Fairly New At Raising/Owning Chickens - Need Assistance Please

[mikecnorthwest]

Whatever you do, do not buy one of those coops off the internet including Ebay. They're cheap garbage coops. They're much smaller than the pictures make them look and the wood is extremely thing and cheap. There are many posts on the forum regarding the Ebay/internet coops. My suggestion for people who don't want to build their own is to find a coop plan you like and have a handyman build it for you. Some options to find coop ideas are:

http://www.thegardencoop.com Excellent plan for a very nice looking coop. You can download the plans for a small fee and there are sample pages to view before you order.

Building Chicken Coops for Dummies, a great book with plenty of ideas.

Backyard Chickens Guide to Coops and Tractors, a new book with pics, detailed drawings, and advice on about 16 different coop plans from this website.

And of course you can scour through the coop pics not this website and see if a handyman could build your favorite design for you.

 

[FreedomLover]

I have the Chick-N-Coop from TSC. However, I only bought it for a brooder. It's small enough I can have it in the livingroom.

That being said, it is ONLY for use as a brooder. There is no way I would put my chick's outside in it, except maybe while brooding to get a bit of sun!

Take the time and put together a simple yet preditor proof coop/run yourself, or as someone mentioned, hire it out. We are currently in the process of building a small 4x4 coop (using repurposed materials) for our babies once they get bigger, however, even that is a "temporary" solution, since we have 13 babies!

There are hundreds of different coops here on the forums! Take your pick! I've scoured them so much it's actually made it a bit more difficult to decide which way to go because there are so many awsome coops here!