[congo181]

Hi all.
Newbie here, but I've been watching and reading ever since we started keeping sheep and have learnt a lot.
Now we are going to get some chickens, and I am having trouble deciding on a coop.

Has anyone any experience with the ones from Buttercup Farm?  They look pretty good and are apparently made in the UK.

Thanks,
Jim in Kent

[doganjo]

Buy a cheap garden shed, line it with marine ply and stuff polystyrene in between(the chips are good but sheets work too), spray with creosote or similar before you put chooks in.  I use plastic sheets on the floor with shredded paper or chopped straw spread over it; pull out regularly, put the muck in the compost bin, put fresh sheet and bedding down, hose down previous sheet, leave to dry off; do it on a fresh dry day and keep chooks out between lifting and relaying to give floor a chance to breathe and aerate.  And an old drawer with bedding for a  nest box.

[chrismahon]

Hi Congo181. There are a lot of coops imported from China and they are to be avoided. They lack ventilation, the wood is poor and space very limited. Generally they disintegrate after the first Winter. Manufacturers usually overstate the capacity, so dividing by two is a good rule of thumb. You need one nest box each for two hybrids, which will lay at around the same time. For Pedigrees one box to three or four hens will be OK.


Run size depends on the breeds and size. 4m2 each is a good size. 1m2 each is too small and will lead to behavioural problems.


My advice is to see coops in use before buying. So find someone local who keeps poultry on a scale similar to you. Coops are usually designed and built by shed manufacturers. They have no experience of keeping chickens so just copy everyone else's designs. The result is a coop that works, but not very well. Rainwater leakage off the nest box lids is a common fault as is poor access for cleaning. At some time you will get red mite and the coop will need treating -can you get it apart to do that?


If I was buying a coop in England I would go for a Green Frog and mount it on a raised platform. If the capacity is insufficient get two or more.

[nutterly_uts]

I'm an omlet convert here I know people dislike them for the price but I really love mine The normal ones are a decent broody coop and the cubes in a walk in run imo are perfect I can do a deep clean of either in about 10 mins and red mite is unheard of.
They retain their value well on ebay/second hand too

[Steph Hen]

If I were going to buy a house and spend money on it, it would be made of plastic.

[in the hills]

How many hens?

If quite a few I like sheds. Lots of space, headroom to get in there, ventilation.

[Marches Farmer]

I'm still working on the perfect henhouse design - now up to Mk 22!  Now tending towards plastic sheet sides with external creosoted framing and Onduline roofing for ventilation.  Don't use recycled board - the structure breaks down much more rapidly than the price justifies.

[Stereo]

I'm still working on the perfect henhouse design - now up to Mk 22!  Now tending towards plastic sheet sides with external creosoted framing and Onduline roofing for ventilation.  Don't use recycled board - the structure breaks down much more rapidly than the price justifies.

You mean the recycled plastic sheets break down? I was just about to buy some from Mole Valley.

The Omlet Eglu is a good choice for a low maintenance coop. We've just sold ours as I didn't really get on with it. I found it awkward to move in anything but very short grass due to the anti dig folding down etc. Nice and easy to clean but I didn't like the nest box design which seems to encourage sleeping in there and also don't like the plastic roost thing. I made some wooden ones for mine. But there are a decent choice.

The ones you often see cheap on eBay are to be avoided at all costs. They use words like quality with no qualification. The houses are dire. The wood is thin and fixings will pull out in a week or 2. The design is usually very poor and as mentioned, after a UK winter, the whole thing will start to fall apart. The one we bought was hopeless, you couldn't get the litter tray out once you had put a decent amount of bedding in, it was just too shallow.

If I just wanted a garden coop, I would go with a plastic one, maybe another Eglu or one of the others you see which are made in the UK..

[congo181]

Thanks for all the replies.
Kind of what I expected from reading several threads in several forums: that everyone has their own differing ideas 

We live in on an ex-farm/orchard with about 4.5 acres, and I am going to free-range the hens.  I will perhaps build a run too, and have the materials for that but hoping to just let them roam the orchard.  I will obviously be housing them at night but am prepared for at least some losses to foxes etc.

Only thinking of about 3 hens.

I personally don't really like the plastic options, purely for aesthetic reasons.  Because of this, I am tending towards a larger wooden coop simply because I think a larger one will be easier to clean.  I could easily make a shed like structure (I'm a a confident builder) but with smaller projects its often not cost effective.

This is what I was looking at from Buttercup Farm:
http://www.buttercupfarm.co.uk/chicken-houses-and-runs/tall-poultry-shed-with-nestboxes.html

Re the original post, does anyone have any knowledge of this supplier?  They sure don't look like the normal Chinese eBay rubbish.

Thanks again for the replies; keep them coming.
Jim in Kent

[clydesdaleclopper]

We have recently got a Mark Francis one so that we can move them between fields and it is superb quality. really easy to clean out and all the little details are properly thought out.

[chrismahon]

The ventilation is questionable -a cross flow is needed well away from the perches otherwise that then becomes a draught. The perches are too high for large birds. The jump to the nest boxes would be a challenge and I can't see how well the lid is sealed. The pop-hole will leak water onto the floor. As my previous post. It's a shed manufacturer with no chicken keeping experience. Cheap enough and because it is wooden it can be modified.

[congo181]

Again, thanks for the replies.

I like the look of the Mark Francis, considering its plastic, but the price? Phew!

Re the shed manufacturers Chris, what about people like Smiths Sectional?  They are often recommended in reviews.  Are their products more suitable would you say?

This for example?
http://www.smithssectionalbuildings.co.uk/products/the-copse_chicken-coop-duck-house.php

Jim

[HesterF]

The Buttercup farm one looks very similar to my main layers house but mine has a bigger window for ventilation and the nest boxes are lower. I've got this one:

http://www.chicken-houses.co.uk/view-product/The-Newton-Chicken-House

with 11 (big) chickens in it at the moment which is a nice number. I wouldn't fit 20 Orpingtons in there. I think it would be too big for three but it's nice to have room for expansion and I like all of their designs-  I've got a smaller house that I use for broodies too. I have had red mite problems with it though & have now taken the felt off both the main roof and nest box and replaced with onduline as well as creosoting it yearly.

I think every house has niggles but this one has fewer than many - and most of the issues come when you're trying to assemble it and nothing fits (ironically the cheap and cheerful Chinese ones are sooo easy to assemble).

My best houses are Wells poultry houses but I think they've gone out of business now. Really solid but with the onduline roofs already so better ventilation. I've also got a Jim Vyse ark for the ducks but not a big fan of arks so won't go there again - I find them a pain to clean because you have to crawl in through the hole. I think Smiths Sectionals tend to do bigger houses with runs attached - I've looked occasionally but never found quite what I wanted.

I also have three 8'x6' sheds which I use for geese, turkeys and ducks and they are great. Easy to access but they do take a lot of bedding which is fine if it's full of 12 geese but might not be so cost effective for three chooks!

Good luck deciding - I think if you go for a solid wood build (make sure it is treated wood) and ensure you have good access for cleaning and the birds have enough space, you'll not go far wrong. Nothing is perfect but you mainly want something that lasts.....

H

[chrismahon]

It's a heck of a lot smaller than it appears on the photographs but seems well built and is better than most Congo. It is the same footprint as our coops with 4 large fowl in maximum (3 fluffy Orpingtons). A good roof overhang will protect the pop-hole, the perches are low so no feet damaged, the roof hinges up so you can see inside to clean it out and because the nest boxes are lower than all the perches they will be less inclined to roost in them, will reach them easily and the lid looks better sealed to the wall. Put a lock on the roof so nothing can push it open. Good news it packs flat so can be dismantled for treatment if necessary. I may have missed something, but can't think of anything now.


I would be happy to own one of those. Because of my bad back I would probably mount it on a wood plinth and add steps to the ground. No doubt something will be less than perfect, but I have yet to see a perfect coop. Too many compromises in their design are necessary, particularly from manufacturing techniques and material stock sizes and what may suit one breed may not suit another even! I've been building and refining ours for 6 years now and still haven't got the formula perfect.


Still think you should see one up close before buying. The best are clad in 16mm weatherboarding. We use 12mm because of weight and have to carefully select each piece and as a result scrap a lot -that's not a commercial practicality.

[Marches Farmer]

I'm still working on the perfect henhouse design - now up to Mk 22!  Now tending towards plastic sheet sides with external creosoted framing and Onduline roofing for ventilation.  Don't use recycled board - the structure breaks down much more rapidly than the price justifies.

You mean the recycled plastic sheets break down? I was just about to buy some from Mole Valley.

Yes, an Animal Arks shelter we bought three years ago was made from that type of board. Kept getting wet inside and couldn't figure out why but the board is compressed, shredded plastic, not a solid rolled sheet, and the upper sruface became rough and opened up, probably due to the weather, and rain would trickle through.  Walls still OK, but incredibly heavy and the open structure at the edges of the boards are definitely not red mite proof!