Coop contest suggestion......

[Hoosiermomma]

Hi. I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this or not. I saw the thread with the winners of the coop contest. The ones picked look wonderful. However I would like to suggest that you have one where the coops made, need to be constructed under a certain amount or made out of recycled materials. The one coop that was chosen, was made for close to $1000. That's great but not everyone has that much to spend on a coop. Also given the 'green' movement, I think we should all try to use as much recycled material as we can when building anything.
Well it's just a suggestion. After seeing the coops that were featured I just thought it would be fun to see who could make a coop for next to nothing.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Thanks for the suggestion. We consider a LOT of variables when choosing winners for our coop contests. Many are related to the number and quality of pictures, descriptions, information, etc. We've found that there is usually a correlation between people who spend a lot of time and/or money on their coops and the quality of their coop pages. With that said, we've had winners in the past that used only recycled materials.

In general the idea of the coop section of BYC is to provide a plethora of coop designs and ideas along with information about building the coops. From that point we expect that people will create their own designs and decide if they want to buy all new materials or use recycled materials. Almost all the coops on BYC could be adjusted to be made with 100% recycled or reclaimed materials.

We may have additional coop contests for submissions that meet specific guidelines (like 100% green, etc), but for now we want to do all we can to encourage every size, shape, and type of coop page creation and then allow readers decide how they want to build their own coops based on these pages.

 

[Reinbeau]

I actually think this is a good idea, a coop contest that produces a quality coop for the least amount of money, using recycled, scrounged, bargain-bin materials. While I agree, Rob, we need to encourage coops of all types, one that specific could be a fun venture!

 

[Hoosiermomma]

Thanks for both of your responses. I agree with what you both are saying. I do think with this past contest you more or less had one of each....something made of recycled material (reusing skids) while the other was primarily made with store bought items. I just thought having another contest in which the main focus was on recycling, scrounging, using green items while spending the least amount of money, it would challenge people to think outside the box and be more creative versus have unlimited resources at their disposal. That's why I made the suggestion. Anyone can make a nice coop with a lot of store bought materials but who can make one out of things found around the house, just being thrown out etc. ?
Thanks again for your replies! I really appreciate it! Have a great day!