Where to purchase a coop?

Hi!
So kind of new to this! We had chickens when I was growing up but am now a stay at home mother of four who has decided to start putting our land to use!

I was looking into buying a chicken coop and almost just places a purchase for chicken saloon but came across a thread here which deterred me.
Hoping anyone has a suggestion for a website with better quality coops to get started with!!
Thanks in advance!

happyhippyacres said:

Hi!
So kind of new to this! We had chickens when I was growing up but am now a stay at home mother of four who has decided to start putting our land to use!

I was looking into buying a chicken coop and almost just places a purchase for chicken saloon but came across a thread here which deterred me.
Hoping anyone has a suggestion for a website with better quality coops to get started with!!
Thanks in advance!

Click to expand...

Well, you basically have four options. (1) Buy a pre-fab coop, (2) contract someone to build it, (3) buy a shed and modify it to your needs, and (4) build it yourself. When I was planning my setup a long while ago I considered buying a pre-fab coop but quickly shot that idea down. They're just way too small, very flimsy, and way too expensive for what you get. I don't know where you live but there's one contractor in my area that builds coop and runs. He makes fairly good stuff but he's way, way too expensive. I looked at sheds that companies erect on your property but similar to the first two options, the price tag is just way too much for what you get. I'm not big into construction but I used to design and build wood furniture so I decided to build my own coop run. I got a book on storage sheds to learn basic framing and designs, created my own plans and went to work. I had most of the tools already so the only thing I really had to buy was the material. My first coop was an 8'X8'X7' high walk-in with a 8'X24' walk-in run that's the same height. It turned out good and serves me well today. After I found out how easy it was to build I set about designing and building a 10'X24'X9' high sloping to 7'. This one contains 4 pens with attached runs and 2 brooding/breeding pens. I just finished that one a few months ago. Now I'm working on breeding pens and designing another coop and run.

My point being that building coops and runs is much easier than most people think, and the cost is far, far less than what you'll pay otherwise. I think I spent somewhere around $1,100 on the materials for the first coop and run, and around $2,300 for the second multi-coop. They are both very well made as I have a tendency to over-engineer everything because I don't want to have to fix it later. If I were you I'd get a book on building sheds so you'll see how the different styles of structures go together, get the material, and give it a whirl. The worst that can happen is you'll learn a lot and probably have a far better coop than you could get elsewhere. I don't know how many birds you're planning to raise but if it's a small number, such as 10 or so, you could easily build a very nice, secure coop and run for well under a grand, probably more like $500-800. If you have any specific questions feel free to pm me or ask here on the forum. Also you might want to check out the coops section here on the site - lots of ideas there.

I agree. The best route to go would be to build your own and it is really not as hard as you may thing. It will also certainly save you money and be built exactly as you want it. If you click on the coop pages here there are plenty of coops you can see and a lot of them have the plans they used to build them as well.

Welcome to BYC!

Agrees, building your own will get you way more bang for your buck.

Beware the prefab coops, they all cite more birds can fit than is healthy.
...and most are cheaply built with poor design.

Spend a few months researching here...readreadread ...then read some more.
Cut and paste the good stuff into a word doc to save, ignore the flotsam and jetsam.