Right after ordering chicks, I also ordered a Rhode Island Homestead XL (approx $1,100) chicken coop kit from The Chicken Coop Company, but the kit has remained in its boxes on my front porch for about 2 months. My neighborhood chicken guy recommended the Omlet (the Omlet Eglu Pro seems to be a similar size, but cost $2,300 and is all plastic – no thanks). I finally built it a few days ago!
Before buying the chicken coop kit, I spent a lot of time debating size, and whether or not I should just buy a bunch of cedar lumber and design and build a coop myself. I also looked at plans for coops online, but I figured since this was my first go around, a kit would be the quickest and easiest way to go. This size coop is good for 10+ chickens, and though I started with 9 chicks, we only have 7 now (R.I.P. Sunny and Tiny).
Go Big and Go Home
I’m happy I went for the largest chicken coop kit, because we have the space for it in our yard, and I think we’ll eventually expand our flock. Though, I don’t think I could have easily built this kit without a second pair of hands because some of the panels are large and awkward to hold while screwing together. The quality of the kit seems okay, though if I do end up needing another coop, I’m definitely just going to build one out of cedar wood myself. The panels on this coop are a bit flimsy and the construction instructions are terrible. I didn’t watch the video instructions, but the printed instructions were clearly written with low effort.
I also don’t think the hardware is particularly robust – I’m not sure the screws will hold up to the elements as they don’t appear to be galvanized or made from stainless steel. There also wasn’t a lock for the sliding coop door, so I had to buy one at my local hardware store. That was a little surprising, because I’m pretty sure a racoon would have been able to open the door to the coop.
A Quick Chicken Coop Kit Build
On the brighter side, this chicken coop kit only took about 3 hours to build including water breaks, which is way less than it would have taken me to design, source parts, and build a coop. There were no cuts required for this kit, and if the instruction made more sense we could’ve easily built it in 2 hours. And the chickens seem to like going into it at night (even the Swedish Flower Rooster), which saves a ton of time since I don’t have to chase them around in the dark. i guess the real test will be when they start laying eggs – will it be a simple snatch and go?
I didn’t end up buying a run extension because I’m confident in my ability to throw up a few beams and add thicken wire to them and for $500 dollars (which is the cost of their largest chicken run) I can buy quite a bit of cedar 2x4s instead of using whatever wood The Chicken Coop Company uses (seems like Douglas Fir).
Update: Fox Protection
The chickens have been safe in this coop. Unfortunately, I left the coop door open until after dark and a fox killed some of my chickens…