craigslist.org in your area, I have been seeing a lot of used kennels for a mixed range of prices.

 

[User48]

I've been keeping an eye out for them on Craig's List. In fact, there's a bunny house that sounds interesting - and it's free - but it's about 2 hours away in San Francisco, and with 2 little kids and work and everything else, it's hard to justify the drive. If anyone else is interested and is in the Bay Area, I think it measures something like 5X5X3 - no idea whether it's all metal or part wood, but worth looking into anyway. The one flaw with getting a kennel off Craig's List is that I sort of doubt if most people buying kennels understand the difference between 13 gauge and 9 gauge - I certainly didn't until the predator factor became relevant. So I'm not sure that most people posting kennel ads would even be able to identify what gauge/quality it is...