Stage 0 — deciding and planning
Start Here
The whole first-flock list, staged by when you actually need each thing rather than sorted by category.
First flock, solved
The gear a first flock needs, stage by stage, with the numbers checked
Chicks arrive on a date, and from that date there is an order in which things have to be bought. This is that order — with every capacity claim divided out and every running cost computed from published wattage.
- Products we claim to have tested
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- Sponsored placements
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- Free products accepted
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Everyone in this category says they tested twenty coops. We have not used any of them, and we say so. What we did instead: compiled every published specification we could source and cited it, divided the capacity claims out against the space figures extension services publish, and computed the electricity from the makers’ own wattages. The whole method.
The five things you buy first
Two for the brooder, two for the coop, one for feeding. Ranked by when you need them rather than by how much they cost.
| # | Pick | Stage | When | Key spec | Score | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Score8.3 Buy this first Brinsea EcoGlow Safety 600 Twelve watts and a metal warming plate, which is the lowest published draw of any brooder plate we found and the reason it costs about two dollars to run a whole six-week brood. | Brooder | Before they arrive | 12 W | 8.3of 10 | |
| 2 | Score8.6 Purina Start & Grow Medicated Chick Feed Eighteen percent crude protein with amprolium at 0.0125 percent, and a feeding direction that tells you exactly when to stop: day one until the first egg, then switch. | Brooder | Before they arrive | 18% protein | 8.6of 10 | |
| 3 | Score7.9 Omlet Eglu Cube A plastic coop that hoses out, with published interior dimensions you can actually check — and once you check them, a six-hen claim that only works because the run is permanently attached. | Coop | Order by week 3 | 7.8 sq ft interior | 7.9of 10 | |
| 4 | Score8.1 Galvanized hardware cloth 1/2 in mesh, 19 gauge Half-inch welded mesh in 19 gauge steel — not chicken wire, which keeps chickens in and keeps nothing out, and is the single most expensive mistake a first-time keeper makes. | Coop | With the coop | 1/2 in mesh, 19 ga | 8.1of 10 | |
| 5 | Score8.7 Grandpa's Feeders Standard Automatic Chicken Feeder, 20 lb A galvanized treadle feeder that publishes exactly what it does — 20 pounds, six chickens, ten days, three to four birds eating at once — and a two-week training schedule that tells you it will not work on day one. | Feeding | When they move out | 20 lb, 6 birds for 10 days | 8.7of 10 |
#ad No live price feed on this build yet, so every button reads “check price” rather than a figure we cannot stand behind. Scores are our own published rubric, not customer ratings. How this is funded.
Six stages, in the order you hit them
Every competitor in this category navigates by topic. Nobody navigates by stage — which is odd, because the beginner’s problem is sequential rather than topical.
Stage 1 — weeks 0 to 6
Brooder
Heat, feed, water and a thermometer for weeks zero to six, with the temperature schedule and the electricity math.
Stage 2 — weeks 4 to 8
Coop
Coops, automatic doors, bedding and predator hardware, with the capacity math done against published extension figures.
Stage 3 — from the move outside, onward
Feeding
Feeders, waterers, feed storage and supplements, with published capacities, birds-per-nipple figures and winter power draw.
Top pick · Grandpa's Feeders Standard Automatic Chicken Feeder, 20 lb
Stage 4 — week 16 and up
Laying
Nest boxes, roll-out designs, pads and sizing, plus what changes in the feed when the first egg arrives.
Top pick · Best Nest Box Small 24" Reversible Roll-Out Nest Box
All stages — the cross-cutting one
Health
First aid, mites and lice, dust baths and winter care, with label-directed uses and the point where you should call a vet.
Top pick · Vetericyn Plus Antimicrobial Poultry Care Spray, 8 oz
One pick per category
What we would buy in each category
Each of these won a comparison on the published rubric. The link goes to the working; the button goes to Amazon.
Best door head to head
Run-Chicken T50 against Omlet Smart against ChickenGuard Pro
Three coop doors head to head on power, weather rating, opening size and failure behavior.
Best automatic coop door
Automatic coop doors, ranked on what the makers publish
Three automatic doors compared on published cold ratings, battery life, IP rating and opening size.
Best heat plate
The best brooder heat plates, compared on what the makers publish
Six brooder plates on published wattage, capacity and leg adjustment, with the running cost of each computed for a full brood.
Best brooder thermometer
Brooder thermometers, and the specification most of them do not publish
Four brooder thermometers on published range and accuracy, and the awkward fact that the purpose-built ones publish least.
Best chick drinker setup
Chick feeders and waterers, and the one change that fixes both
Chick drinkers, feeders and the raised-stand fix, sized with Penn State Extension's published space-per-chick figures.
Top pick · RentACoop Chick Feeder, Waterer and Accessory Stand
Best chick starter
Chick starter feed, compared on the guaranteed analysis
Three starter feeds with their published guaranteed analyses side by side, and the vaccination question that decides between them.
The flagship
The whole first-flock list, in the order you buy it
Most supply lists are alphabetical. This one is chronological, because the chicks arrive on a date and from that date there is an order things have to happen in — brooder gear before the box lands, coop ordered by week three, layer kit by week sixteen.
Things this site will not tell you
That we tested it
We have not used this gear. There is no test lab, no flock of our own and no “after six months of hands-on use”. What there is instead: published specifications, cited on the product they belong to, and arithmetic you can redo with a calculator.
A price we cannot verify today
Prices render only from a live data layer with a 48-hour freshness gate. When there is no live figure, the button says “check price” rather than showing a number that was true last month. No competitor we looked at shows a live price at all.
That every pick is a good buy
Every product on this site carries a “skip it if” line, and several of our pages argue against buying anything at all — the coop heater roundup spends most of its length explaining why most flocks do not need one.
A credential we do not hold
No veterinary review, no expert panel, no years of experience. Anything systemic — a bird that is unwell rather than injured — is a call to a veterinarian or your state poultry extension office, and we say so on the page rather than in a disclaimer.
The pages that carry the argument
Guide
What it costs to start, and what it costs every month after
The cost structure of a first flock, with the electricity arithmetic shown in full so you can compute your own.
Guide
Coop size per chicken: the numbers, and how to check a coop against them
Floor space, run, roost and nest boxes by flock size, from published extension figures — plus the check applied to real coops.
Best heat source overall
Heat plate against heat lamp: the arithmetic, and the exception
A 250 W lamp against a 12 W plate: full running-cost math, the fire-risk argument, and the one case where a lamp still wins.
Guide
Brooder temperature by week
The full published brooding schedule — temperature, floor space, feeder and waterer allowance — week by week.
Latest
Recently published
- Run-Chicken T50 against Omlet Smart against ChickenGuard Procoop
- The mistakes that cost you money, and the two that cost you birdsstart here
- Automatic coop doors, ranked on what the makers publishcoop
- The best brooder heat plates, compared on what the makers publishbrooder
- Brooder thermometers, and the specification most of them do not publishbrooder
- Chick feeders and waterers, and the one change that fixes bothbrooder
- Chick starter feed, compared on the guaranteed analysisbrooder
- Coops for four chickens, sized against the published figurescoop
How this is funded
Affiliate links, and nothing else
Peep & Pen earns a commission when you buy through a link on this site, at no extra cost to you. Our Amazon Associates tag is peepandpen-20, and Amazon is currently the only retailer we have an active relationship with — 41 products across 44 pages, all of them linked the same way. We take no payment for placement and commission never changes a ranking.