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Coop with a budget of $200
4' x 12' run
4' x 6' elevated coop

My awesome neighbor @armorfirelady found an old coop from a coworker.
My wife and I rehabbed the coop. It took us about 6 weekends of work. I thought it was going to be less work, but never underestimate a wood work project :)

The coop was built with scraps and needed reinforcement. Here we removed all the old wire, staples and the bad wood, I reused the old wire to make cages around my plants.

Home Depot and Lowe's have discounted lumber piles. As you can see the 2x4 I bought to replace the old ones aren't very straight. Our chickens didn't mind and we were able to use it. We spent about $15 with warped 2x4s, but we bought nice 12ft long pressure treated 2x4 for the new bottom.

After reading a lot of comments we decided to use hardware cloth we buried about 1ft of wire.. I live near woods and we get lots of fun critters and our babies needed protection.

Reused an old window for one side of the coop for extra light during the winter times. And painted everything with barn paint.

Nest box - Not straight, but leveled hahaha. I only noticed later that it was this much crooked.

Using the coop - Planted a bunch of mint, citronella, chives and thyme. Anything to help the bugs to stay away.
Old tent part is on top of the coop to keep it cool during the hot days.






Automatic watering about $50 investiment
Above freezing days
Garden hose to 3/8 OD flex tube. (I had exactly 25 ft that need of 3/8 OD and 1/4 OD pipes) burying them is fairly easy.

1/4 OD shut off valve
1/4 OD to 1/2 male
1/2 PVC female elbow coupling
Backyardflock pressure valve (https://www.backyardflock.com)
1/2 PVC pipe
1/2 PVC backyardflock nipple coupling




Winter months
The pipe sticking out in the back of the coop is for water during the winter months.
I am going to put a bird bath wire inside for the winter time.

The ladies are roosting on top of it I will need to put some board to protect it.