Costs of a coop?

[BCollie]

Still need help with the above questions^^^ buuut...My stepdad tore down my little brothers old treehouse today, it was just an eyesore and was never used. Falling apart, too.
NOT all of this wood is going to be usable, but a lot of it should be!

Got a nice big pile of wood to sort through. Already done some sorting, here's the rest that I still need to go through.


So far I've found two 4x4s



10 2x4's



ANTS. ANTS EVERYWHERE. I hate ants so much, and they are everywheerreee. Do chickens eat ants?

 

[speedy2020]

I'm not planning on having my coop on the ground, I want it a couple feet off the ground. Especially because when it rains here, it POURS, so if the coop was on the ground it would get flooded. I've heard a good way to raise it up is with cement blocks? Are those expensive?

I purchased 9 cement blocks (approximately 8" x8" x16") $1.89 each at Home Depot. I did 3 piles group so don't have to deal with leveling. I also attached a 2"x4" support at 4 corners. If I ever need to replace any cement block, the car jack would do the trick.

 

[crazy coops]

I see lots of good coop ideas posted but I'll add my idea too! I recently built 8 coops for our chickens (so each breed has its own coop and run). The coops are 4'x6', not big but big enough to house 10-15 chickens as the only time they're inside is at night. I didn't keep track of my costs but I know they were minimal! I got some of the lumber from a neighbor's scrap lumber pile (a house that they had torn down). The rest of the lumber came from our local lumber yard. It was "cull" lumber-new lumber that was twisted,warped or had knots in it. It was only $1 per board for any size! I got steel for the roofs from the metal bin at the local transfer station! The hardware and screws I bought new. I hastily put together a big box with a door for the chickens and a larger door for people. Since the coops are only about 4 feet tall and it would've been difficult for an adult to get in to clean it or gather eggs I put hinges on the roof so it lifts up to allow me to get in fairly comfortably. I also lined the walls with cardboard. For nesting boxes I used the pieces I cut off longer boards when building the coops. Since we live in an area where yucca plants are abundant I cut the tall spikes off of them and used them for roosts. They will have to be replaced at some time but they're free and abundant! All told, using this plan I probably have less than $100 in each coop! They're not fancy but they look pretty nice end are functional...they keep my chickens safe and happy. Good luck with your coo. They are pretty simple to make and if you need to I'm sure you can find somebody nearby to help you with design and construction.

 

[DuginMT]

I will have $500 into materials by the time I finish my coop, and another couple hundred for the run. All new materials except for the nesting box lid, interior perch ladder, steel drip edges cut from left-over steel siding, spare plexiglass, and the asphalt shingles, which I had left-over from roofing my home. My coop is 6' X 8' and 4' high. Elevated 2' off the ground, with three plexiglass windows. The run will be over 200 SF but fortunately one side is already there, it is the wall of my house. The whole thing will be under my deck, so I plan to attach the run wire to the underside of the deck so they can't fly out. The high cost items were the exterior 5/8" and 3/4" plywood (close to $40 per sheet, and I needed 6 sheets) and the hardware. Since the pics below, I have installed the roof, all doors for the vents, chicken door, human door, and egg collection door, and made their ladder ramp to the chicken door. Ready for paint, and I will probably buy my paint at Wal-Mart like I normally do - it is made by Behr and is good quality paint at a very good price - around $14/gallon and I will need less than two gallons.

 

[gbcheer]

We r building ours out of old pallets. Trying to keep price around $50

 

[aart]

Was just looking up this for a friend to tear pallets apart.

 

[DuginMT]

I think it is great that you are using pallets. The wood is very good - a lot of oak. A wrecking bar and claw hammer would work great for tearing them apart. I would use exterior self-tapping screws for putting the coop together, as you get much less splitting. The screws are in the bulk bins at most hardware stores, I paid $3.99 a pound for them at Ace Hardware in Billings. The star heads are great for use with your drill, they rarely strip the screw. If you use the rough pallet wood, there would be a lot of tiny gaps between the boards, cutting down on the need to install additional ventilation. I like the pallet ideas! You could use the 2X3's or 2X4's for framing and the boards for your walls. The one limitation to pallets is that they are only about 4' square which will limit the size of your coop unless you get creative. I know a guy who built a whole barn out of small panels from motorcycle packing crates, so I guess the sky is the limit! Good luck on your project.

Doug