We started off with a little coop that we ordered off the internet. It was supposed to be good for 4 chickens but was really small. So anyway I spent a Saturday putting that setup together and then the following weekend we picked up our 4 chicks. While we were at the farmer's place I was looking at his setups and I got some "coop envy"...lol. So the next weekend I convinced the wife I could build us a coop that was way better than the one we had and for less money. So with a budget of $175 I built this. I think I went over a skoach. I found a great deal on the welded wire mesh so that helped. I made it 4'x8' with the run under half. That helped with the sizes of everything. There is (theoretically) room for 8 but I think 6 is as many as I would be comfortable with.

The real killer was the time involved. It was a really wet winter so it ended up taking way longer to finish just waiting on dry days. It ended up taking like a month and a half of weekends...lol. The end result has been great though and the birds love it. If I had to do it again I would have built the exact same design but I would have layed out the 4 walls and the floor on the ground as panels, attached siding, mesh, and flooring, there and then stood them up and screwed them together and then build the roof. It would have cost a bit more because there would have been two 2x4s in each corner rather than 1. As it was I built the frame and then added the plywood, floor, and wire mesh after which took a lot longer and was much more physical. Plus I could have built the panels in my shop and moved them out which would have saved time waiting for a dry weekend. That is my $.02....
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