[Caramelle]

Hello again everyone, and thank you all for your lovely advice so far.
We've ordered the following chicken coop from Wilkinsons (of all places, I know!!). Can't wait for it to arrive now tomorrow or Thursday so it's all ready for our three ladies arrival on Sunday!



My question is: When are foxes out and on the prowl? Is this a night time thing, or? The "house" its self looks fairly safe to me, but I'm getting increasingly concerned about the flooring, or lack there of. The idea is that we'll be shifting the coop about the garden a little bit, but our garden isn't perfectly level so I'm getting a little bit worried about Mr. Fox!

Could you lovely ladies and gentlemen please have a look at the coop, and let me know your thoughts? Should I get some chicken wire mesh and make a flooring for them? Staple it to the bottom of the coop?

Thanks in advance!!!!

[henamoured]

A friend of mine has got this one and he's had no problems so far.

I know there are foxes near us so I put bricks round the run bottom of mine where the ground is uneven (or the chooks have dug a moon crater of a dust bath). Obviously there are moved when I move the coop now and again.

Have fun with your new chooks on Sunday.

[Honeysuckle]

Mr Fox predominantly comes out when it's dark however, I have seen a fox in my garden at 3pm!  I have also seen them close by at 7am (in broad daylight).  To be honest, I just assume that Mr Fox can visit my garden 24/7.  

The coop looks good however, a fox will dig underneath.   As you want to move it around, have you thought about putting a 'skirt' of wire mesh around the bottom?  Have a look at the runs that come with the Eglu's, they have a 'skirt'.  Personally, I wouldn't put in a wire mesh flooring as the ladies will want to scratch and obviously the wire will stop them doing that.  

Enjoy your new chooks and don't forget...... photos are a must  

[scarymary]

Hello,

I'm a newbie and haven't posted yet - but I had to reply to this! We have the exact same coop for our girls. We've had no problems with it it. It is easy to move to clean under/around and we have it on concrete so no fox risk. The girls come out every day into the garden.

Dawn

[bantam novice]

I think the coop looks great.  The wire skirt sounds like a good idea 

By the way welcome to the forum Scarymary 

[brick22]

I really like this coop, its a great size.....does it have any nest boxes attached to it?

[OpiumEater]

Definitely attach a skirt. I have an eglu run, and despite the fox scratching away at the run, he didn't get it.

[Caramelle]

Hello everyone,

Thanks so much for your kind replies!

Firstly, in answer to one person's question - yes - there is a "two seater" (lol) laying box at the back. I've actually bought the coop from Wilkinsons, but I couldn't link the image correctly so nabbed a pic from another website. However it doesn't show the laying boxes :-)

Regards the coop its self, yes - I think we will be adding a skirting to it. Getting very excited now as the coop arrived flat-packed today, so dear beloved will be out (and probably swearing the sky grey) to build it up. He told me he picked up some tent pegs from town during his lunch break today, to help keep the mesh in place. Hope this will work!!!

Thanks again for your lovely replies,

Lots of love from Northamptonshire :-)

[themagicaltoad1]

Sorry to put a bit of a dampner on your enthusiasm, but many of us started with these coop & runs and quickly realised the run is far too small for 3 hens to be in all the time, and a fox would easily be able to dig under it to get in.

[poohpouri]

we have the same coop, we stapled chicken wire to the base,and have the coop inside a enclosed run,

[Caramelle]

Well we've just built the coop now and followed the advice on here by laying down some chicken wire mesh around to "skirt" the coop. The mesh is stapled to the bottom of the coop and further pegged down with tent pegs. Additionally my dear husband has drilled in a few ventilation holes around the top of the coop too, for a little bit of extra air to flow through.

One last question. What do you guys do about the latches? the ones on this coop don't look very secure, think we may need to improve the design slightly just to make it that little bit safer.

Someone mentioned about the coop not being large enough for 3 hens. I hear what you're saying because it doesn't look that big in the flesh, to be honest. We were talking about extending the run once the girls settle in, and make it cover a larger area. The ladies only get to go out after we get back from work in the evenings, so they need to have sufficient space all those hours when they are on their own. Thanks for the heads up!

[GrannieAnnie]

A friend in the village bought one of these coops, and it very soon started to warp, especially the doors, so if you can put a cover over the top of the coop (and the run) to keep the rain off, it may last a bit longer, and will give the girls a bit of dry run.

He's only had it a year, but because he's not been well, we've now got his 2 chickens, and he gave the coop away a few weeks back even though it cost him £297 from a local garden centre.

[scarymary]

I'm wondering if the design is standard but the quality (and size) varies? We've had ours for six or so months and it shows no signs of warping. We also looked at a second-hand coop that looked exactly the same in pics but was half the size of the one we got (for £199). Ours comfortably fits 4 bantams, but they come out at lunchtime every day.

We also have an arc that is being used as abroody for a pekin raising a pheasant chick - a week old now!

Scary