If you live in a rural area like I do it’s not uncommon to see used chicken coops for sale. They’re usually not a lot of money – nothing like buying a new hen house – and you might think about them as a viable alternative to building a chicken coop yourself.
Then I started thinking about used chicken coops a bit more, so here are a few pros and cons. This is just my opinion of course, but you might want to consider it all the same – if you disagree, by all means have your say 😉
So, first thing you’ll get if you choose a used chicken coop for sale should be a sizable cash saving. It’s possible that you’ll get a better coop than you might have built yourself – although I doubt it if you pick up some good chicken coop plans.
Next… there’s what? Here’s where I run into trouble. I can’t really think of another positive reason for buying a used chicken coop. OK, money’s important, but honestly, that’s about it. Can you think of anything else?
On the not so good side, there’s finding one that suits your needs. No point seeing a used chicken coop for sale and driving over there, only to find it’s really too big or too small. Worse, that it’s in poor condition – some people will try and sell all kinds of junk.
Let’s say that you’re lucky though, the coop is good. How are you getting it home? Have you got a big enough truck? Does it needs to be dismantled and reassembled at your place?
Hold on. You’re not going to make your own, but you’ll take someone else’s apart, move it and put it back together again? That’s starting to look like false economy to me.
The more I think about it, the less good the idea of choosing a used chicken coop for sale seems to be. Even if you find a good one and can get it home relatively easily, do you know it’s clean? Really clean? If there are ticks, lice or other unpleasant beasties lurking in there you’re going to have real problems. On balance, I think I’ll stick with building my own!