Can you build your own coop?

[MommaHenn]

It is possible to "build-it-yourself" the first time around. We made it a family project and the children all learned so much! It was a great experience. I highly recommend it. We looked on BYC at other peoples' coops and combined what we liked to make our own.

 

[Mauka]

It is possible. My husband whipped this up in a few days. Came up the the design in ten minutes and ran with it. It was VERY expensive but I think a lot of that has to do with The higher cost of things in hawaii. Costco sells some pretty nice starters, but the satisfaction gained from making your own is quite nice.

 

[Bigdaddy101]

The funnest part for building coops to me is using found objects. I have used a truck bed cover, and truck bed camper, a kids play house, pieces from and over cab camper and not to mention as much "found" lumber and supplies as possible. It is also fun because there are no rules. Have fun and be creative. Let'er Tator Chip

 

[mlcilmi]

MommaHen~ We originally bought a coop to be assembled and it was the worst quality imaginable. We've decided to build our own instead, and we love your design. Did you find the plans somewhere or design your own? Are you willing to share? Would also love our kiddos to get involved- looks like fun!!

 

[yellowchicks]

We designed and built our coop and run, it took about 3 weeks, with 4 people working on it.

Let's just say that the chicken coop and our guest bathroom project started around the same time last year. As of today, 11 months later, our chickens are laying eggs, our guest bathroom still doesn't have sheetrock in place. Those chicks definitely provide more incentives to mobilize helpers.

 

[Blooie]

We built our own too. We have no carpentry skills at all, although hubby is a professional electrician. Between us we couldn't stack a straight sandwich. But we got it done, and we love it! The first thing we did was give our two 8 year old grandkids graph paper and colored pencils. We asked them to come up with their designs for a chicken coop and told them we'd use the best parts from each plan. Katie and Evan (cousins, not brother and sister) worked very hard on their plans. Katie's ended up being pink and purple - with turrets! Surprise, surprise! Evan's was really neat - he did a basic "house" shape, then used a black sharpie to put lines on it. He colored each rectangle formed by the lines a different color...red, blue, green, and yellow. He wanted us to paint our coop to look like it was built from Legos! Um, is it okay to confess I actually considered it? Anyway, we did use some of their suggestions, and we are very happy with it.



8 year old grandson Evan helping Ken with the framing.



The run, made from fence posts, cattle panels, chicken wire and hardware cloth, with a little lattice for "purty".



The coop. When I transferred all the features from the different designs, I goofed. The coop is 6'x8'. I had mistakenly put that dimension down twice on the final plan, so Ken thought I wanted the roof to go from 6' tall in the back to 8' tall in the front as well. After all, I had told him that I wanted to be able to walk in it without stooping. Oops. But it did turn out to be a smart design for additional ventilation...that high ceiling does a great job of letting moist air out of the coop in winter.

 

[4season]

I think the real question here is not if you can build your own coop but why should you buy a prebuilt coop. The only reasons I can think of are lack of time, excess money, or the love of underbuilt crap. (Not that all the premade coops are crap, but all the less than expensive ones are.)

Look at some of the coop builds on this site for ideas, even find one that fits your needs and rip it off. Make some added features and post you build. Dig up some free supplies from were you can find, buy some small parts if you need and do it as cheep as you can, or buy the best materials you can find, use the most elaborate design you can imagine, and build the ultimate coop that makes us all envious. Or pick somewhere in between elaborate and almost free. Regardless of the size, design, or cost I bet you will have more fun with building it and it will find your chickens more rewarding than some simple set up, easy way out coop that you bought.

 

[sophiaw00]

We built our own too. We have no carpentry skills at all, although hubby is a professional electrician. Between us we couldn't stack a straight sandwich. But we got it done, and we love it! The first thing we did was give our two 8 year old grandkids graph paper and colored pencils. We asked them to come up with their designs for a chicken coop and told them we'd use the best parts from each plan. Katie and Evan (cousins, not brother and sister) worked very hard on their plans. Katie's ended up being pink and purple - with turrets! Surprise, surprise! Evan's was really neat - he did a basic "house" shape, then used a black sharpie to put lines on it. He colored each rectangle formed by the lines a different color...red, blue, green, and yellow. He wanted us to paint our coop to look like it was built from Legos! Um, is it okay to confess I actually considered it? Anyway, we did use some of their suggestions, and we are very happy with it.



8 year old grandson Evan helping Ken with the framing.



The run, made from fence posts, cattle panels, chicken wire and hardware cloth, with a little lattice for "purty".



The coop. When I transferred all the features from the different designs, I goofed. The coop is 6'x8'. I had mistakenly put that dimension down twice on the final plan, so Ken thought I wanted the roof to go from 6' tall in the back to 8' tall in the front as well. After all, I had told him that I wanted to be able to walk in it without stooping. Oops. But it did turn out to be a smart design for additional ventilation...that high ceiling does a great job of letting moist air out of the coop in winter.

I LOVE your coop! We just got done building our coop but it's my first flock of chickens and I didn't totally think things through. I didn't know what breeds I was getting when the coop was being built and I ended up with all pretty large breeds and I don't think my coop is big enough. I posted a thread about it but I have a lot of questions about your coop (thinking about just building a new one). Can I private message you so I don't fill up the OPs thread?

 

[Blooie]

I LOVE your coop! We just got done building our coop but it's my first flock of chickens and I didn't totally think things through. I didn't know what breeds I was getting when the coop was being built and I ended up with all pretty large breeds and I don't think my coop is big enough. I posted a thread about it but I have a lot of questions about your coop (thinking about just building a new one). Can I private message you so I don't fill up the OPs thread?

Absolutely! You can also see our coop in the building process by clicking on "My Coop" under my avatar.

 

[lindseyawest]

I did...not sure I should have..but i did

Haha, this is how I feel about halfway through the process of building my own coop.