Okay, so im new on this website and i absolutely LOVEEE chickens! I live in FL, im going into my Junior year in High school, im President of my FFA chapter, im #1 poultry Judger in my county and #3 ranked in the State! I've been thinking about building a chicken coop for i dont know how long now and would love to have one. My papa told me if i drew a design and figured all the materials i would need he would take me to home depot and buy it for me! I'm not used to people buying me a big number of items like this, im used to working hard and earning my things. So i dont want to break him on a chicken coop! I'm looking to spend maybe $250-$350(give or take) But i want to make this my SAE(supervised agriculture experience) for FFA, so i would be selling infertile eggs and hatching chicks to sell at a loacl farmers market, its part of the production project! My dad and I will be building this coop at my high school and im going to donate it to my FFA chapter when i graduate.... Anyone have ANY ideas or comment to making a chicken coop for about 10 standard hens for infertile and fertile eggs??? Sorry its so longggg Thanks for the help! Just looking for ANY ideas, anything?
The fertile/infertile eggs thing can make it complicated since you would need to keep two separate flocks always separated. That means two separate coops and a set-up where they can never free range together. Could you mention why you want to sell unfertile eggs? I don't understand that. I just don't know why that is necessary. You might look through the Coop Designs section at the very top of this page for coop ideas. A coop for 10 chickens can get big enough thatg it is not very portable. Plus, it is not only the coop. An important part is the run or how much room they have when not in the coop. A lot of different things can work, and in Florida you can get away with a lot of things many of us cannot. Your weather should always be nice enough that they can always get out, so the usual rules of thumb don't have to restrict you as much as they do many of us. You have more options and can probably get away with at least one wall being nothing but wire, which can cut costs quite a bit. But keeping two separate flocks really complicates it. Good luck!
From our experience, now in the process of finishing our first coop, some things we would have done differently, is find out where there is left over construction materials where you can get for free and try to use those up first (or set aside) before you start spending money on it. We had some left over from when my husband was renovating our home and backyard area. Stay away from pressure treated materials for inside the coop due to the chemicals. It's cheaper to get non pressure treated materials anyway Also, I'm no expert in chickens being that I just started my first flock this March but say you end up getting 2 separate flocks, you can do 5 hens and 1 roo as a flock in a small, stationary coop and a 4 hen flock in a small chicken tractor that way both flocks can still free range (if you want free range). Or build 2 small coops and divide the run like Ridgerunner suggested. We're almost done building our coop and so far we have spent about $500 on it, including the run. We originally wanted to make it a tractor but the wheels we'd need for it are about $40 each (because the size of our coop) not including what you would attach the wheels to, and so on. So I think it's cheaper to have a stationary coop if your flock is around 10. My husband cut corners to "save money" - didn't buy exterior plywood, so eventually (or real soon) we will have to make a REAL coop. I'm a little mad about that because we're going to spend even more money in the long run (getting a new coop and all). Right now we have about 5 sq. ft. per chicken inside the coop (coop is 3ft deep x 7ft width x 3 ft height - also 3 ft off the ground so there's a small run underneath.) and for the run they have over 10 sq. ft each. (run is 10ft x 20ft) so it's plenty of room for 9. I think if our flock was smaller, our coop would cost less, so really look into getting free left over construction materials will help you save lots of money. Hope this advice helped, I'm just learning as I go
We used alot of left over material that was saved from building our home, and from job sites my husband works on. That really helped cut costs. Contact a local builder, ask them if you can visit some new construction sites they have going and go through the "scrap" pile. They throw out many fine 2 x 4 and such due to concrete on it, or a nail got stuck the wrong way in it. LOTS of fine wood, that they just disgard as junk. This would have to be done on a daily basis, as here where I live they usally have a burn barrel to rid themselves of it on a daily basis. We have about $350 in ours, and I wish I could have done more or different, but we just did what we could afford. Good luck to you in the process
We used pallets for the frame of our coop cheap strong and big saved us alot of money that we didnt have to by alot of lumber to frame it up. good luck
