I'm another newbie to chickens. When I was a kid, one of my neighbors chickens chased me and I never wanted to be around them again. Well, things change. A few years ago, some bad things happened in my life, including almost losing the small business my husband and I have owned for 18 years. I've had veggie gardens off and on all my life and had the time to garden again. For stress release, therapy, and FOOD. Going back to my 70's years and back to basics, it seemed like having chickens now just seem to fit in and gettng something back from them in the form of eqgs and poo is a bonus. From a gardening forum I was referred to this site. I have learned a lot from all of the good people here. After researching and talking about it, I have four different chickens I got the week before Christmas at our local farm swap. They were from 3 days to two weeks old. We learned quickly that you don't waste time in building your coop. I brooded them in an extra large dog crate in our den. As all you know, they grow and stink quickly. I'm proud to say our coop turned out pretty well since my husband and I aren't carpenters and used mostly scap we had and just kind of made it up as we went along. Another words, there is nothing plumb our square in this project. The chickens seem happy and nothing has been able to get to them so far, including our dog or cats.