Low Cost Solutions for Chickens

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LowBudgetFarmer

LowBudgetFarmer

Hatching
7 Years
Sep 27, 2012
4
1
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I just figured I'd start a thread where everyone shares their low cost solutions for various chicken issues.

My first major low cost solution was when I bought my house it had a small 11'x11' area fenced off with an old Dog House. Well that dog house with some renovations became my chicken coop.

My most recent was when one of my hens decided to go broody I needed something to shelter where she decided to have her nest. The spot wasn't bad just if it was to rain hard it would have standing water. I didn't want the chicks drowning in the eggs so I got one of those cheep Cat Litter boxes that had a top, went out at night and moved her and the eggs into the litter box and put it back where she was to reduce the likely hood of her abandoning the eggs. There is a picture of this on my profile if you want an idea. And since it was missing a clip for the top Wal-Mart reduced it by 50%, making it an $8 solution.
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Feel free to post what you've done to save money, or if you have questions. I'll try to keep this updated on a regular basis.
 
Nice!

I lucked out on our old coop and pen/run. I got 8 - 6'X10' dog chain link kennel panels for $80 and 2 have doors. I used 6 for the walls/sides and 2 to help hold the sides together and closed it all in with chicken wire and cattle panel on the ground to keep the larger predators from digging in.

We have since built a new one and added a run to it. We use the old one to raise the babies in because it is so secure. The adults we let free range and put them back at night.

Also both have mesquite tree branches for perches that only cost fuel for chainsaw or electricity for sawzall depending where I cut them at the time so I guess that one was cheap also.

Here is a post with pics of our 2 coops.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/711872/new-coop-and-old-coop
 
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Keeping an eye on the craigslist free stuff is a good way to amass building materials. Chickens don't care if the 2x4's have old nail holes in it or not. I made my coop out of used wood and scraps I had in the shed. I did buy some shingles and hardware cloth, but went to Gulfeagle supply on 49, they have shingles for $10 a pack. I spent about $35 to build the coop.

 
Well, our low cost solution has been our entire coop and run! We got an old playhouse off craigslist for free, along with 75% of the materials we used to convert is to the coop, and to build the run. Anything we did pay for was bought at the re-building center here in PDX, and was reclaimed (VERY cheap) materials. The most expensive thing we've bought, and really the only brand new thing other than the $6 vinyl gutter) was the tin roofing for the run which cost $100. We only bought new because we couldn't find any used in good shape. I'd say at this point we've spent under $250 total.
Here is the link to my coop building thread if anyone is interested. Low cost, but it still looks nice (or so I think anyways.) We're finishing building the run this week, and then all we'll have left is to paint it to math the coop!

Wooden Playhouse Conversion
 
I also collected lots of free stuff, including packing crates and pallets and old cedar fencing and was hoping to build the coop four under $100.00.

I lucked out on finding about 25 feet of 1/2x1/2 wire mesh and a roll of chicken wire at Habitat as well as all the hinges and latches and sheet vinyl for the floor for about $20.00 and also three sheets of 12'X3' tin roofing for $ $12.00. We has lots of left over wood and paint from past projects but we still spent about $120.00 for two more sheets of tin, chicken wire and mesh but mostly for screws staples and nails but we ended up with a 4x7 coop 51/2' tall two detachable nest boxes and a 12x7 foot covered walk-in in run.

If I had it to do over I would do thing about the same but I would have had the coop completely finished before I bought home the chicks.
 
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