Are Chicken Coop Kits A Good Option?

My first choice would always be to build my own coop, but if I didn’t have the time, like many who do not, I’d buy a chicken coop kit. So if you want organic eggs and like the thought of raising your own birds please keep on reading.

A coop for chickens is pretty much a box in one form or another, simple enough, but finding the time to build one can be a challenge many have a hard time getting past. Chicken coop kits are a great solution that solves this problem.

The kits include all the materials and assembly plans that you’ll need to construct your own coop.  

The best thing about these kits for those of you who don’t have great carpentry skills is all the materials are prefabricated so it’s more like a puzzle than a building project.

There is quite a variety of kits you can find either online or locally and they come in an assortment of sizes and styles giving you the option to pick the one you need. Many of the designs are mobile but most are stationary or fixed.

A lot of enthusiast who live in cities really like the coop kits and there is no end it site, it seems, for its popularity. Kits are really easy to put up and take down which is the main reason for the popularity.   

Mobile or portable kits are the smallest style available. They’re light so they are easily carried from one location to another. The bigger and heavier kits are intended to be put in just one place and left there.

The size of your coop is directly related to the number of chickens that you plan on having.  Each chicken has to have 3 -5 square feet.  The small portable kit coops will only house about two or three chickens.

Keeping chickens really is a long term proposition so you want to plan out into the future if you can.  If you think you’ll be getting more chickens to your flock, to start a business for example, then you should construct a coop big enough for that amount of chickens now to ensure you’ll have the room when the time arrives.

Even though many of the kits available are priced approximately the same that doesn’t mean they are created equally. The best approach is to compare kits side by side and do your homework on chicken coops so you know what features a good coop should have and which ones meet your particular requirements.

If it is possible confirm that your coop was designed by someone who has experience raising and keeping chickens.

Key features are adequate ventilation, should be easy to clean, lighting and the security and safety of your chickens.

If Budget is a Concern

The one down side to using a chicken coop kit is comparing the price per square foot, a kit is about 2 to 3 times more than putting up a coop on your own. For example a coop with 21 square feet of room, currently listed on Amazon is $463 dollars.  You can construct a 64 square foot coop for around the same or less.

If you just don’t have the time to build a chicken coop then using a kit is an easy and fun option. Even if you are all thumbs when it comes to building projects, you’ll be putting together a coop without much effort.