I’ve had my OverEZ large chicken coop for 19 months now and I decided to write an updated review. My husband and I have made some updates to the coop in that time to make it more functional for our hot weather here in Texas. We also had this coop during the Snowmageddon of 2021 and during several thunderstorms. Keep reading to see how this coop weathered all these events and more.
The OverEZ large chicken coop is a kit that comes with all the materials you will need for building your coop. It is designed to accommodate up to 15 chickens and according to the manufacturer it can be used for chickens in hot and cold climates.
Keep reading to learn more about my impressions of this coop. At the bottom of post, I have a list of the pros and cons of this chicken coop and my overall verdict.
Materials
This coop comes with solid wood materials for constructing your coop, which are made in the USA. The walls are made of solid wood paneling, with the outside painted in a typical barn red color with white trim.
The floor of the coop is a solid piece of plywood. This is great because it will keep out predators trying to crawl under the coop and is easy to keep clean.
After 19 months in the Texas sun, the red paint has faded quite a bit, which is to be expected. I figure once the paint fades more that I will paint the coop a yellow color to match our house. (The white trim of the coop already matches our house!)
The roof of the coop is made of metal, similar to what you see on carports. We experienced 4 inches of snow in a day and several thunderstorms and this roof has held up with no leaks.
It’s important for the inside of chicken coops to remain dry and this roof accomplishes that goal. The ceiling has radiant barrier sheathing which helps to keep the coop cooler during the summer months.
The roof is still holding up just like it did from day 1. There have been no leaks inside the chicken coop and no damage from any of the high winds that we experience in West Texas.
On the inside of the coop, there are 2 roosting bars that are solid wood. I sat on one roosting bar and it didn’t budge, giving me assurance that once all 10 of my chickens are on the bar it won’t be going anywhere.
There are 5 nesting boxes which is plenty of space for my 10 chickens to lay eggs, even though they all seem to prefer the one box closest to the human door.
Steven and I are both very pleased with how heavy duty the materials are with this coop. I have to admit we had a bit of sticker shock when we bought this coop, but that disappeared when Steven and I saw everything that came with the kit and the high quality of materials.
As of the writing of this post (July 2022), the OverEZ chicken coop is currently priced the lowest it has been in 7 months.
Construction
This chicken coop does not come pre-assembled; however, constructing this coop was relatively easy.
The OverEZ website says the coop can be put together “in less that 30 minutes.” Perhaps if you’ve already put one of these things together you can get it done in half an hour, but it took us a bit longer.
It took Steven and my Dad an hour on a Saturday to construct the coop (with me supervising and holding things as needed). The written instructions that came with the coop were good to follow and we also watched the YouTube installation video to supplement the written instructions.
The four walls of the coop are pre-made so you just need to screw them together. There was some adjusting that had to be done to make everything fit together. My Dad and I would hold two walls together in just the right way so that Steven could screw it together so everything was tight.
I would compare the level of difficulty in assembling this coop similar to Ikea furniture as it was fairly easy. If we had another coop to put together, it could probably be done in under 30 minutes.
The heavy duty construction of this coop makes it very difficult to move. The coop is very heavy, so make sure you construct it in the location where you want to coop to remain.
Security
The person and chicken doors on this coop have door handles that turn to latch the door shut. The lid for the nesting coops have the same type of latch.
All three doors on the coop have a lock. At first, I thought this was a bit of overkill. But then, we ended up using the locks and were thankful to have them!
We had just bought our new house and it didn’t have a fence around the backyard yet. We had the coop in the backyard and anyone driving by our house could easily see it. We still had our chickens at the old house in our DIY coop, so the new coop was empty but we weren’t living in the new house yet. I had such peace of mind knowing that I could lock the coop and keep out kids looking for trouble and vagrants looking for a place to nap.
The kit came with two small keys for the locks on the doors. Just be extra careful to not loose the keys if you lock your chickens in the coop at night. Trying to break into this coop could be a challenging task.
Ventilation
Ventilation is the number one most important feature to consider for any chicken coop.
Our previous chicken coop was a DIY coop that had extensive ventilation. We live in West Texas and it gets HOT in the summers (easily above 100 degrees F in the shade).
When we saw the photos of the large OverEZ chicken coop online, we assumed that it would also have great ventilation. We were wrong. 😕
The OverEZ coop has two very small circular vents at the top of the walls near the ceiling. In addition to the human door and chicken door, there are two windows that have screens and can be opened or closed.
Based on this description, it would lead one to think “that sounds like plenty of ventilation!” Here’s the problem: it’s not enough ventilation for Texas heat where we don’t have a cool breeze at all during the summer.
The small air vents in the walls are a nice idea, but there is not enough air that can adequately move through the coop with such small inlets and outlets. The windows allow some air, but since there is only the small chicken coop door 90 degrees from these windows, you’re unable to maximize the air flow through the coop.
To remedy this issue, we replaced the human door with a screen door. We used the current door as a pattern and used half inch hardware cloth to make the door predator proof.
The coop has much more ventilation now and the chickens seem to enjoy the additional breeze! During the summer months, we have a fan set-up to blow air through the human screen door.
It would be nice if OverEZ offered a screened human door as an add-on to their chicken coop kits because I think many coops located in warmer climates would benefit. However, it was fairly easy to modify the existing door.
Windows
The windows on this coop are really cute but, similar to the human door, we saw room for improvement.
The adjustments for opening and closing the windows are on the inside of the coop, but it would make much more sense if the windows were reversed so you could adjust them from the outside.
You have to crawl inside the coop to open or close the window at the far end. We leave the windows open nearly all the time. We only close them if there is going to be driving rain on that direction of the coop, so it’s not that big of a deal.
In addition, the window screen can easily be torn by a predator. We have raccoons in the neighborhood and were a bit nervous of one of them breaking into the chicken coop by tearing off the window screen.
To fix this, we added half inch hardware cloth to the outside of the windows.
We nailed the hardware cloth to the outside of the coop so that the windows could still be closed from the inside. It doesn’t look great, but I have better peace of mind knowing that a predator will not easily be breaking into the coop at night!
<insert photo of hardware cloth on window>
Space
The OverEZ large chicken coop is advertised as housing “up to 15 chickens.” We currently have 10 chickens in this coop and I would be cautious about adding any more chickens.
The interior floor space of the coop is roughly 30 square feet. If you estimate that chickens need a minimum of 3 square feet each, then you are right at 10 chickens comfortably in this coop.
My chickens like to all sleep on the top roosting bar at night. If there were more chickens added to the coop, I’m sure there would be bullying since not a single more chicken can fit on the roosting bar and someone would then need to sleep on the lower bar.
There are five nesting boxes, which is plenty for 10 (or even 15) chickens.
Right now, my chickens are all laying eggs in the nesting box closest to the human door (update: this has now changed to the box by the chicken door). I will usually find one egg in one of the other boxes, but the majority are in that one box.
While there are plenty of nesting boxes and roosting bar space for 15 chickens, it gets unbearably hot in the coop during the summer (even at night). Increasing the number of chickens in the coop will increase the amount of respiration, leading to increased moisture in the coop, which already has poor ventilation.
Chickens have sensitive respiratory systems, which makes them susceptible to many different respiratory disease (which are the most common cause of death, after predation). Chickens have a high respiration rate compared to humans and other animals. Because of this, they need proper ventilation to ensure they are breathing clean air that is not full of moisture.
| Respiration Rate (breaths/min) | |
|---|---|
| Human Adult | 12-16 |
| Dog | 10-30 |
| Cat | 15-30 |
| Chicken (hen) | 31-37 |
The OverEZ large coop is advertised to fit 15 chickens, but in hot climates I think this would be too many chickens in a single coop. Even if they are only sleeping and laying eggs in the coop, the lack of ventilation makes it very hot, even at night.
Compatibility with Run
All OverEZ chicken coops are compatible with attaching to an OverEZ chicken run. The chicken runs also come in a kit delivered by truck on a pallet.
We have the walk-in 15 foot OverEZ chicken run and this is where our chickens get to roam during the day.
There is also a smaller version of the chicken run that is only 8 feet long, but we figured it was better to get the larger one now in case we get more chickens later! 🐔
I like that the run and coop were designed to be attached. We did have a few issues constructing the run from the kit, so it took us a couple of hours to complete.
It was more difficult to construct than the run, but our situation was not helped because it was super cold and windy the Saturday that we put the run together.
I like this run for several reasons. The top is tall enough that you can stand upright while in the run with the chickens. The metal panels are sturdy and the run has held up great in snow, rain, and high winds.
A major drawback with this run is the low header on the doorway. You have to duck to walk in or out of the run, which is easy to forget since you are not ducking while inside the run.
OverEZ also has wire panels that can be attached under the coop so when the chickens are in the run they can walk under the coop. We have not bought these, but have considered making our own. The bottom of the coop is shaded all day and would be another cool place for our chickens to go during the day.
Overall Verdict
The OverEZ chickens coops are a bit pricey. However, if you were to build your own coop from scratch, it would also be expensive. Lumber prices are high, not to mention the price of all the other parts you need to build a coop (windows, hinges, door latches, paint).
As of the writing of this post (July 2022), the OverEZ chicken coop is currently priced the lowest it has been in 7 months. When we bought our coop at the end of 2020, we waited a month to pull the trigger to buy our coop and in that time the price increased several hundred dollars! 😳
I like how the OverEZ coop kit included everything we needed. It even came with touchup paint in red and white!
These kits are made in the United States and are designed by Amish craftsmen. I always prefer to support US businesses, especially those that are small.
I would recommend this coop if you don’t have the time, money, or construction skills to get the “perfect” coop built now.
Pros:
- Sturdy construction with quality materials
- Solid roosting bars, capable of holding large breed chickens
- Plenty of nesting boxes to accommodate up to 15 chickens
- High quality roofing materials that can sustain extremes in weather
- The coop has locks on all doors and comes with 2 keys
- Human door makes accessing inside of coop easy
- Large windows that are made from quality materials
- Compatible with OverEZ run
Cons:
- Lack of ventilation in warmer climates – this is my #1 problem with this coop
- Can be a bit pricey depending on your budget
- Coop does not come pre-assembled (requires at least 2 people to construct coop and about an hour of time)
- Window screens can be easily ripped or pulled off by predator
- Coop is heavy and difficult to move
We will eventually build our next coop from scratch to get close to having the “perfect” coop (assuming that exists), but for now this one works and our chickens seem happy!
This post is the updated review of the OverEZ Large Chicken Coop. For the original review, click here.
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[…] recently wrote a review of the OverEZ large chicken coop (see that post here). In that post, I talked about the walk-in chicken run that attaches to this coop. I thought […]
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