Verified Reviews for Boughton Chicken Coop by Forsham Cottage Arks

The design of this coop is excellent, second to none. The build quality has unfortunately fallen over the years however. The coop I purchased new, will undoubtedly be outlived by the older coops that I've bought second hand. Symptomatic of most things nowadays sadly. An average of 5 stars is very misleading, using the 'mean' average would give a more accurate rating.

I bought the Boughton Chicken coop after spending several years researching different products. It's a great design which makes it easy to clean and look after the chickens. However, the wood is not pressure treated which meant it took about five days to paint. It was also really difficult to paint the wood behind the metal wire, and I'm not sure how long it will last without treating it again every couple of years. Although it's a great design I'm disappointed that the wood is not pressure treated and would have preferred spending more money on one that is.

My fourth Boughton, will also be my last unless something changes. I nearly returned it, but eventually decided to give it a go. Not sure i made the right decision. It's an improved design, on an already very good design - for instance, both sides can be removed, and both ends of the run can be accessed from outside. However, the wood is now untreated softwood. Full wood treatment takes three days before assembly, and some bits (eg wood behind metal grills) can't be properly treated. If you don't have space to spread it all out before assembly, you won't be able to treat the wood on all sides. A couple of bits didn't fit properly when assembled, attention to detail seemed less than before. My previous Boughtons lasted an average 7 years. I expect less of this. Finally, I was left with a vast amount of expanded polystyrene packaging. There is no reason to use this and in our area, as most, it is not recycled. A big downer. Omlet have taken a good design, improved it a little, but delivered an inferior product. Shame.