Costco sells farmhouse-style chicken coop as backyard flocks surge
Costco was selling a cedar coop for 4 to 6 hens, with a solar door and 24-square-foot run. The real test was whether the pretty package fit actual flock needs.
Costco’s latest backyard add-on pushed chicken keeping further into the mainstream: the warehouse club was selling a Backyard Discovery Cedar Roost White Chicken Coop built for 4 to 6 hens. The item, numbered 2054745 with model 2600362, was listed online only with shipping and handling included, and Costco showed a 4.1-star rating based on 8 reviews.
That timing fit a bigger shift in the backyard flock scene. In a University of California, Davis survey of 1,487 backyard chicken owners, 71% kept fewer than 10 birds, 95% said they kept chickens for food for home use, 63% for gardening partners and 57% as pets. Predation was the most cited challenge at 49%, followed by feed costs at 28%, soil management at 25% and zoning rules at 23%.
Backyard Discovery branded the design as the Sweetwater Chicken Coop and pitched it to families and homesteaders who wanted fresh eggs and happy chickens. The coop was made from cedar with a modern white stain and a black galvanized steel roof, and the company said the parts were pre-cut, pre-drilled and pre-stained to make assembly easier. In other words, it looked as much like backyard furniture as poultry housing.
The practical question was whether the specs matched real flock care. Costco said the coop included a 24-square-foot run that extended underneath the house, a solar-powered automatic security door that opened and closed on a timer, windows, a full front locking door, roosting bars, nesting boxes and a 5-year warranty. Those features checked several important boxes, especially predator protection, which mattered in a community where predation was the top complaint. But the listing’s headline features centered on style, convenience and a compact footprint, not on deeper cleanout access or extra run space, so buyers still had to judge whether the design fit their birds, their weather and their chore routine.
The buying impulse also came with a hard reality check on costs. Oregon State University Extension Service has noted that backyard chickens are not usually a money-saving way to get eggs, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture said retail egg prices rose nearly 14% in January 2025 and were 53% higher than in January of the previous year. The USDA’s February 2025 Food Price Outlook estimated egg prices would increase 41% in 2025, while Oregon State said bird flu had killed almost 50 million chickens in the United States and average egg prices had jumped from $1.79 a dozen in December 2021 to $4.25 in December 2022.
There was also the health side of the hobby. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says backyard poultry can carry Salmonella even when they look healthy and clean, and it reported 559 cases, 125 hospitalizations and 2 deaths in a 2025 outbreak linked to backyard poultry. The agency advises washing hands after touching poultry or eggs, not kissing or snuggling birds and keeping children under 5 away from chicks and ducklings. Costco’s farmhouse-style coop may sell the dream, but the real backyard standard still came down to space, security and daily care.
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