D3-0025

My husband is a carpenter, and he was gratified that the quality of the product is so high. He had a little trouble with the language of the instructions, but was able to pair it with the excellent illustrations to get the coop put together without fuss. All of the pieces, including hardware, were included. He was astounded at how well-packed it was. It would have been good to know that it was packed in two different boxes. They arrived a few days apart, and there was a moment when we thought we were missing several pieces. The box we received first was labeled 2/2, and we eventually figured it out. One of the boxes was damaged. It looked like fork lift damage, so from the warehouse rather than from the delivering agency. There was very slight damage to the finish of one piece, probably from the forklift. It will be easily repaired with some stain.

As he stated; there was only one sheet of directions, and it was difficult to read [small print] and not easy to interpret. I laid out the parts as well as the screws, so I was sure to match to the directions. [ if they said 11 for one A 7 screw as an example; counted them out and so on. I then went back on line and save each picture of the tractor hen house to use as a guide. Remember to match the holes for the screws and should work well. Believe it would help if they would mark each part. Example: Part "D" which is front and back. Park K will match the screw holes on "D" , but hard to find at first. Can see where one has little experience in building kits or any thing would have a bit of a Problem. It is good looking and would recommend that you lay out your parts prior to putting together. Same for screws etc. so you are sure which ones are which. Once you make copy's of the photo's that they show. it will be easy one to build. Will up date later at the end of the summer how it held together and functional. This will be the 2nd year that we had the product. I live in the North West and we are known to have a bit of rain. I like the idea of the Wheeled Tractor Hen House Chicken Coop w/ Run so I could move it around. Sounds great idea and it would work well on flat surface with no rain or mud. The only recommendation that I would make fi you need the tractor hen house you should have a design with 4 wheels to move from spot to spot. One of the problems that I found with this product was they used staples in construction. But for the price if you know how to use a screw driver and screws you should not have any problems as I made other changes. In June of 2014 we took the wheels off making it stationary and expanded the chicken run. We maintain four laying hens and let me out to roam daily. The design is great. Any questions feel free to contact me

Honestly if I had to buy this coop over again, I wouldn't. The only good thing it's done is taught me everything I want in a chicken coop. The rain gets in, so it gets pretty gross pretty fast. The roosting board isn't high enough for them to choose it over just sleeping in the nesting boxes. The slide out tray to change bedding is great in theory, but in use, there's no way to add enough bedding to your coop and pull it out to dump and change it so you really just have to use the tiny door on the side which is. Let's just say, very difficult, to keep the review rated G. The wood used is subpar and just from moving it to new spots, like you should be able to do, it's already splintering and cracking. While it does keep the chickens contained, I wouldn't recommend this coop to my worst enemy. It's been nothing but a headache. Save your money and spend it at the lumber store, even if you don't have experience building, I'm certain you could build a better coop than this. Literally any hodge podge pile of sticks would be better than this. Unless you just have money to waste, this is not a good purchase.

This is the second Chinese fir wood coop I've bought. About 18 months ago I got one and it's still serviceable, so I decided we'd take a chance on this one because we've wanted a tractor style and there's a good bit of run space. With 6 college degrees between us it took hours to figure this thing out. The instructions leave a lot to be desired. We printed out the photos from the Amazon ad and that helped a lot. This coop is nicely designed but poorly made--especially if you intend to actually move it around your property. We bought brass braces and wood glue to strengthen the structure. I also purchased a piece of 1X1 poplar to insert a second roosting bar perpendicular to the first which is almost at floor level. With bedding material in place it will be. That second roost bar also made things sturdier. I think that I'll get another piece of 1x1 and make a cross bar in the run area. There's plenty enough height for a roost and it would stablize that structure. Another major problem with this coop is that there is precious little ventilation in the chicken house. Since it is a tractor style and meant to be moved frequently to new ground, there is no digging-predator proofing the base, so you really need to have the sliding 'pop door' closed at night for security. In Georgia the nights are beastly hot and humid for about four months, so I've used my hole saw to make vents up high under the roof overhang. I've covered them with hardware cloth on the inside so that snakes or small rodents can't get in. I am hoping that will be adequate but I remain concerned. Addendum: Had this coop up for about a month and wood began splitting. One morning I looked out the window and the whole nest box had collapsed and fallen due to wood warping. I had to reinforce every joint with brackets. We have uneven and hilly ground here and moving the coop has taxed the integrity of the construction. I've done two major repair jobs on it already and it's only August 1st! Sure hope it makes it through the winter. We're keeping a tarp bungeed on it now to keep it dry. Disappointing.