So there are some things to consider.

I've looked at these a LOT, and I was given one, only a year old, that had basically fallen apart.  I took it for some doors and panels with screens that I can repurpose, and I burned the rest.


Positive Points:

***You just go pick it up.

***It costs less than $500  BUT...you will need to spend more than the cost of the coop...see reasons below.

Negative points:


***This will not keep predators out of your chickens. --You will need to reinforce it for that.  That means buying extra chicken wire...at least one roll with small holes...and going all the way around the coop with it, wrapping it out onto the ground and staking it down so stuff can't just dig under.  

You will also need to actually STAKE THE WHOLE THING DOWN somehow.  Assuming you have serious wind there, and assuming you have at least a FEW larger predators like dogs or yotes or raccoons with determination, they can just lift that thing up and go under.  Coons can tear into the doors on the inside structure.  

I don't know much about your region, but the predators out there mean business, from all I have seen or heard.

***You have to bend over and/or crawl to get in there  I cannot explain to you how much you will hate your life when you have to crawl in there to deal with...anything.  A sick chicken. An egg laid outside the nest boxes.  Refilling waterers.  You have to go in your coop fairly frequently, and unless you are a dwarf, this is going to SUCK.    HOWEVER, some people are more tolerant of this suckage than I am.

I would have said that it's going to rot and fall apart in one season to the point that predators can just get into it easily, HOWEVER...I see that you are in the desert southwest, where things don't rot nearly as quickly.  So your coop might hold up better.

***Even without rot, the wood is not real wood and the joints will fail sooner rather than later



I know that seems harsh, but this thing is built out of composite wood, with some nailers at the corners.  It's made super cheaply, and sold to you at about 500 percent markup, and while that's sometimes worth it, sometimes it's NOT.  For me, it's not.

So things to think about:


1-Is this a STARTER coop, and are you going to then build another within a year?

2-Are you willing to spend more money to reinforce this coop, and STILL have to build another at some point?

3-Are your chickens going to free range all day, then go into the coop at night?  Cuz it will be bare ground in less than one month, once your chickens are adolescents, and if you are keeping them in there, you will be feeding and watering them and that's gonna be all on you.  

4-Do you have bears where you are?  Cuz if you have bears, even a little bear can tear down this coop.


I'm sorry to sound mostly negative, but this is money thrown at a VERY short-term solution, and you are going to have to throw MOAR money at it immediately for it to be half way viable in most applications (the extra wire, stakes, etc).

So if you are going to throw MOAR money at it , would you rather get a better coop, or build one?

It sucks when it's not just money at issue, but when time is the thing you don't have. That's me right now, so if that's you, I get it.

Our old one was the Chicken Palace...all it lacked were the towers with turrets.  But after 25 years, we got rot and a coon got in.  There was mass destruction.

Right now we are in an FOB...a dog kennel that's been reinforced.  Kennel panels with tarps over them for shelter, chicken wire wrapped around the bottom.  Suck factor is high.

We need to refurb the Chicken Palace.    

Outer wire needs to be closer than 8" or the coons will just climb over and in, then do the deed close up.

Could maybe stake the wire out at 8" and then attach it to the actual coop up high...say 3 feet.  Then the coons could climb it, but they would be up too high to grab the chickens.


ETA:  Coons hunt at night (at least, here they do)  So I put the chicken wire right against the coop panels to keep the chickens from sticking their heads out, where dogs can get them.   They should be in the wooden structure at night, so coons can't get them.  However somebody has to crawl in there and shut the door, which is the #1 HATE POINT about these short coops, for me.  For safety, I think chickens need to be shut up at night.

You're sharp with designing/engineering things.

Got a good way to shut the door at night, without crawling in there?  @bansil

What about a two-step process...one that slides a latch up  and out of the way, then another to shut the door and release the latch?  Even if it's manually done, that seems doable with a pulley or two and some rope, from outside, without having to crawl in.

Now that you remind me, think I've seen those...with timers for sunrise and sunset?


I forgot about them.

We have an auto door for each of our two coops.
Ill ask my wife about the brand, but they are a a US small business. Doors have been trouble free, other than one which tends to get bedding material packed in to the track due to a design deficiency with our coop.
They have light sensors and run off a lantern battery, but a solar panel and battery is easy to add

We haven't had trouble with the birds getting shut out at night

Here is our little coop I built.
I might have $50 in it, including the hinges and latches.
It has 1/4" hardware cloth. The roof is a sign panel I removed from a building. There is an egg box across the back side, and a door on the side for access to their run.

Just showing how simple and cheap it can be to build a solid and secure coop. This is pretty small because I built it for 6 Bantams, but it is probably larger than a lot of the Tractor Supply type coops sold for 5+ full birds

That's adorable!

I don't understand how it works though.

Are the garden beds in their runs?  Do they not destroy your veggie beds?

You said "a door on the side for access to their run" but is that pictured?

I freaking love the shape.    



@TexCorriente

Thanks! The kids really like the egg shape, and it ended up being really really strong (they both climbed on top of it together a few times).
I'll post some pics that show it better.

I built it to fit between the two raised beds you can see, which are a foot or so tall. The back side of the coop extended past the raised bed, and their run ran the length of the bed on the right (4'x8'). Once it got hot they were pretty well shaded by tomato plants.

The birds and coop are now at my daughter's school, where they get to patroll for bugs every day and happily scurry back in to their run when recess is over

So...$700 with a 6' run.  That's more expensive than a similar size at TSC HOWEVER it appears to be built way better, so maybe a little longer-term investment.  

Honestly what I've found is that with anything you build yourself (unless you have a shop full of old stuff sitting waiting for a purpose) will cost close to that if you have to go out and buy all the parts.  Anything you BUY that is less expensive, you're gonna put that price again into hardening it, and for EITHER of these options, you're going to have a lot of time in it.  AND you've gotta have some skills for any of that.  I see folks who don't know how to put their car in neutral so it can be pushed off a road, so I'm constantly surprised at the  general level of incompetence at basic tasks which exists in the general suburban and city populations.  

So I can see the appeal for somebody who wants a plug & play setup.  I don't like the design of the henhouse, but the ability to blast it with the jet setting of a hose is nice.

I'm hopefully getting ready to do that as a greenhouse.  We will see.  Gotta install new HVAC and the roof/fascias need work as well, so budget and all...

They're so inexpensive, though, for how useful they are.