Why you should NEVER buy a coop from Amazon or Walmart
You need a chicken coop for your chickens. You want to buy something that’s perfect for your girls, but that doesn’t break the bank. You’re finding the only coops that are reasonable in price ($100-$400) are from Amazon or Walmart.
Will one of these coops suffice? I’m here to tell you, no way – don’t even think about it!
Why should you never buy a chicken coop from Amazon or Walmart? The low-price chicken coops you see at Amazon and Walmart are terrible in quality. These coops are built with incredibly cheap materials that aren’t durable and provide no insulation. Amazon and Walmart chicken coops are drafty, easy for predators to break through, and are much too small for more than a couple of chickens.
Below you will learn the 11 reasons why you should never buy a cheaply made chicken coop. Then, you’ll learn what kind of coop you should buy (or make) instead, where you can buy good coops, and where you can find excellent beginner building plans for coops.
To be clear, the chicken coops I’m talking about here are the small, cheap, typically wooden coops that are commonly for sale. See the screenshot below for examples. These are the first coops that came up when I typed “chicken coops” on Amazon. All of these are examples of coops that are not good for your chickens’ safety or well being.
My personal experience with a cheap chicken coop
About a year ago, I bought one of these cheap coops. Why? I needed a small coop on very short notice. I had found two roosters abandoned on the side of a highway, who were in poor condition. My husband and I caught them (which, believe me, was quite a challenge), but we had no extra coop available for them.
So I went onto Craigslist and found one of these small, cheap coops for ~$150, and my husband picked it up. This coop had only been used for a few months when we bought. It was almost new. You can see it pictured at the top of this post.
When my husband brought the coop home and we examined it, we both knew there was no way we could keep the roosters in it. They would be neither safe, nor comfortable.
We never did use the coop, and now, a year later, it is in total ruin. This coop remained against the side of our house for this entire year, much more protected from the elements than any of our other coops, which are all in excellent condition.
We also live in a part of Southwest Idaho where the weather is pretty mild. Here we have low humidity, and very little precipitation and wind. Despite this, the coop is falling apart.
The 11 reasons why you should never buy a cheap chicken coop
Reason #1: Too small for more than 1-2 chickens
This is a problem in the entire commercial chicken coop world—coops are always advertised to hold waaaay more chickens than is humane. The small coops you find on Amazon and at Walmart are the worst at this. Most coops that are advertising space for 6-8 chickens are usually only suitable for 1-3.
In Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens, chicken-keeping expert, Gail Damerow, writes that chickens need at least 3-4 square feet within a coop (and 2 square feet for bantams). I can tell you from personal experience that your chickens will prefer even more space.
The size of the cheap coop pictured above (and below) is just under 5 square feet with an additional 2.75 square foot nesting box. In the photo below, you can see the cheap coop next to one of my other chicken coops. This other chicken coop is the minimum size of coop you actually need for 5-6 chickens, 16 square feet with an additional 4 square foot nesting box.
Chickens, like people, need space to move around and to get away from each other. Chickens, like people, all have different personalities and some will require a lot of personal space—others, only a little. Chickens, like people, can be in good or bad moods, and their personal space requirements may change accordingly.
If you don’t give your chickens enough personal space, you may have some hens that are incredibly mean to others. And, unfortunately, if one hen is picking on another, sometimes the other hens will all join in.
The mean behavior may result in serious injury, cannibalism, and even death, but at the very least, your victim hens are going to be very upset and under a high state of stress. This stress may result in a drastically reduced quality of life, and can even make them more vulnerable to illness.
While it’s easy to empathize with victim hens, I always feel bad for the instigators as well. Imagine what it’s like to be stuck in a very small space with someone you just can’t stand. You would feel so stressed out and angry if you were forced to spend your nights and winters pressed against someone you despised.
Let’s just give these girls their space!
You definitely don’t want to put more than one rooster in a small space if hens are also present. Dead roosters are the rule in these cases, not the exception.
The coop I bought (the smaller one on the right in the picture above) had previously been used for 7 chickens. This must have been a nightmare for them. This coop is large enough for only 1-2 chickens, depending on how much time they are expected to spend in the coop as well as their individual personalities.
The attached runs are also way too small, even if you just have one chicken (unless you’re moving the coop and run to fresh grass every day).
For more information on how much space chickens need in the coop, check out my article, How big should your chicken coop be?
Reason #2: Poor quality wood, very low durability
The wood used in these coops is incredibly cheap and thin. In the video below, you can see that when I even just gently shake the coop or run, the entire thing looks like it’s about to collapse.
The run itself is a joke. The wire used on the runs for these types of coops is very weak and not well attached.
After very little time, many parts of these coops won’t close correctly. The pop door on mine doesn’t close all the way, and doesn’t even have a latch to keep it closed.
The coop floor is a tray that is removable for easy cleaning, but it doesn’t close smoothly, and it doesn’t fit flush up against the coop wall when it’s closed, so there’s a big hole in the floor corner where drafts and predators can easily get in. You can see this hole in the photo below under Reason #5.
Reason #3: Hardware is poor quality and not durable
On the coop that I bought, the roof opens up for ease of cleaning. The hardware for this is shoddy, and some of it came unattached altogether. Remember, this coop was only used for a few months! The hardware should not be deteriorating from use!
You can see in the video above that when I gently shook the coop with one hand, the lid came slamming down, due to the cheap hardware.
Additionally, the hardware that attached the ramp to the pop door also came completely apart. You can see this in the video under #8.
And the hardware that held the lid of the nesting box down wasn’t strong enough to keep the lid from ripping off completely and blowing away during one of the rare windy days we have here. I never did find that lid.
And while I’m on the topic of the nesting box, let’s look at reason #4…
Reason #4: Nesting box design and quality are poor
Because the coop is so small, the nesting box was set up to be communal. This means there is only one compartment for your chickens to lay in. If you have only 1-2 chickens who get along, this will work. Otherwise, you’re just asking for problems.
Although some hens are perfectly happy sharing a nesting box and laying their eggs side-by-side, the majority are not. They want their space. Additionally, if you have a hen who strongly dislikes another, she won’t even let the other lay an egg in the boxes near her, even if the boxes are partitioned.
It’s a sad sight, but I’ve seen this happen a lot. A couple of my Ameraucanas, Graygale and Elvira, are very unpopular with my Barred Rocks and Rhode Island Reds. These two girls can have a very hard time finding a nesting box where they are left un-harassed, despite having 8 nesting boxes in their coop that are never all occupied (not even close).
If these girls were in a coop with only one communal nesting box, they would likely be seriously injured or dead by now. I realize this sounds hyperbolic, but chicken relationships can be very complicated, and they’re not always pretty. If you put chickens in a very small space together, and one of the chickens is angry, you’re gonna have a problem.
You can see in the photo above that this communal nesting box is of horrible quality. The wood at the bottom of the box is starting to peel up and the box itself is loose and breaking apart.
Reason #5: Poor roosting bar design
The roosting bars in these coops tend to be barely off the floor as shown in the photo here. Your chickens will hate this. The bars are also too thin, and therefore will be uncomfortable for your chickens’ feet. Thin roosting bars also won’t provide protection for their toes in the winter.
Roosting bars should be thick branches or the wide side of a 2x4, so that chickens’ feet remain fairly flat. Not only is this comfortable for them, but they are also able to cover their toes with their feathers in the winter, preventing frostbite.
The roosting bars in this coop are also so low that if you put bedding in the coop, you basically cover the roosting bars.
Note that in a coop this small, there is no ideal height for roosting bars. If the roosting bars were raised, the chickens would be exposed to terrible drafts from the ventilation window. The coop is just too small.
Reason #6: Poor ventilation
One of the worst design features in these types of coops is the ventilation. There is nowhere near enough of it, and the ventilation the coop does have will make your chickens sitting ducks for predators.
These coops tend to have very small ventilation windows in the side, covered by wire that could be easily broken through. This window alone will provide nowhere near as much ventilation as your chickens need.
Some of the coops will also have a roof you can prop up for more ventilation, but this makes your chickens even more vulnerable to predators as the roof is not fastened to the coop and the gap is not even protected by wire.
For more information on chicken coop ventilation and what your coop needs, see my article, Chicken coop ventilation: 21 design ideas with pictures.
Reason #7: Roofing material is cheap and won’t last
The roofing material on these coops is a very thin, cheap asphalt material that is glued on. On my coop, the roofing material has peeled up and the wood underneath is water-damaged. Additionally, the material gets large wrinkles as it slowly detaches from the roof.
For more information on chicken coop roofing materials (and a photo of the roof I’ve described here), see my article, Chicken coop roof options: What’s the best material?
Reason #8: Pop door ramp is flimsy and won’t last
Most of the ramps for these coops are made out of flimsy wood that doesn’t last. In my video below, you can see that the ramp is also covered with the same asphalt material that is used for the roof. This material also warps on the ramp and peels off after very little exposure to the elements.
For more information on pop hole doors, see my article, Chicken coop pop doors: size, height off the ground, and design ideas.
For more information on ramps, see my article, Chicken coop ramps: Your ultimate guide.
Reason #9: No protection from the heat
These coops have no insulation. Your chickens will roast in one of these in the summer, particularly if you live in an area where you don’t have shade for your coop.
The combination of no insulation and terrible ventilation means you may lose chickens to heat stroke if you are in a place where temperatures soar (80s and above). Certainly, your chickens will live a low quality of life.
Reason #10: No protection from the cold
Similarly, the lack of insulation will cause your chickens to freeze in the winter. This, combined with the poor ventilation and badly-designed roosting bars, may result in chickens with frostbite. Again, at the very least, their quality of life will be reduced.
Reason #11: No protection from predators
Finally, if it’s not obvious already, these coops provide no protection from predators. Any small predator (e.g., raccoons, skunks, weasels) could get through the roof, or break through the cheap wire on the window, or push through the pop door.
Large predators would need to put in very little effort to rip off the nesting box, lift the roof (seriously, it doesn’t even latch), or just crush the body of the coop.
Even the wire on the run provides no protection. My husband demonstrates just how easy it is to break through it in the video below.
If you have any predator at all in your area, even if you just have the chance that a loose neighborhood dog could get into your yard, you will likely lose your chickens.
What kind of chicken coop is safe and comfortable for your chickens?
There are many qualities you’ll need for a great chicken coop. Check out my free training, Chicken coops 101: Design your chickens’ dream home, for all the specifics on exactly what your chicken coop needs, including detailed measurements.
In a nutshell, you’ll want an insulated, well-ventilated coop that gives your chickens plenty of space. You’ll want multiple nesting boxes and ample space on roosting bars that are made from 2x4s or large branches. Of course, you’ll want your coop to be built with high-quality materials to keep your chickens safe from both predators and the elements.
Where can you get a safe and comfortable chicken coop?
You have three options. I, myself, have done all three of these with good results.
Buy a new coop from a high-quality company
Buy a used coop from Craigslist
Build your own coop
If you’re interested in purchasing a high-quality prebuilt coop, I highly recommend Rita Marie’s Chicken Coops. I purchased my most recent chicken coop from Rita Marie’s, and my chickens love it!
Check out my review of this coop—and see plenty of photos!—in this article, The BEST luxury coop you’ll ever buy: Spoil your chickens with Rita Marie’s.
After buying and testing out my own Rita Marie’s coop, I became an affiliate for this company. So, if you use this link and you end up buying a coop, I’ll get a small commission at no extra cost to you—a great way to support my site if you’ve found it useful.
Finding coops on Craigslist is totally hit or miss. I have bought a couple of excellent coops at very low prices off of Craigslist that the previous owners had built themselves. If you want to go this route, constantly keep your eye out. When a good deal comes up, the coops will go fast. You’ve got to jump right on ‘em.
Also, if you buy a used coop, you will need to take precautions. You will want to very thoroughly clean and disinfect the coop. If the coop has old bedding left in it, burn it. Used coops can carry many disease-causing pathogens, and can also harbor mites and lice that will feast on your chickens.
These parasites can be a challenge to get rid of. Remember those two roosters I picked up off the highway—the whole reason I bought the cheap coop to begin with? Yeah, those two were covered in both mice and lice. (In case you’re wondering, both roosters are currently parasite-free, well-fed, and living joyful, free-range lives. They roost in safe and comfortable coops at night.)
The third option, building your own coop, can be daunting, but it’s an excellent option. My husband and I actually made beginner plans and a step-by-step video course for building a simple chicken coop that can house up to 6 chickens—see the photo above under Reason #1 to see the coop.
We designed the plans and video course for the total beginner in mind, so even if you have never even touched a drill before, you will be able to build this coop. You can build this coop with very few tools over the course of a weekend.
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The BEST luxury coop you’ll ever buy: Spoil your chickens with Rita Marie's
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