To anyone thinking of getting one of those cute little coops….

[Chicken poppy]

Rat stuff is equally hard to get - I was getting ferret stuff for them (or sewing my own), having to mix my own food, had to order a cage from a specialty manufacturer, etc.

Chickens (at least in my area) are easier in that 1) most folks in my area use deep litter which is essentially free because we have a lot of plant/tree materials around 2) a lot of people put out free junk piles by the curb, which means you can get free chicken toys or even building materials and 3) even some regular pet stores will sell or order chicken feed for you.

It’s so unfortunate. When you walk in the pet store it’s so easy to get the impression on how to own them. You see wire cages and over ten of them together so it must be safe to assume thats correct? This is exactly what happened when i got my first hamster, then come to find out they fight til the death and are solitary. And i know it happens to so many people with smaller animals like this. (It happens with all, but especially smaller ones i feel like) It really is sad. People oftentimes have great intentions but just don’t know otherwise..

 

[fuzzi]

Yeah the state of small animals rn is so sad!!! Birds and fish get put in tiny tiny things too. Makes me really sad. Especially since something like goldfish can get to a foot long and live as long as a dog and they’re treated like trash.

I have two 100 gallon preform ponds in my backyard. Everyone who sees them asks how many koi I have. Not one, 100 gallons is too small for even ONE koi, a solitary fish would outgrow it quickly. Instead I have fathead minnows who multiply in enough numbers to keep the mosquitoes under control. And they were free from a friend's pond.

 

[ShrekDawg]

I have two 100 gallon preform ponds in my backyard. Everyone who sees them asks how many koi I have. Not one, 100 gallons is too small for even ONE koi, a solitary fish would outgrow it quickly. Instead I have fathead minnows who multiply in enough numbers to keep the mosquitoes under control. And they were free from a friend's pond.

That’s awesome!!

 

[Jenni Hen]

Yeah I have to admit that although I'd wanted chickens since I was young (to the point that my parents even took me to visit a cousin who had a flock, though all I was allowed to do was throw them some scratch) I never actually touched a live adult bird until about a month before we were planning to buy chicks. Didn't realize how big some birds got, because my only reference for "chicken" was a rotisserie bird from the market.

I did do my research but we still opted for a prefab (a much higher quality one than most) at first, with plans to upgrade if we liked keeping chickens. After 2 years we decided to grow the flock and replace the coop as well. Pretty striking what a 4 bird prefab (on right) looks like next to a 12 bird coop (on left) even though both have 4 sq ft of floor space (per bird):

View attachment 3415743

The prefab didn't go to waste - the top portion is still in the run as a brooder/isolation cage, the bump out on the right side still works as a rain shelter/feed area, and the remaining long wall is a compost sifter.

What's in a name?

I'm from the North of England and maybe the terminology I grew up with is slightly different.
I'd call the little one a 'coop' - as in 'cooped up', where chickens are closely confined temporarily. I'd call the bigger one a 'hen house', where chickens live comfortably. The old books I bought were about building 'hen houses'.
My recollection is that hens lived in 'hen houses' - walk-in sheds with nest boxes etc - and coops were for specific purposes, eg brooder, isolation, and for chickens that were let out in a field temporarily - like going on a chicken camping holiday.

However, I never now see the term 'hen house'. If I did, I couldn't be impressed by claims of coops being spacious! So the marketing strategy wouldn't work.

 

[Shadrach]

I must confess, a wry grin spread accross my face as I read through the posts.
Such a lot of rightous indignation at the companies that make these coops.
Most of the sales media for these types of coops give dimensions.

While many prospective buyers it seems have learned to read and write, reading the information given in the sales media and emplying some basic math seems totally beyond the average buyer.

As for the I didn't realise the chickens were going to grow so big...
I wonder if they say that about their children.

There are people buying chicks through the post, or at so called farm stores it seems who have never even seen a grown chicken.

Just about every breed I can think of has a page on the internet somewhere that gives the adult weight of the breed in question and many give (sometimes not obvious) an indication of the breeds size.

I'm not going to join in with the disgruntled. There is a saying that all who live in a free market economy should pay heed to; let the buyer beware!

 

[NagemTX]

This is really the only one worth it from TSC.

 

[DobieLover]

I forget which coop it was, but a while back one of our members caught on to the fact that the company had actually used toy chickens in the photos.

That was me:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/eco-flex-coops.1440839/post-23891213

Seriously pathetic stuff that.

 

[DobieLover]

I must confess, a wry grin spread accross my face as I read through the posts.
Such a lot of rightous indignation at the companies that make these coops.
Most of the sales media for these types of coops give dimensions.

While many prospective buyers it seems have learned to read and write, reading the information given in the sales media and emplying some basic math seems totally beyond the average buyer.

As for the I didn't realise the chickens were going to grow so big...
I wonder if they say that about their children.

There are people buying chicks through the post, or at so called farm stores it seems who have never even seen a grown chicken.

Just about every breed I can think of has a page on the internet somewhere that gives the adult weight of the breed in question and many give (sometimes not obvious) an indication of the breeds size.

I'm not going to join in with the disgruntled. There is a saying that all who live in a free market economy should pay heed to; let the buyer beware!

Sorry to anyone who would take offense at this but I for one completely agree with it.
Before taking on animals you've never cared for before you need to thoroughly research their needs and be properly prepared for them. For your sake but more importantly for theirs.
So very many people who come into these forums and start complaining about things like these under sized coops have impulse purchased the cute little peeping chicks they saw when they were at the farms store then found out the hard way just how fast they grow. And shockingly, they get much bigger.

 

[Shadrach]

Sorry to anyone who would take offense at this

Oh dear. Wasn't I my usual nice, empathetic and considerate self.

 

[NatJ]

What's in a name?

I'm from the North of England and maybe the terminology I grew up with is slightly different.
I'd call the little one a 'coop' - as in 'cooped up', where chickens are closely confined temporarily. I'd call the bigger one a 'hen house', where chickens live comfortably. The old books I bought were about building 'hen houses'.
My recollection is that hens lived in 'hen houses' - walk-in sheds with nest boxes etc - and coops were for specific purposes, eg brooder, isolation, and for chickens that were let out in a field temporarily - like going on a chicken camping holiday.

However, I never now see the term 'hen house'. If I did, I couldn't be impressed by claims of coops being spacious! So the marketing strategy wouldn't work.

I grew up in the USA (state of Alaska), and I grew up with the terms "chicken house" and "chicken yard."
There's no question which part of that is the sheltered, enclosed space ("house") and which is the fenced outdoor area ("yard"), and of course both were big enough to walk into.

If anyone talked about a "chicken coop," I would have vaguely assumed it was the entire structure, but would have tried to figure out more from context.

Of course I've now learned to understand the way the words are commonly used on this site ("coop" for an enclosed weatherproof space, "run" for a more open space), but I regularly see people new to the site using "coop" to refer to the whole thing, which sometimes causes confusion.

Yes, calling it a "hen house" or "chicken house" might make people think again about how big it should be. Or maybe not, given what size a "doghouse" usually is.