First things first, welcome to BYC!
As you already know, you'll need a heat lamp. That SHOULD be the most expensive thing that you would need to buy (not including the coop, of course.) I read the starting post and a couple of posts on the first page, but that was all. So, I don't know exactly how much you already know. I'm not very good with coops because I did absolutely nothing to get mine. My loving Grandfather had this built for me, paying for it and paying for the workers to build it:
Anyways, I DO know a lot about keeping chicks, or so I assume
Here is a list of things that I used. I bought day old chicks from the nearby
Tractor Supply Co. and was very simple with it until the coop was built (By that time they were three months old
) So, here is that list of the simple things that I used:
1.) Heat lamp - 90w
2.) Big box - About 2.5ft.x1ft. (Very small!)
3.) Wood Chips - Lain on the ground of their box as bedding.
4.) Food container - Of course, with chick feed.
5.) Water container - The same one that I use for my seven full grown chickens.
And that's it! For the first couple of months of their life they should just be somewhere like this, under a warm heat lamp and on soft bedding. Then, once their feathers are grown, or during the dinosaur stage, you can move them to the coop.
Sorry for wasting your time if you already knew all of this
Good luck!
