I am dreaming and planning about having my own chicken coop

Have you scoured CL looking for coops, sheds,playhouses, loafing sheds, dog runs, trampoline frames, chainlink panels...? You can sometimes find free or almost free supplies that someone with almost no building skills can assemble into a functional secure coop. An old dog house can work for the first few months if it has to. How old are your kids? Have you dug through the posts in the coop section? There are some well done simple coops with tons of pictures and directions.
Yes to all the above plus reading up on some great articles here about using a metal storage shed. I got online and found one at Sears for $250 and Amazon has the cables and stakes to secure it for $40. What I like about this is the size I get (10'x6'). The double doors open out (not a slider). It has a four-star review from 68 reviews so that is not too bad for the price. In the articles, I read here on BYC, I can put in ventilation and insulation for Summer and Winter heat and cold issues. The floor inside can be dirt with hardware cloth going outside the edge by a foot I figure. I will put pine shavings over the hardware cloth. Does that sound good? It will be situated under trees with some filtered sunlight most of the year. The ground is very dry and level. There is plenty of room for a large run also and I will be making some tunnel runs up to some other areas that will have temporary fencing available when I open a particular tunnel so they have some variety.

I need to find out how late in the season I can buy chickens...is there a time limit? I suppose it depends on if you are getting chicks or full-grown. Full-grown it should not matter, right? It will probably take me a good month to get the coop and run set up, maybe longer depending on lots of factors.

Any input on my plan above?
 
There is a new post in Marysville for $500 that's worth a serious look. Maybe they'll deliver it for a fee. You can partially disassemble it to make it manageable.. Go check it out. In Edmonds there is an amazing swing set complete with fort for $300 that is 75% to being a coop. Turn the fort onto a coop and add some fencing around the swing part and all you'll need to add are chickens.
 
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