I'm "pre-new" to chickens ...

Any ideas for buying a reliable/not-too-expensive coop somewhere?

  • yes

    Votes: 1 25.0%

  • no

    Votes: 3 75.0%
  • Total voters
    4
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W

wannabe4birds

Chirping
Apr 2, 2018
26
29
59
Greenville,NC
... and in eastern NC.

I've thought about getting 5 birds of varied breeds for a long time now. My town allows 5 within city limits, I just learned. Here's some input:

1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens? -- totally new; haven't even bought a coop yet (and may have to wait until early 2019)

(2) How many chickens do you have right now? zero

(3) What breeds do you have? NA

(4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com? Kinda stumbled onto it online.

(5) What are some of your other hobbies? Beekeeping, veg/herb gardening, the gym workouts, playing around with my backyard fish pond.

(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share. I'm interested in getting some birds as, basically, pets and to maybe even collect some home-grown eggs. Had 1 chicken when I was a kid and thought it was great fun.
 
:welcome

The pre-built coops tend to be too small for the number of chickens they claim to "fit". They're also expensive...you could build one yourself even with few carpentry skills. Some people modify things like sheds or pallets to create a coop. The hoop coops seem to be fairly easy for people to put up too. You can get a lot of ideas on how to build a coop looking at this section of BYC:chicken-coops.12

Best of luck to you, make yourself at home and if you have questions, always feel free to ask!
 
Pre fab coops are all falsely advertised, poorly designed, made of shoddy materials, and over priced.

I suggest that you either: make your own coop. Or buy a wood constructed garden shed and repurpose it into a coop, or pay someone to build you a coop. You could also find a used shed on Craig's list and re-purpose that. Also, look at cattle panel construction.

Check out "Sunset's Shed's and Garages" for simplified plans that are well within the capabilities of the average home owner who has a few power tools and is not afraid to use them.

If this 60+ year old biddy can play with those power tools and build stuff, I'm sure you can also. In the last 5 years, I've built 2 chicken tractors, a chicken coop, a green house, and together, hubby and I built a larger coop.
 
Welcome!

Quality pre-fabs are expensive (~$1K and up typically). The cheap pre-fabs are much too small, poorly made and typically aren't particularly secure. If you are handy and own tools (or know someone that owes you a favor who is) you can make one yourself for cheaper. Another option is to pay someone to build one for you - I chose this option and it was cheaper than a quality pre-fab of similar size but still pricey.

Typical minimums recommended are 4sqft per chicken in the coop (not including nestboxes) and 10sqft per chicken in the run. Your environment, personality of your chickens and how you manage your flock impacts these numbers. Generally the bigger the better.

If you are allowed 5 and egg production is important to you, you will need to either start with fewer than you are allowed or come up with a plan to get rid of (sell, give away, harvest) your older hens to have room for younger replacements since egg production drops off after the first 1-2 years.

Whatever you eventually decide to do, have fun! Even the planning is a blast - so many hatchery sites to visit, coop pics to view, etc.
 
lazy gardener said:
Pre fab coops are all falsely advertised, poorly designed, made of shoddy materials, and over priced.

I suggest that you either: make your own coop. Or buy a wood constructed garden shed and repurpose it into a coop, or pay someone to build you a coop. You could also find a used shed on Craig's list and re-purpose that. Also, look at cattle panel construction.

Check out "Sunset's Shed's and Garages" for simplified plans that are well within the capabilities of the average home owner who has a few power tools and is not afraid to use them.

If this 60+ year old biddy can play with those power tools and build stuff, I'm sure you can also. In the last 5 years, I've built 2 chicken tractors, a chicken coop, a green house, and together, hubby and I built a larger coop.
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I had a pre made coop and it just wasn’t big enough for even half the number of chickens it was advertised for. I now use it as a grow-out coop (with run) for chicks. For my adult flock I converted a “factory seconds” 7x5 shed from eBay. I love carpentry but in all honesty it’s not a difficult DIY task to add a pop hole, ventilation, nest boxes and roosts.

Anyway, welcome to BYC. There’s so many helpful, knowledgeable folks here and I’m sure you’ll find this site a very useful resource. I hope you enjoy it as much as we all do. :thumbsup
 
:frow Welcome from New Orleans, I tend to agree that it is best to build your own, if you can. Good luck, what ever you decide. Lots of great threads on this site to help with decisions about breeds and coop building. Just do a little research right here and you will probably get all the info you need to make the right decision for you and yours. Good luck and don't be afraid to ask questions, lots of informed and experinced people here, who tend to be non-judgmental.
 

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