Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 52
 Comment from Author November 15, 2006
Judy Pangman (Cobleskill, NY USA)
84 out of 101 found this review helpful
Hi, I'm Judy Pangman, author of Chicken Coops. I want to thank Thomas P. Schoenborn and M. Boettcher for reading my book and posting reviews on Amazon.com. In response to their comments, we are correcting the description of the book to make it clear that the building plans in the book do require some construction knowledge on the part of the reader.
I wanted to clarify what the book is and what it is not. If you are looking for a design manual, this is not the right book for you. The book is a compilation of 45 real chicken coops, most of which were built by hand by their owners. Yes, many of the coops were thrown together (albeit carefully planned beforehand) with scrap materials. That was the most interesting discovery I made while writing the book!
From all across the country, coop owners that I encountered were proud that their designs were individualized and built with recycled or salvaged materials. This soon became the book's central theme. It also made it difficult to provide formal construction drawings and material lists. Almost every coop featured in the book was customized to that owner's needs, whether it was according to the size of the salvaged wagon bed, truck chassis, or manure spreader on which it was built, or the size of the backyard or the width of the garden gate. The publisher and I decided that the most useful way to present the coops was by providing a floor plan, front and side elevations with dimensions, and as much information in the text as possible about features of the coop and materials used. This way, the reader could choose the type of coop and favored features he or she wanted and, with some construction knowledge, build a customized coop specific to his or her needs and site.
If you are looking for lots of chicken coop ideas, unique coop features, and a lighthearted look at backyard and pastured poultry coops and their very interesting owners, then this is the right book for you.
Fantastic, Educational and Entertaining March 22, 2007
H. Leslea
11 out of 14 found this review helpful
Please don't be fooled by the few reviews in which this book is reviled! You would have to have your eyes closed while "reading" it to not learn a lot! I don't have my chickens yet, but have taken all the classes on them offered where I live, which included a coop building class. I was extremely pleased and entertained by this book. I loved the pictures, but especially the stories of each coop, its chickens, and family. I have actually seen a few of these in person, and even though I took pictures, I didn't have the rough size measurements and inside details recorded. This book makes it easy to either adjust your current plans or make up new, improved ones. Other reviewers have complained that the plans are not specific enough. Ms. Pangman has provided rough sketches, with heights, lengths, and widths; tidbits and tips to help those of us out who are embarking on our building journeys (weather-proofing for different geographical areas, suggestions for out-witting predators, etc.); and suggestions for creative ways to recycle used parts to save money. For $19.95, this book is a steal-I didn't have to browse hundreds of web pages to find non-detailed pics of great coops-she did it for me! Also, I would like to remind the dissenters that it has taken the people who made these coops a very long time to design them, build them, and improve them. That means that the detailed plans are their intellectual property-and access to those plans does, and should, cost money. Please respect that some of the plans for the coops in the book are a piece of those coop owners' income, and should not be available for free-but respected for the work that went into the process. I am just happy that Ms. Pangman was able to amass such a varied and interesting number of coops, and that the builders were generous enough to let us see them up close and personal, yes, for $19.95.
Great resource! July 14, 2009
R. A. Wedin (Northwest Washington State)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book about chicken coops provides everything you need to create your own style of coop for your own needs. It has city coops, urban coops, coops for 2 - 5 chickens and coops for a thousand. I enjoyed the focus on using recycled materials to create the coops and the well written summary for each design. We live on a farm and I found it just as useful if not more useful than the traditional coop building books . . .
Great plans for basic chicken coops of all kinds and sizes September 16, 2009
Jane Dittmer (Raleigh, NC, USA)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
I have read a number of reviews about this book, many of which complained this book didn't have x, y, or z to show the how to, the materials used, the measurements or whatever on the plans that were contained in this book. This is simply nonsense!
All that is required for a person to use this book is to look at the pictures, select the plan or plans you want to use, figure out whatever materials you choose to use, look at the measurements supplied or make your own calculations, based on the number of chckens you plan to have and the variety (either Bantams or full sized), together with your particular yard space.
I found this book to be full of terrific ideas, specific information about raising chickens and chicks, watering, feeding, drawings and measurements of a large variety of all manner of chicken coops, the materials used to build them, as well as those for turkeys and brooders for raising baby chicks with the hen. There are even photos in color of the various finished chicken houses, suppliers for coops and supplies, with addresses and website addresses, regular addresses, phone numbers, plus a list of helpful government sources, chicken related websites and related books for readings. Anyone who couldn't use this book to build a chicken coop either has no creativity, no building skills or just doesn't know how to read. They also aren't ready to raise chickens!
Over all, it is a terrific book. I live within the city limits of Raleigh, NC and I will be using plans from this book to build my coop! Basic common sense, a few skills in measuring and cutting, use of simple tools, both regular and power, are all that is required, and of course using your common sense to select a choice of materials. I will even make some changes to the plans and combine the best parts of several different plans to make my own particular design....no big deal! You see, I'm an artist so I'm accustomed to being creative.
Anyway, the book is great and the author has done a real service to the growing number of people who are going back to basics. You can do this!
Pay no attention to those nay sayers. If you can read and comprehend directions, read simple basic plans, use a tape measure, a pencil, a saw, a drill, screw driver, screws, nails, hammer, plyers, etc, you can do this. It's that simple. Thanks for the great help! City Chick Arts in Raleigh, NC Chicken Coops: 45 Building Plans for Housing Your Flock
Highly recommended May 18, 2008
Jodi Putnam (Northern California)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
If you like chickens, you like this book. It contains many great ides for housing your flock, no matter what the size. She gives you information on where to purchase plans for each design, but I built mine just from the pictures in this book.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 52
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