Prefab Chicken Coop Rip-Off?

[gtaus]

I usually don't like to bad mouth any particular product, but as a backyard flock owner for many years, I just want to tell first time chicken owners to please stay away from the prefab chicken coop setups like the one currently being sold at our local Fleet store for $749.00.

They call this their large coop option, but the actual coop is only about 3X3 feet, which is really not even enough room for 3 chickens if you follow the 4 square feet per bird. The wood that comes with the kit is very cheap, and I cannot imagine it standing up to time. There is a pull-out tray for cleaning the coop, but, IMHO, that is about the worse design for cleaning options. Those pull out trays are known for causing all kinds of problems. I really have nothing good to say about this coop.

If you are going to put together a prefab kit, just go the extra effort and build yourself a better coop from any of the legit designs for coop builds you can find here on the BYC forums and elsewhere. I think this prefab coop is nothing but a heartbreak to come, as you will soon find out that it is not up to the task for much of anything.

If someone has bought this type of coop, and you disagree with my warnings, then please let me know why the coop works for you. Maybe it is a great choice for some people.

If you bought this type of coop and now feel that you got burned, maybe +1 on this warning so newbies don't get fooled. I would love to hear your thoughts.

 

[River campbell]

I 100% agree, it looks great and giant, 1x1ft

 

[3KillerBs]

When I saw your title my first thought was to wonder if there was a commonly-available prefab coop that wasn't a rip-off.

Rules of Thumb

• If it looks like a dollhouse it's only suitable for toy chickens.
• If it's measured in inches instead of feet it's too small.
• If your walk-in closet is larger than the coop-run combo you're thinking of buying think carefully about whether you have an utterly awesome closet or are looking at a seriously undersized chicken coop.
• If it has more nestboxes than the number of chickens it can legitimately hold the designer knew nothing about chickens' actual needs and it probably has other design flaws too.

 

[Alagirl]

I usually don't like to bad mouth any particular product, but as a backyard flock owner for many years, I just want to tell first time chicken owners to please stay away from the prefab chicken coop setups like the one currently being sold at our local Fleet store for $749.00.

View attachment 3098928

They call this their large coop option, but the actual coop is only about 3X3 feet, which is really not even enough room for 3 chickens if you follow the 4 square feet per bird. The wood that comes with the kit is very cheap, and I cannot imagine it standing up to time. There is a pull-out tray for cleaning the coop, but, IMHO, that is about the worse design for cleaning options. Those pull out trays are known for causing all kinds of problems. I really have nothing good to say about this coop.

If you are going to put together a prefab kit, just go the extra effort and build yourself a better coop from any of the legit designs for coop builds you can find here on the BYC forums and elsewhere. I think this prefab coop is nothing but a heartbreak to come, as you will soon find out that it is not up to the task for much of anything.

If someone has bought this type of coop, and you disagree with my warnings, then please let me know why the coop works for you. Maybe it is a great choice for some people.

If you bought this type of coop and now feel that you got burned, maybe +1 on this warning so newbies don't get fooled. I would love to hear your thoughts.

these things are designed for the urban person, who wants cute and pretty and will give up the birds once they are becoming a nuisance (because you can board a cat or dog, no problem, but what to do with chickens when you vacation?)

it's for people with more money than sense.

On the plus side, it might work great for a small flock of budgies.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

I started with a prefab, and they are junk! It took all of a few months before me and my husband decided to build a real coop. Don't waste the money! With what most of them cost you could scrounge materials and built a bigger better coop for the same! Good post @gtaus !

 

[Isadora]

I usually don't like to bad mouth any particular product, but as a backyard flock owner for many years, I just want to tell first time chicken owners to please stay away from the prefab chicken coop setups like the one currently being sold at our local Fleet store for $749.00.

View attachment 3098928

They call this their large coop option, but the actual coop is only about 3X3 feet, which is really not even enough room for 3 chickens if you follow the 4 square feet per bird. The wood that comes with the kit is very cheap, and I cannot imagine it standing up to time. There is a pull-out tray for cleaning the coop, but, IMHO, that is about the worse design for cleaning options. Those pull out trays are known for causing all kinds of problems. I really have nothing good to say about this coop.

If you are going to put together a prefab kit, just go the extra effort and build yourself a better coop from any of the legit designs for coop builds you can find here on the BYC forums and elsewhere. I think this prefab coop is nothing but a heartbreak to come, as you will soon find out that it is not up to the task for much of anything.

If someone has bought this type of coop, and you disagree with my warnings, then please let me know why the coop works for you. Maybe it is a great choice for some people.

If you bought this type of coop and now feel that you got burned, maybe +1 on this warning so newbies don't get fooled. I would love to hear your thoughts.

I have yet to see a prefab that I would even toy with the idea of buying.
Poor quality, too small, etc

 

[gtaus]

When I saw your title my first thought was to wonder if there was a commonly-available prefab coop that wasn't a rip-off.

Rules of Thumb

• If it looks like a dollhouse it's only suitable for toy chickens.
• If it's measured in inches instead of feet it's too small.
• If your walk-in closet is larger than the coop-run combo you're thinking of buying think carefully about whether you have an utterly awesome closet or are looking at a seriously undersized chicken coop.
• If it has more nestboxes than the number of chickens it can legitimately hold the designer knew nothing about chickens' actual needs and it probably has other design flaws too.

Yes, yes, yes & yes.

 

[gtaus]

these things are designed for the urban person, who wants cute and pretty and will give up the birds once they are becoming a nuisance (because you can board a cat or dog, no problem, but what to do with chickens when you vacation?)

it's for people with more money than sense.

On the plus side, it might work great for a small flock of budgies.

I tried to find out how many chickens they recommend for this prefab coop, but I could not find that info on the display model in the store. Given that this was their "large coop" option, I would not be surprised if they saying it was good for maybe 6 chickens.

And by they, I mean the company building these coops. If you ask any of the employees at our Fleet store who work with the chickens and/or raise chickens, they will tell you NOT to buy that coop.

 

[gtaus]

I started with a prefab, and they are junk! It took all of a few months before me and my husband decided to build a real coop. Don't waste the money! With what most of them cost you could scrounge materials and built a bigger better coop for the same! Good post @gtaus !

Thanks for the feedback. Sometimes it's hard to admit you made a mistake and even more so to tell others. Like you said, I can see some enthusiastic first time chicken owners buying a prefab coop like this and within months realize they made a costly mistake. I hope some first time chicken owners will see this thread and maybe save themselves from some real heartache on their decision to buy this type of make-believe coop.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

My prefabs work well for me, but apart from growout and cull pens, they don't hold as many birds as the box says they can. Most that lived In the coop permanently were 4 polish (pretty docile birds) or 5 small bantams (again, they all got along).

I don't ever consider putting aggressive birds together in these pens because there isn't much space to get away if someone is bent on biting another bird.