Chook Me!

How much are chicken coops and other chicken acessories?

I was just wondering how much chicken coops, chicken runs and chicken accessories (like feeders and food) are. If you know anything, or know a website, it will help a lot. References, sources and sites will help a lot as I am thinking of buying some chickens. I need to know the rough price so I can start saving!! lol ALSO - if any of you own chickens, can you tell me how easy/hard they are to keep and how many you have. Thanks in advance Bea x

Public Comments

1. Feeders and waterers range from a couple dollars to hundreds depending on the size and how fancy you want. Feed is $7-$10 for a 40 lb bag. How long it lasts will depend on how many chickens you have and whether they are free range or not. A bag of feed lasts us quite a while because our chickens are free range so they eat a lot of stuff in the yard. A coop can get pretty expensive depending on the size you need. You will need to make sure that the coop you get will be able to accommodate your chickens full grown. Our chickens are fairly easy to care for. We have 14 full grown chickens and 25 chicks that are 9 weeks old. We just put the chicks in with the adults so all are now free range. We let them out in the morning. Feed them once a day. Change water twice a day. Clean out the coop when it needs it...every couple weeks. Collect eggs once a day. Shut them back in at night. If there are animals in your area you will have to make sure that your chickens are safe. We order chicks from here: http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/index.html They also have all the accessories you would need. But you can probably get them cheaper at a feed store like Tractor Supply or Orschelns. This site has a lot of info about coops and chicken care: http://www.backyardchickens.com/ Hope this helps!
2. This might help you in building your own chicken coop. Don't know about exact the price but they are definitely easy on the budget once you know what to do.