buying a small coop to start

[mlabresh]

If you live in town and are limited in the number of birds that you are allowed...get a coop that will support that number of birds. If you are NOT restricted, then go for a bigger coop than you think that you will need.

If you get a smaller coop and enjoy keeping poultry, it is very possible that you will wind up with a bigger coop & run system down the road. That poultry bug is amazing.

...the small coop could be sold to a person interested in getting started in small scale poultry or it could be used as a very nice brooder for large numbers of replacement layer or utility chicks...there is always a use.

Thanks! I was kind of thinking the same thing. If we go with the small one, it would buy us a little more time for designing and building our own. And I'm sure we could either sell or reuse it in some way (even just as a place to put them on cleaning day or for quarantine). We do live in town, but the limit of birds is very high (we're in Des Moines and on a lot less than 1 acre are allowed up to 30 birds. I, personally, don't see us having more than 15. We do have a large yard (our lot is about 1/3 acre), but not huge. I think if we were to buy the smaller coop, it would just be used through the summer while we work on building a larger one (to be completed before snow comes).

I wondered as well about the chicken wire vs hardware cloth, rikithemonk. We do have lots of predator animals in our area. I have, however, noticed a huge decrease in how many are in and around our yard though now that we have 3 dogs. The chicken coop will be placed in the side of the yard that the dogs have full access to. (But the dogs are on 30' tie-outs and will not have full access to the chickens until we can trust them 100%.)

I suppose at $500 ($350 for the coop, plus 50 for delivery, 50 for wheels, and 50 for prime/paint) the small coop might be a decent investment as a transition between brooder and full size coop... But I'm not sure if I want to spend $700 for the larger one if I would still have build a bigger one.

As far as a permanent fixture, I'm considering getting a shed kit to use for building a 4x8 coop.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

That is great advice there rikithemonk...I've only used chicken wire as separation barriors inside the coop never as a primary barrior to protect my flock. Very good point.