[Closed] Buying a chicken coop vs building one

I've built 2 big ones and really enjoyed doing it, but it isn't cheap! We have been keeping chickens for 7 years now and love it.  We currently have 15, a mix of pure breed and rescue hens. Rescue hens are really rewarding. They are in a right old state when you first get them, almost completely featherless with pale anemic combs. It's great to see them sunbathing and foraging on grass for the first time. They soon feather up and start to look a lot healthier with a bit of TLC

Pre built coops seem to vary a lot in quality with some quite flimsy ones still costing a lot.  My only advice would be to get the sturdiest, biggest you can so they have plenty of room and avoid anything with a felt roof. It's an ideal hideaway for lots of red mite which is the hen keepers nemesis and difficult to get rid of .

We picked up a second hand Eglu on the basis that they are easier to clean/disinfect. I’ve still got to build the rest of the run though…

First off, nice one. We've rescued a fair few ex caged bird, and as above, it's so rewarding. They're also the friendliest birds we've had by quite a stretch. Wonderful little characters.
We've been lucky enough to inherit 2 timber coops over time, but when the current one expires i think we'll replace with a second hand Eglu, as they can be taken apart, jet washed, scrubbed, and put back together quickly. Once you've had red mite, you'll realise how useful this is!

Bread in mind that at the moment we're still unfortunately in an avian flu situation, so they'll need to be in a covered run until the restrictions lift 🙁

My BiL just built a coop for his hens. Seemed fast and good. He’s on TikTok sharing his coop-building experiences.

We have an eglu Cube on eBay now. Too big for our 7 small hens who prefer to huddle up in the regular eglu. Well, except for the Polish hen that always likes to stay outside at night.

If you’re buying one then the eglus are pretty good. Very easy to clean.

Bread in mind that at the moment we’re still unfortunately in an avian flu situation, so they’ll need to be in a covered run until the restrictions lift

Doesn’t seem to affect the locals here where you’ll find roaming chickens everywhere.

Bit of experience here, but for pedigree cats.

Built a fair amount of cat run down the side of the garden - quality 'square' laced chicken wire ordered online, much cheaper than local stores. Timber for the frame and 'climbing platforms' added up.

We then wanted to extend it, and ordered a 3mx2mxm chicken coop from amazon (frame and neting). Needed loads more zip ties than supplied for the netting, but spending a fair amount of time tensioning it all properly, we've a run that's really strong. Tubular steel frame, with a full height door.

Think it cost about £200-£250. Timber would have been more expensive. We still had a couple of hundred to spend on climbing platforms inside the run for the cats.

My next door neighbour has one from Omlet. It seems pretty decent, but I have no expertise here.

We have an Eglu. They're horrifically expensive but ours is 15 years old and still cleans up and works perfectly. We've added the larger cage to the end which has given the chickens loads of room.

We have a large homemade coop with a covered run (ideal for the current avian flu restrictions). I've no experience of the readymade varieties but I'd just say to be sure that the design allows full and easy access to every corner. You'll be wanting to disinfect it and possibly dust for mites periodically.

I built ours, kinda like an avairy with a coop in it. In true STW style it even has a stained glass window.

Agree with Omlet recommendations, much easier to clean and keep safe from problem insects than wood. Plus they don't rot so will last for a very long time.

+1 for Eglu omlet, we have the largest model with the extended run, perfect for 4-6 chooks. Can confirm that the eglu is cleverly fox proof ( have several vids of foxes trying to figure out from top and bottom how to get in and failing) and it is super easy to keep clean and use. Takes a while to put together but it’s reassuringly solid when up, the wheeled frame of the main omlet is genius, for when you need to move the Chook pen to a new part of the garden, so they can ruin a different are of the garden.

Ours is languishing bending the shed, reminds me at e we should get some more chooks as they are quite good fun to keep, or I should fleabay the thing.

There is a secondhand sales area on the Eglu site IIRC.

It’s an ideal hideaway for lots of red mite which is the hen keepers nemesis and difficult to get rid of .

My neighbour had chickens and had a red mite infestation - which I only discovered after I wheeled my bike past her green bin, overflowing with mite infested straw, and then spent a couple of hours in the cinema scratching my legs which had something crawling all over them...

Luckily was cured with a shower (for me). Can't recall what happened to the chooks.....

Luckily was cured with a shower (for me). Can’t recall what happened to the chooks…..

It can kill them if it's a bad infestation and you leave it too long. Horrible things, we are always super vigilant and regularly dust the chooks, disinfect the coops and put vaseline on the perches to stop the little ****ers climbing up. We still get them occasionally though. Then it's all out war with permithrin smoke bombs, diatemous earth, mite powder, mite stop in the water and spot treatments on the chooks. Evil things, I flippin hate them!

We've had hens for a number of years, had both the egglu type coops and also a local (to us) company making hen coops out of recycled plastics. They are very durable and while without fancy stuff you get in an egglu, perfectly adequate for the job.

Have a look here  https://www.solwayrecycling.co.uk/shop/pig-poultry/hen-houses/solway-mini-hen-coop

Not wanting to sound OTT, but I'd really encourage anyone who has acquaintances with free roaming hens to either have a word with the them to check they know the score with avian flu, or consider letting DEFRA know. It's a legal requirement to keep them housed at the moment. It's destroying farmers' flocks and wild bird populations. This year's outbreak has been really nasty.

We’ve a run made from about 10 heras panels dug into the ground and until recently a home made wooden coop. It was a good size for out 10 hens but a bit of a squeeze to get in to clean out and always a bit of a battle with red-mites.

We’ve recently replaced the wooden coop with a 6ft X 5ft plastic garden shed - made some perches, nesting boxes and added a pop door for them. Massive improvement, should take less maintenance and is far easier to clean and chooks seem to approve. Should have done it years ago.

Cheers all, think those eglu ones are a little out of budget unless I can pick up something second hand.
I hadn’t thought about the mite thing, the thought of being able to clean easily does push me towards something plastic and easily sorted out.
Im wondering if the solway house with some sort of wire run would be the best compromise. If that’s a bought run or a built run im not sure.
The solway one says 4 hens, read in places that if you want 4 hens get a coop for 6?
It’s so typical something as simple as rescuing some chickens turns into loads of research and being more complicated than it should be!

I made mine out of some old wooden garage doors.
It's kinda cool!

If using wood try really hard to get some old style full fat creosote.
Zero problems with red mite.

We bought this about 7 years ago as a sensibly priced eglu alternative:

https://arkus.co.uk/small-chicken-house/

It has lasted really well. Really easy to take apart and clean, would defo buy from them again. Infact, we did also get a pig ark from them! Really sturdy stuff.

We had a second hand eglu, it was expensive but they hold their value, so we got a lot of that back when we subsequently sold it…

Op- if you’re near Lewes I can offer you something affordable :o)

Search eBay for a kids plastic playhouse, with a little modifying (mesh on the windows & perches) they'd make an ideal coop that's easy to wash.

We have had rescue hens for years. As others have said it's such a rewarding thing to do, you'll love it. Had a couple of wooden coops but the best investment we made is to get our Arkus plastic coop. Its brilliant and so easy to clean plus its way better at keeping red mite at bay as there are hardly any cracks or gaps for them to live in (unlike in a wooden coop).

Follow epynt's link above to the Arkus website, we got the large one.

No where near lewes but thanks for the offer! In Bristol
Ok so it’s 100% settled on plastic as you’ve all said, makes cleaning etc so much easier

So for 4 hens what size do I need? Enough room for more hens than we want?

We’ve got the Arkus one linked above with 7 hens living in it quite happily. A couple of them are pretty small though. In fact we’ve just got one bruiser, a couple of rescues and a few assorted others. The coop sits in a good size run and there is a link to a poly tunnel too. In the winter they get to go through to the poly tunnel where they dig over the ground and add lots of nice fertiliser. Then in the summer (when they can roam in the garden) we plant stuff in the poly tunnel, which works out well.

There is a tarp over the run with the current (never ending) lockdown. Although I’m not at all convinced that locking up 7 chickens for months on end is really going to do much to prevent the spread of a virus that is circulating in the wild bird population. Hopefully it will be lifted soon though.

Much as I like making things, Egglu (or similar) plastic coop is so much better than anything you can make yourself, the time/maintenance it saves is worth the initial investment. We have a Hentronix automatic door which was more £££ but lets them in and out & keeps them safe from Mr Fox at night!
We also bought the large walk-in run from Omlet, again £££ but we felt bad not being able to let them roam around the garden because of avian flu (they are pets not just livestock!) so just wanted something quick & simple to set up that would give them a lot of covered outdoor space. It's brilliant actually, we wished we'd just got one at the start rather than try to make our own out of posts & chicken-wire etc (which we did but was a lot of effort and a bit crap!)

Cheers all, think those eglu ones are a little out of budget unless I can pick up something second hand.

They cost a fortune even second-hand

We had a second hand eglu, it was expensive but they hold their value, so we got a lot of that back when we subsequently sold it…

But there is that ^^^

Thankfully our animal-loving daughter finally gave up nagging for chickens.