How we research and compare products

Chicken Geek is a research-led review site. At launch, none of the products in our guides have been sent to us by a manufacturer or bought for a hands-on test. We say that on every page rather than implying a test that did not happen. As products go through our own coops, the reviews for those products get updated with dates, conditions and what went wrong.

What "research based" means here

Every recommendation on this site is built from five inputs:

1. Manufacturer specifications. Dimensions, materials, wattage, capacity and warranty terms, taken from the live product listing rather than a press release.
2. Measured suitability. We convert the listed dimensions into what actually matters: square feet of coop floor per bird, inches of roost bar per bird, gallons of water per bird per day, and so on.
3. Owner feedback at volume. We read the negative reviews first, looking for the same complaint repeating across many owners. A single angry review tells you nothing. Forty owners reporting the same cracked latch tells you a great deal.
4. Comparison against gear we have owned. Our team keeps seventeen birds between them across two climates. When a product is close to something we have used, we say so and explain how it differs.
5. Category standards. Coops are judged against the four square feet of interior floor and eight to ten square feet of run per standard-size bird that most extension services recommend. Feed is judged against the protein and calcium levels a laying hen actually needs.

How products get shortlisted

We pull the full field of products in a category from Amazon's catalogue, then cut it down in this order:

• Remove anything discontinued or without a live retailer listing.
• Remove anything whose listed specifications do not match its own marketing claim, for example a coop advertised for eight hens with four square feet of interior floor.
• Remove near-identical relistings of the same product under different brand names, keeping the one with the better warranty or price.
• Keep a spread that covers real buying situations: a budget pick, a long-term pick, a small-space pick and a large-flock pick.

How awards are assigned

We do not rank products one to ten. Each product wins a specific situation, because "best" depends entirely on how many birds you keep, how cold your winter gets, and how much you are willing to spend once. If two products would win the same situation, only one goes in the guide.

What would make us change a recommendation

• A pattern of failure reports on a specific component.
• A price change that moves a product out of its band.
• A specification change after a manufacturer revision.
• Discontinuation, or the retailer link going dead.
• A better product entering the category.

What we will never do

• Claim a hands-on test that did not happen.
• Publish a star rating we invented.
• Write a review with no meaningful drawback in it.
• Accept payment for a placement or an award.
• Let a manufacturer see or approve a guide before it is published.

If you spot something wrong in a guide, tell us at hello@chickengeek.com and we will correct it and date the correction.