Chickens to No Chickens

[ElfEars]

I'm been seeing a lot of abandon coops lately...
I'm trying to figure out why some folks put alot of time and money into there coop and a year or so later decide they don't want chickens anymore
I wonder... why? What goes wrong?

I'm also wondering would it be ok to knock on these folks door to see if there is anything they would want to donate to my girls.. or should I ask to buy... what's the proper procedure?
I don't want to offend anyone

 

[Kiki]

Could be a lot of different reasons....disease comes to my mind first though.
Where are you seeing these abandon coops?

 

[SA&P]

I think if you’re polite and respectful there is no harm asking.
As @KikisGirls said above though, be aware that those inhabitants could have died through disease.
When our sons were very little we had gone to visit friends in a village an hour from us. As we drove through to their house we saw that everyone’s bin was out for collection (we live in the UK) and that a model airplane lay on top of one of the bins with a lot of other rubbish.
My 4 year old said, “Look, a plane” ......I knocked on the door and asked that as it was for collection could my boys have it. I was very surprised when the man said no! As I got back in the car he walked down his driveway, STOOD on the plane to smash it up and stuffed it in one of the sacks
We have a saying around here....”Nowt so queer as folk”
I would say he was in his 60’s ..... and teenagers have a reputation for being vandals!

 

[chickens really]

Many people raise Chickens till Fall and Butcher..Then get more to raise again in the spring..

 

[SueT]

Chickens tie you down, so maybe people get tired of that. Go ahead and ask. If you are an adult, offer to buy (after determining that there was no disease) but if you are a kid, maybe they'd give it to you. Actually if you're a kid you probably shouldn't be knocking on strangers doors.

 

[Chickassan]

I'd ask about the coops, some people might actually be happy to get rid of them. I know if I'm not using something I'd rather someone have it that would.

 

[SA&P]

Chickens tie you down, so maybe people get tired of that. Go ahead and ask. If you are an adult, offer to buy (after determining that there was no disease) but if you are a kid, maybe they'd give it to you. Actually if you're a kid you probably shouldn't be knocking on strangers doors.

X2

 

[rosemarythyme]

Around my area, if there's empty coops, they usually haven't been used in years and were abandoned as the homeowners grew older and didn't want to deal with chickens any more, or the chickens were their kids' project and once the kids grew up the coops get abandoned. Same thing with barns/stalls. I still have residual electric fencing from when my lot was part of a goat farm.

 

[blackdog043]

Chickens tie you down, so maybe people get tired of that.

How do they tie you down? I must be a bad chicken dad. I go away for a week, fill my no waste feeder and 2 five gallon horizontal nipple waterers and off I go. When I get home I fill everything up. My neighbor takes care of the dogs though.

 

[aart]

Interesting replies...but note the OP has not been here since this thread was started.