New Chook house - recommendations?

it isnt hard to modify a shed into a chicken house all you need is perches and nest boxes , my only consern with sheds is there seems to be more and more nooks and crannies for red mite .
 
Thanks so much everyone (now I know how much I missed coming on the forum, its been so good reading everyone's ideas)

My current house was converted from a small shed, the size you keep a lawn mower in, then I got more chooks & added an external nest box then added an 'extension!! We didn't use the original roof supplied but bought that green onduline stuff which has worked well.

As at the time I didn't know how I'd take to the hobby of chook keeping, I thought I'd start with minimal outlay, that was 3 years ago! The coop is still OK, would possibly still be OK with a bit of work but would rather spend out on something better.

I'll certainly look at buying a new shed, also will explore the 'retired' woodworker aspect too. Does anyone have/know of a good basic 'plan' for self-made coop? I've got several books but none of them have a plan of one, only the finished article.

How can you tell if the ready-made ones are made from cheap imported wood? I've been blindly assuming that if its a reputable business it'll be fairly reliable.

Thanks again everyone :D
 
Look for the thickness of the tongue and groove cladding. Anything less than 16 mm on a fixed unit (12 on a mobile for weight) is no good. The cheap imports look 'twee', with little windows and cute touches. The good stuff looks strong. The Katie Thear series has plans for a 6-8 berth (4 max i'd say) but it's plywood. Just take some photos and overall sizes of coops. The craftsman will do the rest -they won't need a DIY plan.
 
Don't go near chickencoops direct... I did, I spent over £250 on a coop in March / April this year and I can see myself having to replace it by March / April next year..
Rubbish wood, badly finished and neither of my doors work properly, both off square, 1 jams every time you close it and the other one is too small so swings in on the birds and the little flimsy hinge didn't work either to had to add additional security, I have also had to re-roof after a our fairly horrible wet / windy spell a few weeks ago.
Next time I will pay a bit more I think...
 
Hi Aileen. Chickencoopsdirect .com sounds a bit dodgy on its own. Bet there are thousands of people saying the same about coops they bought. I had Dan Hibbert (Loughborough Design Student) round last week and suggested that his target market should be second coop buyers. People looking for much better quality then the first one they bought and prepared to pay a lot more. The cheap rubbish market is flooded.
 
Hello Lucylou - good to see you on the forum again :-)99

Chickencoops direct wanted me to advertise their coops on the site and I see John at poultryallotment.org put an ad on his site - but I haven't because I was a little worried about the quality -so it's good to get some feedback on these.

I would be interested to know the exact model you purchased Aileen.
 
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