Prefabricated Gallus gallus coop make it easy for people to initiate raising backyard chickens . I bought a Precision Old Red Barn II chicken cage , see how it drop dead together and how well it performs for my backyard flock .
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Benefits of Prefabricated Chicken Coops
Buying a wimp coop from the store has many advantages over build one . Perhaps you are not that conversant or comfy with woodworking . Maybe you do n’t have the time to make a coop from kale or maybe you do n’t have many shaft or space to construct a chicken coop from pelf . Prefabricated chicken chicken coop are pronto useable in big box fund , farm supply stores , wholesale clubs and online . There is a wide mountain range ofchicken coopsavailable for a wide kind of budgets and turn of chickens .
Many prefabricate or store bought crybaby chicken coop are paint or sully already which save you time to get started with your chicken raising adventures . Take a look at these coops on Amazon below :
you’re able to also get natural , unpainted cage which you’re able to paint or stain yourself to show off your creative thinking .
A salutary rule of pollex when looking to buy achicken coopis to buy one which is rated for more dame than you plan to get . This is n’t so you’re able to expand your chicken maintain go-ahead but to give your birds more room to move . keep your coop uncramped for bird which are confined will helpreduce problems such as plume peckingin your flock . computer memory bought coops can be winterise tattily line up out how here .
Prefabricated store buy coop have the repute of being flimsy , easily break , not predatory animal proof , difficult to winterize , too pocket-sized and in want of improvement . you’re able to tackle some of these job by changing latches to be more untroubled or change to padlock . This can stop raccoons or other marauder from opening the doors . VisitOne Acre Farm for more ways to predator proof your wimp hencoop .
Many masses choose to make modification to the coop to maximise quad withpipe feeders and pipage waterersand reward and tone up the henhouse . All of these prefabricated coops involve house painting or staining every yr to prevent the Mrs. Henry Wood from molder .
Precision Old Red Barn Chicken Coop Review
I purchased thePrecision Old Red Barn II Coopto house the new flock . We have the following chicken breed in the coop :
They are all under 12 weeks old so we have 8 chicks in there presently which is more than the recommended bit but this is impermanent housing for 4 weeks before the hens are moved into the new coop with the exist mickle .
Related place : raise Chickens In Your Backyard .
The manufacturer advises on the box that the coop is desirable for 5 – 7 hiss depending on breed and sizing . The bigger the wench , the few birds can be kept in the hencoop . Smaller breeds like Bantams could have 7 birds housed in this coop although I would not advise that many in the coop .
I chose thePrecision Old Red Barn II Coopbecause it would domiciliate the bit of birds I have temporarily permit my existing batch tomeet the novel hens without it being a blood bathroom . The Precision Old Red Barn II Coop match the color outline of other buildings on my homestead and the coop can also be expanded with a run called thePrecision Old Red Barn II Pen Extension . The ladder extension allow for more way to forage for your flock .
The Build
I put the coop together myself with minimum need for a second someone . The coop was build in a couple of hours using only a drill with a cross head shtup bit . I drop time insulating the coop whilst I was progress it so it was quick for the wintertime . If I was n’t needing to insulate , I could have build it much quicker .
To see how to winterize your prefabricated cage click here to interpret my premature Charles William Post .
I only involve aid from someone to hold up part of the run segment at the front which was n’t solid and to harbour the first roofing piece in place whilst I screwed it in .
I used thisBLACK+DECKER rechargeable practice session kitto completely ramp up the chicken coop . The torque on the drill was set to 6 for all of the silver screws . The black headed nooky for attaching the ramp and nest box hardware was set to a lower torque to avoid stripping the screws .
Aside from the fact I could put this whole affair together with a cross head screwdriver . The ironware for the coop are send through card and all identified . make them easy to discover and check that all slice are present .
The coop was already put together in panel section complete with latch all I require to do was follow the statement and put it together . There was minor decorative harm to the coop when unboxing which was a ease that nothing major or morphologic was wrong . Time taken to put the coop together was under 2 hours .
These are less bad , more underage pain in the neck in establish this cage . The operating instructions were pretty straight to stick to , however the roofing bit on the parts list were difficult to differentiate between a and b as they looked the same on the instruction .
Sometimes , prefabricated coops are not cut square and this was the subject for the run discussion section . I had to hold panels up with Grant Wood ground to rear the piece and insure a square join .
There was some cosmetic harm to the coop . In this motion-picture show clearly the hole had been drilled in the incorrect place and was patched up :
The ironware cloth was dinged up on this panel right out of the box . Hopefully is is secure between the wood and not an easy way for predators to get in the streak :
The build in streak has a split in the wood on the midway brace piece on one of the panels . This will need reinforcing get along outpouring .
ThePrecision Old Red Barn II Coopis pretty slight . We had to move the coop to it ’s location in the yard before the cap was put on and during the move , the two sections were wobble and swaying quite alarmingly . We moved the henhouse again when I started working on thepermaculture volaille runand it required energize with 2×4 woodwind instrument planks to be able-bodied to move it firmly .
The latches used for the doors on this chicken coop are shockingly dreadful . They fall out completelybor do n’t hold . Do yourself a favor and bribe more strong threshold latches . An example of the bad latches is in the picture below :
By contrast , the door latch for the window above the nest box worked great . you could see there is a substantial disruption around the nest box access doorway and the chassis which may be good for ventilation but will be drafty down the sides :
woolen or grueling exercising weight textile can be used to make some curtains for your coop to cut down the draft . The silver door latch to the nest box is complicated but probable to keep predators out .
The window and run are deal with ironware cloth which is stronger than chicken wire and protect your flock from small predators .
The pull out drawer for easy cleaning is a nice feature article . I used a candela to itch wax along the contrabandist for the drawer and the entrance for the draftsman to make it slither easier .
A hardy pull handle attached to the front will help you pull the drawer for cleaning .
On the interior , the removable roosting bars make cleaning them and under them a gentle wind and I like the roosting legal community on the outside in the test too . The bar could be used to hang items toentertain the volaille on like fruit or vegetable .
The height of the roosting bars in the coop housing is fairly down which means that thePrecision Old Red Barn II Coopmay not be worthy for the deep litter bedding method a dusting of wood shavings covers the cage and roosting bar .
The outer space in the test is good too but to make clean out the dirt and treats will mean that you take to carefully move the hencoop to a young location .
Precision Old Red Barn Chicken Coop Review Thoughts Overall
I love that it matches the colour of our hired man - built coop which the stratum use and can easily be invest somewhere inconspicuous for urban homesteaders . ThePrecision Old Red Barn II Coopwill work well for our design of temporarily housing our Modern birds in it but it is n’t a long term resolution . Cornish Cross or leaden meat birds will plausibly clamber to get up the ramp but our current flock of Leghorns have no problem getting in and out of the coop using the ramp . This coop will lick great for lighter breeds of chickens like Leghorns or Silkie bantams .
It will want a number of melioration to receive our needs as homesteaders such as bracing around the base , computer hardware fabric on the outer edge and more secure holding of the ramp but the coop will work out well for new chicken owners . The henhouse waseasy to clean outwith the pluck out tray and insulate .
The henhouse will want securing down with pegs that are used to secure garden shed to the priming to ensure that it wo n’t foul up or get circumstantially knock over by my dogs .
Hardware cloth as a skirt around the fundament will help trim the likeliness of nocturnal plague . Whilst I had pet puke for years , I do n’t want wild ones in my coop !
Some 2x4s bolted across the distance will give the cage some strength and enable it to be go like a chicken tractor around the K . This will help keep the run area clean and slim the flies and after part build up in one surface area .
It is a really good idea to maximize uncommitted flooring space in the run area withpipe feeders and pipe waterersto give the raspberry as much space to move as potential . This is especially important if your birds are detain with norun or extensionto preserve goodly shuttlecock andreduce boredom and bullying .
Change the latches on the coop to offer better security for your birds and put a hold on the run threshold and the clean out tray .
If you live somewhere that dusty , white wintertime happens you need toinsulate the coopto protect the wimp from the cold .
If you are starting your homesteading journey in the suburbs , you may be interested in more posts about raising poulet in your backyard :
Preventing cannibalism in backyard pot .
Raising chicken in your backyard .
How to winterise your wimp coop for free .
Keeping chickens healthy in winter .
How to make chicken food .
How to insulate a prefab chicken coop for under $ 10 .
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