Anyone ever buy and use a coop from tractor supply?

[khoe]

The inside is real small all it consists of is 2 roost poles going across it. the birds have to go over them to get to the nest box. If this is the one that I saw at my TS store wich I think it is. They use a very cheep feeling rolled shingle paper on it. I actually thought it was sand paper on the roof. My wife wanted to get one I said no just for how cheap it look and felt not to mention my state you have to buy 6 birds and I knew they wouldn't fit in it.

jlaw

Funny how you "have to buy 6 birds"....here I am only allowed 2 with no permit, and 6 is the max with a permit. Darn.

 

[JLaw]

Funny how you "have to buy 6 birds"....here I am only allowed 2 with no permit, and 6 is the max with a permit. Darn.

From what I under stand a lot of states are doing min 6 birds. Mainly for the reason of people getting then letting go once the chicks are out of cute stage. Makes it a pain for me when I wanted to add just 2-3 more birds to my flock and had to buy 6 more.

jlaw

 

[khoe]

From what I under stand a lot of states are doing min 6 birds. Mainly for the reason of people getting then letting go once the chicks are out of cute stage. Makes it a pain for me when I wanted to add just 2-3 more birds to my flock and had to buy 6 more.

jlaw

Good to know!! I'm in the suburbs of California so having chickens around here is a rare occurrence but it is picking up popularity quickly!

 

[JLaw]

Just to clear that up. The 6 bird min is buying from a big store like TS and others. If you buy from hatchery or local people its what ever they want to sell I believe.

jlaw

 

[bugglesmommy]

I know the local feed stores here (not TSC) will sell you however many chicks you want with no minimum.

 

[BrendaJ]

Funny how you "have to buy 6 birds"....here I am only allowed 2 with no permit, and 6 is the max with a permit. Darn.

Its just the opposite here. You can buy as few as one or as many as you want. The problem with that is that ANYONE can buy them - even kids. So animals are being purchased and dumped when the cuteness wears off. That's how I got one of my fuzzbutts this year. It got dumped at a high school in a tiny plastic rodent cage. My nephew found it & brought it to me. In town - no permits needed 6-8 max - no Roo's allowed & out of town the shy's the limit.

 

[Sweeethearts_2002]

So I wanted to build my own and my husband says " tractor supply is running a sale on coops they're $199.99 and it'll be faster to solve an immediate need" so I let him buy the coop. It says it holds up to 8 chickens. There's no way it'll hold 8 full sized birds.. It only has nesting boxes big enough for 3 and I think 3 is as many as it can hold completely I'm five foot two snd the entire coop is about as tell as me. I'm going to have to extend the coop and the chicken run and make the acess points bigger and add locks because thse barrel locks won't keep the coins out. I believe this coop is NOT worth $100.00 when I'm going to have to completely modify it. Locks, doors, run with more wire and all. Id recommend you build one your self its not hard unless you want this one as a base to build off of.

 

[Apocalypse]

those coops in store are made with hobby/craft lumber and are made to look good on a shelf but, by no means will they accomodate the amount of chickens they claim, for any significant amount of time.
They are more like indoor serama cages.
Building your own is rediculously easy, and much cheaper... will last as long as you need. I know it sounds daunting, but do some homework, look at coop pictures, and frankenstein-together the different things you like into something custom made for your needs. Its a perfect learning.
Those store coops though, no way.

 

[mike48851]

I know I could build one, problem is I suck at building and I would have to do it on my own. I've looked for some local builders and they want upwards of $500 for something similar.

I’m not the best builder but couldn’t stand how cheap the pre made coops felt. So I just got a general idea of what I needed to do and bought some lumber. Once I got going it went fairly smooth. It’s not the best coop around by any means, but is of a lot higher quality than the pre built ones. My coop is 5x4, the run is 13x4 1/2ish. 5’ of the run is under the coop. Mine free range almost all day. They are in the run while I’m at work. I have 5 hens (almost 10 weeks old). They seem just fine. I have PVC waterer and feeder to conserve space inside the coop. Also, it cost me around $300 to build. I had to buy a saw also. Had some lumber left over. I’m still making modifications to mine. Recently added some more vents and a window. Depends on what kind of time frame you have. As you see in the picture from a few weeks ago, I was busy doing something to it lol.

So my opinion. Build your own if you have time. You can do it. It’s pretty simple. You just have to do it.

Good luck!