Thinking about going into a coop business. Pros and cons!

[chicken_angler]

Thanks for all the input everyone! I am not going to be selling like 20 of these at a time since I am still in school. I will sell a few but only locally since I dont want to have to deal with shipping. I will make most of the frmae with screws and then use the nails to put on the sides, roof and build the runs possibly. I am not a professional but I am pretty good at building things so I am going to see how much I can do.

I have a pretty good source for materials. I made one of my coops for under $5. Most of that $5 was spent on paint rollers. I just had to get the hinges. lol

I understand that it takes a lot of time to build these tractors so I am not going to rush. I am going to start over Spring Break next week and keep working through the summer!

Cody!!

 

[australorpchick]

Give it a shot. I just started selling some tractors, kind of by accident. Not too heavy, not too fancy, but very sturdy. I use 2x4's, 1/2" exterior plywood and 2 1/2" & 1 5/8" screws. The materials cost about $100 - 125 and I charge $250. I can make one in 10 - 12 hours. $10 - 12/hr doing a hobby isn't too bad. That's just using a B&D jigsaw, two cordless drills and a staple gun. I've seen similar ones on craigslist for much more and less sturdy ones for much less. I know with our current economy a lot of people are trying to be a little more self-sufficient. I hope I'm helping by providing a quality product for a pretty reasonable price.

 

[cyanne]

There are a couple of people in my area that build and sell chicken tractors and they seem to be doing VERY well. They started out selling on Craigslist but now both have websites and one was even featured on a local news story. I like both designs and wish I could afford to buy a couple for breeding pens, but they are pretty expensive so I'll be building my own. Here are the web links if you'd like to see their coops and prices, maybe that will give you some ideas for your own:

http://www.mobilechickencoops.com/

http://www.chickenmobilestagecoach.com/

I REALLY like the stagecoach ones, though I wish they had roofing that covered the whole top for shade.