Anyone else buy their chicks before they had a coop?

[ima57boomer]

Oh, Mercy. This is stressing me, for sure. I came home with 10 little chicks 3 wks ago, and they went into a Rubbermaid storage bin. A week later, they went into a large cardboard box. Last weekend, we set another large cardboard box next to the first one, duct taped them together, cut pass-through slots on the interior walls and the food and water are on one side and the heat lamp/nesting area is on the other. I used a half-inch dowel to make a perch for them and they love that. I'm hoping to start on the coop this weekend. They are in my basement. I have one more big box I can add on to the chicken condo, but I'd love them to have real sunshine and fresh air one of these days. I figure at best, I can squeak another 2-3 weeks out of the basement set-up.

 

[Frequent Flyer]

:

Yep, that's me! Mine are two weeks old and all I have is a foundation. Hubs wants to buy housing and then make the run to go with it, but I can't get him to decide on housing yet. Eep!

 

[herechickychicky]

I have brooder stuff for when the chicks get here, but no coop.

 

[theCandEs]

LOL That was us last year. We bought the chicks, then made the brooder. They stayed in the box for 2 hours while it was being constructed. While they were in the brooder, we built the coop. That took a couple of months.

Crazy, huh?

 

[MustLoveHens]

I am sooooooo glad I'm not the only one! I have had three chickens I got at a chicken show on my three season porch all winter! They seem not to mind at all. Thay have no preditors to worry about since they are locked in, they have had no snow or rain on them and they have access to a heat lamp. Life has been good for the Ladies!
However, the good times are almost over. Next weekend we are shuffleing cars around and they will have a run built for them in the three sided car shed. Then over the summer the garage will be turned into a chicken habitat. And I will build a few tractors to pasture them since we have a neighborhood hawk and an Eagle hanging around.
The four brooders I have running with the new chicks are what is spurring all this on!! Plus the two incubators, plus the quail brooder.....

 

[jc12551]

Yes-it was the only way to get hubby to build the darn thing. Once the chicks were so stinky and big, he broke down and built a coop.

 

[flying_babyb]

YEP! this would be us. The crazy people raising baby chickens in a rabbit cage that they just outgrew. There still not ready for outside so were building a bigger brooder. I guess we should start on the coop too! We picked out our coop design now we just have to get to menards to get some wood and get building. At the rate were movin Ill have full grown chickens roosting in my living room!

 

[maidstonefarmky]

We started our coop last fall...still not done after working mainly weekends on it. Our chickens moved from the chicken tractor we made right into the goat shed! With twelve hens and one rooster in the goat shed and ten pullet babies in the brooder I'm in a major push to finally complete.

 

[miraclz5]

I second what Suechick said....I thought it was standard procedure to have chicks BEFORE you have a coop. I got my chicks, (well most of them, we are still waiting on a few)....yesterday...AND we just got 8-10 inches of snow today! NO this is not an April Fool's joke! I live in NH and we REALLY got that much snow today and my kids school was closed! LOL Consequently, coop building is on hold a bit longer....it is a good thing my little chicklets are less than a week old!!! My theory was, if I got the chicks FIRST.....that my husband would maybe be more inclined to help my daughter and I build a coop so he can get them out of our house. We will soon find out if my theory works. I will keep you posted! LOL Good luck with your coop! It WILL get built!

 

[Heckel's Hens]

Yep....and I thought the weather would be nicer to build the coop sooner, but Mother nature didn't agree!

I had 24 chicks in my garage for 5 weeks, then rehomed 11 roos. The remaining 13 girls lived there until they were 12 weeks old. WAY TOO LONG, at least for our garage set up. After the coop was built and the pullets moved, the garage was DESTROYED. Chick dust in layers so thick my husband had to put on hazmat and blow it out. A couple times...

So live and learn. They were happy in there, but the owners...not so much.

Lovin' the new coop now!