Formex Snap & Lock Large Chicken Coop REVIEW

[chickenmadness7]

We just set up the bottom half of our Formex Large Chicken Coop to use as a later stage brooder before my guinea keets are ready to move outside. It makes a PERFECT brooder as my babies were flying out of and escaping from their old set up at 2 weeks of age. I figure that they'll be very used to it so moving them outdoors to their coop won't be so traumatic, though we will of course put the roof on. I will share photos and updates of this coop as time progresses. It was VERY easy to put together, though we did have to use a rubber mallet on the nest boxes. It took us about 30 minutes. It's also light weight enough that we will be able to carry the entire bottom half from inside our house to outdoors without a problem. We could also take it apart, but we probably won't. I'm very impressed with the construction of this coop, and am very happy with how easy it is to clean. This was a big plus for me. We put window screens on the top to use as a barrier to keep our guinea keets from flying out. They really LOVE the roosting bars. There are three places to put them, but right now I'm just using two. I'm using the nest boxes for their feeders and waterer too for now. Not sure how I will deal with this in the future. I purchased mine from eBay, though Amazon.com also has comparable prices with free shipping for Prime members. Photos!

 

[chickenmadness7]

Just an update as we've been using the coop outdoors for a month now. The coop is super easy to clean and seems very secure and predator-proof. There are some glitches with it alsoand they are as follows:
1. The manufacturer advertises that you can put way more chickens in it than what is reality. I would say 6 would be the max.
2. 4 nest boxes are kind of overkill IMO. I would rather have seen two of them be used for additional coop space.
3. There really isn't any place convenient to put food or water so I use two of the nest boxes.
4. The roof leaks sometimes in heavy rain. This is a MAJOR concern of mine.
5. Lack of natural light. There are two vents that can let in a tiny amount of light. I so WISH it had windows as its very dark inside. I installed a battery operated stick-on LED light to help with this.

 

[chickenmadness7]

Here are some pictures of my coop with the stand and ramp my husband made for it. My guinea fowl are modeling! Lol

 

[RJSorensen]

That is a nice looking coop and run you have there. I like your birds… fun to watch them interact with things. I think ramps are fun, yours looks to be a blast. I can't wait until I get to the point where I can try my hand at building one, perhaps like yours.

Best to you and your birds,

RJ

 

[chickenmadness7]

Thank you. My husband built the ramp.

 

[jjpigg06]

Love your set up! That's exactly what I'm hoping to accomplish by next spring. Was it hard to build the legs to raise the coop off the ground? I'm not too handy. (Okay, I'm not at all handy.) Also, are you still keeping the food and water in one side of the nesting boxes?

 

[hannaSEA]

jjpigg06 - you can view plans for building the raised stand here on the Formex website:

http://snaplockchickencoops.com/coop-assembly-instructions.html

Hope that helps!!

 

[agedog1]

Here are some pictures of my coop with the stand and ramp my husband made for it. My guinea fowl are modeling! Lol

How many guineas are in the coop. I just had six hatch and I got the big snap and lock. I am going to build a brace for it and put it on wheels to move around the yatd