I agree - you can build your own for less than $850, even figuring in the cost of the run. No building skills? That's okay. Bet you didn't know how to drive a car until the first time you got behind the wheel, either. Hubby Ken and I have the building skills of two 4 year olds, but we ended up actually enjoying the process......um, we would have enjoyed it more but building a coop in March in northern Wyoming is a mite nippy! But now we have exactly the features we wanted, in the places we wanted them, and we think it looks pretty doggone neat!
The run is just cattle panels arched between metal fence posts pounded into the ground, covered with chicken wire, and with a hardware cloth skirt going about 2 feet up and an apron going about 2 feet out. Cheap and easy - so easy that when we enlarged the run this year we just took the end panel off, added two more fence posts and another chicken wire covered cattle panel. A little hardware cloth skirt and apron, slap the end piece right back up and done. The pop door to the coop is open 24/7 so they can come and go as they please year round. The lattice? Well, that's just for purty. I was on town council when we built, we live in town and our setup is visible from two sides of the street so I just couldn't slap something together and leave it.
No trouble from winds....this puppy was across the street last summer and heading for us. It went back up before it hit us, but wow - the wind!!
No trouble with snow either
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The run with the expansion on this summer. Hadn't put the lattice up yet.
The run is just cattle panels arched between metal fence posts pounded into the ground, covered with chicken wire, and with a hardware cloth skirt going about 2 feet up and an apron going about 2 feet out. Cheap and easy - so easy that when we enlarged the run this year we just took the end panel off, added two more fence posts and another chicken wire covered cattle panel. A little hardware cloth skirt and apron, slap the end piece right back up and done. The pop door to the coop is open 24/7 so they can come and go as they please year round. The lattice? Well, that's just for purty. I was on town council when we built, we live in town and our setup is visible from two sides of the street so I just couldn't slap something together and leave it.
No trouble from winds....this puppy was across the street last summer and heading for us. It went back up before it hit us, but wow - the wind!!
No trouble with snow either
.
The run with the expansion on this summer. Hadn't put the lattice up yet.