Help! Which is the best instruction/info manual?

[Bantimna]

I'm having a bit of a hard time of selecting a Coop Design book, just dedicated to coops.
Here is the top three Coop books I am thinking of getting, though I can only purchase one book.

Building Chicken Coops: Storey Country Wisdom Bulletin A-224 by Gail Damerow
Building Chicken Coops For Dummies by Todd Brock, David Zook, Rob Ludlow (Nifty)
Chicken Coops: 45 Building Plans for Housing Your Flock by Judy Pangman

 

[darkmatter]

Quote:
Book design, I didn't use no book design, just figured what features I wanted and started building. See my BYC page for pics of a setup that has been working nearly two decades.

 

[patandchickens]

First see what your library has, or can get you via interlibrary loan. No point in duplicating what you can get for free!

That said... if you're after detailed plans, forget the Pangman book, it has ONLY photos (not many of each coop) and poorly done and not-greatly-accurate sketches. The book by Gail Damerow is great as a general overview but has very little on coop design at all, only really one example without much additional discussion or info.

The Dummies book is fine if you want plans for a very small reach-in size coop.

If you want a walk-in size coop, you'd be best off buying a book on building SHEDS, there are quite a lot of them out there, many with detailed plans and materials lists and step-by-step instructions/photos to help you build. Pick one that contains plans for a shed the size you're wanting to build. Then just add a bit more ventilation, roost and boxes, and a popdoor, and presto it's a coop

(e.t.a. -- but honestly, I think the BYC website is probably much better than any of the above, if you are searching for a coop design and trying to figure out how to build it. Do lots of browsing, both of the "coop designs" section AND of peoples' personal pages (most of which contain pics of their coop builds that are NOT in the coop design section of the site). You will find things you like; and most often you'll find good accounts of how to do them, or at least you'll know who to ask for more details

)

Good luck, have fun,

Pat