Coop Plan suggestions? Pre-made coop suggestions?

[Helix743]

Hello! I am a newbie chicken person with mediocre carpenter skills. I am looking for a small coop (we live in the city and are only allowed to have 2 chickens according to the code).

I looked at downloadable plans for the Garden Coop but when I priced out the materials it came to like $500. Yikes!

I am now looking at the pre-made Salt Box coop off of the My Pet Chicken website which is $399. It looks good, but I was wondering if anyone had experience with it and if it is decent quality materials.

We saw the Chicken Barn at a local feed store, but with nest box and run it was kind of out of our price range. Does anyone have any premade coop recommendations? We are not skilled enough carpenters to piece together scrap wood ad hoc, so we would either need coop plans with less building costs or a premade coop that would be cheaper than the $500 material price on the Garden Coop.

Thanks for y'alls help!

 

[RMBGKY]

2 dog carriers and a dog run from TSC

 

[There a chick...]

We used the coop design that was in a Purina chicken brochure (I think you can find it online) and made some modifications. I am not sure what the cost was in the end because we used some items that were in the garage...

 

[NanaLantana]

Howdy - I just finished the coop I built for the 4 peeps I picked up at the fair. I used all materials I had hanging around in my yard and workshop. Chickens don't need a fancy place - just functional. It could be whatever you want it to be.

I used a 'truck topper' for the roof of the coop - a friend gave me that about 8 yrs ago and it sat behind my shed. I used 4x4 posts at each corner, 2x4's between the posts, set the topper on. I used old 2"x4" welded wire fencing that my neighbor gave me, as she replaced her fence (she also gave me the metal fence posts) . I also used chicken wire at the bottom to preclude the escape of chicks. Put on a door made of 2x4s and wire, used hinges that were hanging around for years, also some 3/4" plywood pieces from an old kids playhouse, and paint. I call it 'coop deville'. My husband looked at it and said it's not strong enough - I told him to try and shake it. It would not budge! I made it with hurricanes in mind, as I'm in S. Florida, Hurricane alley. Next month I'll have the outdoor run fenced in. Right now, my ckicks are not old enough to run around, they're cooped up. I also installed an automatic watering device - a five-gallon bucket with 'poultry nipples' from Farmtek. Had to teach them how to use it, but they've got it now.

Hope you have good success with whatever design you come up with for your flock of 2!

NanaLantana

 

[cochicks]

We bought the foursquare (similar size to the saltbox) from mypetchicken.com. It is TINY! I think only two hens fit in there comfortably. If you plan to have more than two hens, go with the garden coop plan. We started with the foursquare, decided we wanted more than two, and built the garden coop. We expanded the garden coop to fit 10 hens. It ended up costing us about $800. But it was well worth it to have happy hens. Check out my page and/or blog to see more pictures.

http://ourbackyardhens.blogspot.com/

 

[elmo]

What's your climate? A very experienced poultry keeping friend here in North Texas keeps his chickens in large chainlink dog kennels with metal roofs. If he didn't have an Australian Sheepdog guarding the yard, he would add hardware cloth to the bottom sides of his pens and add hardware cloth aprons. In the winter, he tarps the sides of his pens to provide a windblock. I don't think this setup would work for a very cold climate, but hereabouts it works fine, and is not very expensive or difficult to set up, either.