10 Questions To Ask When Buying A Chicken Coop

When you are planning to buy a new chicken coop for your backyard, here are 10 questions you should be asking yourself before you make the purchase.

1. Is there enough room for you to retrieve a chicken without distressing the ones you didn’t try to pick?

2. Can you access the feeding area easily and quickly?

3. Can you clean the floors? Some don’t even have a floor, which makes it all easier, but you have to consider that a creature that can burrow slightly, like a dog or a cat, could get into your coop if you leave it on soil or grass.

Generally, a wire floor, a thin gauzy material of wire, is most effective, as it has most of the benefits of a non-existent floor (poop goes out, pee goes out, but luckily, the chickens remain in and the predators stay out).

A solid floor is mainly just pure waste, but if it’s removable, as mentioned before, especially over the roosting area, then it is still a valid and efficient flooring system.

4. Can chickens get their feet stuck in between the wire flooring if there is some? This can be a major problem for a lot of coops, as you want the spaces open enough to be capable of relieving waste into soil, but you don’t want it open enough for any part of your chickens to go through, get stuck, and cause damage.

5. Is the floor strong and sturdy? Chickens will notice if the floor sags underneath their weight, and they will be distressed.

6. Is the house sturdy? Bang on it a few times to simulate a dog attacking it. Make sure the meshes on the coop are made of wire, not plastic or chicken wire, which can be easily broken. Make sure your doors have latches that are secure, and consider utilizing a padlock, which would be impossible for predators to open in most cases.

7. In urban environments, you might want to consider picking a housing unit that isn’t an eyesore for your neighbors, that way any complaints they have will be reduced by seeing how much the chickens blend into the place, and therefore belong there.

8. Ask relatives who have chickens! Always compare against your peers and family, just to see what solutions they have to the problem above.

9. If the housing is going to be outdoors, you need to protect it from your local weather patterns. Firstly, you’ll need a waterproof top, some form of wind-proofing, and often some kind of insulation or thick wall structure will be necessary for winter.

Also, you’ll need to have plenty of ventilation doors and openings for summer, when there have been cases of chickens dying from heatstroke or heat exhaustion.

10. Always, if possible, come out to see the coop in person to check if it’s a good product. Although a catalogue or online sales page will tell you a lot of details, it’s in their best interest to sell the coop, regardless of whether it’s shoddy or not, so by coming there in person, you avoid the seller’s potential untruths and you can get to work testing out the coop.

You can still use the coop’s online/catalogue description, but just compare them to what you see when you come in person, like the dimensions of the box, its weight, and what kind of material it’s made from.

If you have questions, ask the seller, or better yet, ask those in the nearby area if he’s trustworthy or not, as being his competition, they’re more likely to remember his faults.

DIY Chicken Coop Design Guide

Do you want to know how to build a poultry housing in your back yard?

If you do, check out the Building A Chicken Coop plans by Bill Keene. Bill is an seasoned chicken farmer with more than 20 years experience.

His DIY chicken coop plans was created to teach you how to build a small, medium and also large chicken coop on a shoestring budget. For more information, click on the link below and see what Bill has to offer.