Is this a good chick house or chicken hospital? PICS!!!

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If you really want to buy a prefab coop and don't mind parting with the $$'s check out some of the sites that specifically sell chicken coops, like www.mypetchicken.com and there are several others. Most of them however will not accomodate 10 birds.

Be aware also that the rabbit hutch type things you are looking at do NOT stand up to weather. So they need to be under a porch or other roof. I have two of the rabbit hutches for my sones rabbits and they are in a barn over the winter. The wood is very light and cheap, not matter what they say it will not stand up to rain.

For 10 birds you are just not going to be happy with any of these things for any amount of time, they just don't have the room that many birds need. For the money involved your better off building a good coop/run yourself that will offer the protection and room needed and will last, or finding someone to do it for you.

Dog kennels can be used for a run but you will still need a secure coop for nighttime for protection from weather and predators. We have a coop built into our barn where the birds are locked up at night. In the daytime they have a run made of chainlink dog kennel panels with a shade cloth cover. Keeps the birds in and the hawks out.
 
What is the top limit of your budget? It appears you're willing to go at least up to $600-$700. I'm assuming you aren't handy with building tools, thus would rather buy a coop ready-made. But you would be able to get so MUCH more for your bucks if you were to hire a handy-man/woman to build something for you.

First step is to look at the forum on coop building and design. People have posted all sorts of wonderful photos of their coops and runs, and some even include plans and specs. When I was first starting out, that's what I did. I knew I was going to start out with just two hens, and maybe get two more (hah, hah) later. I wanted a compact hutch-type coop just four by four feet, and I was going to attach a simple four by eight-foot run to it.

I looked on that forum for ideas, and something struck me as really close to what I had in mind. I asked a friend, who was just starting to build himself a house, to give me one day of his time to help me frame it out. He even gave me the lumber for it from the scraps and rejected pieces that were in his pile. I finished it by myself, and got my two adopted hens. They were very happy, and laid eggs for me from the start.

Of course, chicken math prevailed. Chicken math is what overcomes you after you get your first chickens, and you just have to have MORE! And then, of course, you'll want a bigger coop and run to accommodate the new chickens. If you can afford it, you should build a facility twice the size of what you think you'll need now. Trust me on this.

So, bottom line is, get some ideas from the coops and design forum, talk to a friend of hired hand who will agree to help you build it, and get started! My first coop and run was finished in a week. My recent addition took a month. Photos are posted on my page, but my avatar depicts my coop and run setup.
 
I already have 2 chicken coops and 2 runs, one for my grown chickens and the other for my grown ducks. I'm just looking for something to keep little chicks in once or twice a year when they are too big for the house and too little for the coop or to separate birds as needed. Actually I was only looking to spend around $300- just posting pics to see what will and what won't work. So this one wont work for little chicks?: http://www.dogkennels.com/dog-kennels/dog-kennels/k9kennelchainlink.cfm

Thanks for any more info.
 
I understand now what you're trying to do. Dog kennels definitely won't work for young chicks. In fact, I learned the hard way last time I raised four new chicks that you need small- mesh fencing that they can't stick their tiny heads through. One of my two-week old chicks did just that and got scalped by the rooster.

I like introducing chicks to the flock at a young age using a separate enclosure adjacent to the main run. They spend days out there and nights back in their brooder. By the time they're old enough to merge with the adults, they all know each other. They learn their places in the pecking order by incorporating small pop holes in the fencing so the small fry can escape back into their enclosure when chased or bullied.

Why not just add onto one of your existing runs, building a "grow-out" pen, that can later become the "panic room" as the small fry are merging with the flock?
 
If you can't figure out how to extend your chain link fence out to add onto it, I'm sure a chain link fencing outfit could help you. Good old Home Depot has all the materials and fittings, and I would bet there are even helpful employees that could help you with what you need to buy for the project. All you need to decide is how big you want to make it. For the small mesh fencing you'll need to keep tiny chicks safe, I usually take plastic deer netting and fasten it to the regular poultry netting fence. It can be removed later after the chicks have grown. It's inexpensive and easier to work with than hardware cloth. (Nobody has ever been able to explain to me why they call it "cloth".)
 

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