Producer's Pride Sentinel Chicken Coop, 6 Chicken Roosting Capacity

I purchased this coup two weeks ago and assembled it on the same day. I found the instruction illustrations easy to follow. Am very satisfied with the quality of the coup. However, I have been reading several reviews related to leaking problems and wood deterioration. In light of these reviews I have performed a few DYI jobs that I hope will avoid weather deterioration issues as follows: 1. I sealed all outside wood surfaces with wood sealer. 2. The unassembled panels are framed in a metal channel, which is "U" shaped. This makes the coup's structure very sturdy but it creates a way for rain water to enter and gather. The wood panels are made to resemble T-111 siding, complete with vertical grooves. Wind blown rain will run down these grooves and siding surface, and wind up laying in the channels (more on this later). I ran a bead of silicone sealant along the channel/wood joint and made sure that the openings at the vertical grooves were also filled. I used a putty knife to work the sealant into the joint and a flat blade screw driver to work the sealant into the grooves. It should only be necessary to do this along the bottom frame of each outside panel. However, there is a flat plate along the front and back coup panel that runs from soffit to soffit, just below the end vent. I sealed the top of the plate/wood joint at this location as well. Please take note of a gap in the channel at the mitered bottom corner joint of each panel. I think this gap will tend to drain water out of the bottom channel frame and should be left open. Also, it is important to NOT work the sealant into the joints too deeply as you don't want to block the channel bottom from draining the water that does make its way in. 3. When attaching the nesting box roof, please take note that the edge opposite the locking hasp has a square tube with a continuous angle welded to its side. The horizontal surface of this angle is intended to be pushed beneath the short nesting box panel above it. I believe that this angle is intended to help prevent water entrance along this junction. Also, after attaching the rubber flashing, I worked silicone sealant between the back of the flashing and the rear nesting box wall. 4. Now to the roof of the run and nesting box: There is a channel that runs along the sloped edge of each roof panel. I worked silicone sealant into the joint between the channel and shingle surface, since these roof slopes are rather shallow. I didn't use sealant on the steeper coup roof but you may wish to.. I believe that the joint between the ridge cap and the shingles needs to remain open for ventilation purposes. Sorry for the length of this posting, but these fixes only cost me a few bucks and a little time. I'm hopeful that they will improve the life of my new coup.

I bought this coop for my wife for Christmas. She has been wanting one for a while. She had them before we married. This coop was good price, good reviews, and said for 6 chickens, which is how many my wife wanted. This coop is very cute and easy to assemble. Decent quality for Ike money. However, it would be inhumane to put 6 chickens in this coop. I ordered online so didn't realize how small it was until we got it built. Max chickens would be 3 for this coop. We ended up putting this coop inside a 6x10 dog kennel and I built a box in the run to double square footage. It turned out pretty good.