chicken coop

[marc555]

Thinking of getting 4 chickens, dont want anymore than that, can anyone recommend a good chicken coop with a run attached

[marc555]

[kt.]

Really depends on your budget and breed of hen.  Some crees can house 6 bantams; or 4 white sussex or Buff orpingtons for example.  Henhouse sale here at the moment:

http://www.henhouseworld.co.uk/coops.htm

[marc555]

Thanks for that link want to spend about £130 max really been looking on ebay but cant make my mind up its hard when you cant see the full size

[princescruffster]

I am pleased with the one I bought from henhouseworld - I bought the one in the sale for £129.  They are, however, smaller than they look and although it has a run attached I built an additional run so they had some outside space. I have 3 chooks in mine even though it said 5-6.  I'm new to chickens and am a complete convert.................they are great!  :)

[Little Bee]

I was going to buy one of those chicken houses until i saw the size of them!!!!
I wouldn't put one chicken in it ,they are far too small!!!
I built my own,well with hubby,we coverted a 7ftX 6ft shed,took off the bottom 18" to make the nesting box with and made a wire frame which fits in the door in the daytime and is removed at night to lock the door.
At first we made a small run which is about the size of the run on the said chicken houses above and found this far too small which caused a lot of fighting in the pecking order.
We have now made a 9ftx9ft run which is attached so they can go in and out whenever they choose,all a happy family now.
We put a plastic roof on with a gutter so we also have another source to collect rain from.

[teresa]

If you have the space get a 6x4 shed second hand one and add a run with chicken wire and posts not hard to doOH did it for me. Sheds can be found on ebay or in local free papers or free cycle sites?

[GodfreyRob]

Even a small number of chickens can rapidly strip an enclosed area of grass - then when it rains you have your own stinking swamp. Learned this the hard way!

If at all possible have two enclosed areas that you can alternate access to. That way, when one gets eaten down you can close it off and let them in the other side whilst the first recovers. 

Grass hardly grows at all from December until May - so you want to try and preserve their grazing area as long as possible - your eggs going paler in the winter is a sign that the grazing has lost its nutritious value.