Experience with the "Chick-n-Barn" Or Suggestions for Alternatives

[chickenfever]

Sorry if this is a silly question, but what is the chick-n-barn? I built a 4x8 coop (spent about 300$) and after getting chicks have decided that I want to keep more than just 8-10 of them, but I don't want to spend alot of money again on another coop.

 

[arlee453]

ChickNBarn by Ware mfg:

http://www.waremfginc.com/products.asp?p=01495

My first coop is one of these. Personally, I think it's a bit overpriced for what it is, especially if you have to pay shipping. BUT if you need a quick coop and have no building skills it works OK for a few chickens. Be prepared it's a lot smaller in person than it looks in the pictures...

Don't waste your time or money on the run that goes with it. It's SO small it's worthless, AND it is so low you can't really get in there at all unless you are 5 yrs old or less. You'd be much better off getting a chain link dog kennel for a run and putting the barn in there.

I have about 20 that think they all need to sleep in mine... snort... but they aren't cooped in there. I keep trying to persuade some of them to go in the bigger coop, but I've got like 8 in the big coop and literally 20 in that chickNbarn every dang night.

I ended up raising mine up on stilts and putting in a wire floor for ease of cleaning and collecting eggs.

Alternately, the easiest way to clean it would just be to move it from time to time. It's not heavy and you could just pick it up and move it over to clean under it. You'll need a secure run around it if you go that route to keep out any digging preds. And ditto on the securing the tops with hardware latches, etc.

 

[SunsetChicks]

Thanks Arlee,

This is pretty much what we're planning to do.

Buy the barn for convenience (we're in SoCal, so won't have to pay for shipping);
Raise it up on stilts and put in a floor;
Create our own larger run with fencing.

We considered playhouse or doghouse conversions, but it seems that cost will wind up about the same with a bit more work. If it turns out that we love chicken farming so much we'll want to get a bigger coop, I'm OK with that. We'll consider the barn a start-up expense