I feel like I know the answer to this one now, it’s a solid “Coop“.  But alas- in my chickenignorance, on a cold and snowy February day, a friend and I drove an hour to go pick up 13 (a cool-bakers dozen) mixed breed, week old chicks.  I was fairly certain, that we could complete our semi-finished coop by the time the girls were going to need to be moved outside.

I was blissfully unaware at the rate of which chickens grew- and within a week, they were flying the coop (or brooder).  In an attempt to contain them, that unfortunately failed, I split the brood into two separate brooders.  I believe now, that this essentially gave them more room for a running start to leap out of their confinement, but hindsight is 20/20. I guess at some point, I should mention that the chicks were living in our spare bedroom, which made the room less inviting for guests.

When we finally decided that the girls had overstayed their upstairs welcome, we built a large and tall temporary brooder in our unfinished basement.  This made all of us much happier, and as the girls continued to grow- I continued to drag my feet finishing the coop.  Then the inevitable happened: they began escaping their new, larger brooder and chicken coop crunch time began.

The coop interior, door and run was completed within a couple of weeks without major incident, and we moved the girls outside.

My advice to anyone wanting to get chickens:

Do it! They really are so much fun, but plan ahead.  I tend to like to do things a little bit spur of the moment, but with chickens that isn’t the best approach.  Have your brooder, coop and run all set before you bring them home.  More importantly, you have to understand your city and neighborhood laws before you begin the process.  The startup is costly, and it would be a shame to go through it all-to then have your girls get the boot out of town! If you’re really set on having chickens and its not allowed in your neighborhood or city- get to work on educating the neighborhood committee and city council to get the laws changed.  A simple google search will get you started in the right direction.