How much did you spend building your coop/run?

[montanasandy]

We spent about 1,500. Well worth it. We love it. You can see the step by step building and size on my page.

 

[kla37]

I am so ashamed of this......probably over $1500. Yikes! What were we thinking???? Well, there is a story behind it. When I originally wanted chickens, it was last summer, and my husband and I were on the verge of divorce. Over the past year, I moved out of our house and in with my mother along with my 7 yr old son. Much better situation now. I have Multiple Sclerosis and I don't want to be alone, and she knows I'm really OK because she sees me everyday now. Kid LOVES living with Grandma who is just of course the COOLEST woman in the WORLD to him. We get along really well, have lived together before, and it's nice to have someone around that is just plain nice and considerate and we appreciate each other. Big change from the abusive jerk I left. Anyway, I wanted to reuse an old doghouse and just fix it up for chickens, add a nice covered run, paint it all pretty, etc. Then Mom started looking at PLANS. Now, she really should have gone into construction. This a woman who prefers shopping at Home Depot over going for clothes and shoes ANYTIME. They KNOW her there. She always is either in the middle of a major project, or planning one, or looking for one. This house is beautiful, open, spacious, etc, but apparently it isn't "done" nor will it EVER be. She has built beautiful decks, redone her kitchen, made a lot covered with trees, underbrush and ivy into a beautifully landscaped backyard complete with lawn and gardens, built an attractive shed, a MacDaddy swingset and sandbox, etc. So, we now have an 8X12 chicken run at the back or our fenced in yard, it's a privacy fence, and we live in the woods. Literally. We set 6X6's as the posts in concrete, leveled the run space (on a slight hill) even put a drainage pipe around the run to divert any extra rain. The base of the run looks rather like a big sandbox, and the bottom boards are about 2 ft high. Wrapped around the bottom of the coop is 1/4" hardware cloth, covered with 1 foot of packed down topsoil. We are going to use mulch and shredded leaves in the run and just turn it. The coop itself is 4X6 inside, with a nice highly pitched roof, complete with a ridge vent, a drip diverter, and real shingles. The coop is elevated 4 feet off the ground, so there is more run space under it. It has a 7 ft long chicken ladder that the chickens use to get up into the coop, and two large doors on the other side that enable the entire coop to open up, one side totally open for cleaning, and one side for the nesting boxes. It of course had to match the house and shed, so it's getting all the extra details, pretty siding, trim, etc. It came a long way from just a doghouse, but we will ALWAYS keep chickens here with all the work and money that has gone into this, and they did it for me and my boys, who just wanted them for eggs, fun, and to learn more about self sustainability. And with my MS, I'm kind of limited on what I can do, so this has been so wonderful for my family to do this for me and the boys.

 

[Paganrose]

We spent about $600 for our 12 by 6 ft walk in coop and run. We used old barn wood (2 by 6's) for the frame which we got free, along with the metal roofing which was 4 by 8 scraps from the landlord. The permit cost 75$, The OSB we got from a local builder for $8 for a 4' by 8' sheet (almost half the price of menards or home depot plus free delivery about $120). The paint I got cheap from a hardware store that was going out of buisness along with some of the chicken wire. The removable plexglass window was expensive, about $120. Then the rest was from little things, hardware, hinges, screws, cinder blocks, wire cutters, tin snips, new saw blade, pond liner for ducks, feeder and water contianiers, gutter for rain barrel etc.....

The poles for the run were already on the property, so were just moved. Our run is not covered, since we free range most of the time, and lock the chooks up at night. Here is an outside pic. the large window is covered with a double layer of chicken wire, with a removable plexiglass window (currently in garage) and we hadn't got the top layer of chicken wire on the run yet. ( I was standing on a hill, so it does not tilit as much as it looks like in the pic.

And an interior drawing

 

[FuzzyButtsFarm]

I originally built an 8 stall barn for my horses but it has morphed into a giant chicken coop. 3 of the stalls have been converted for the chickens and their numbers keep growing. So I guess you could say I spent 30,000. How's that for chicken math.

 

[newTexan2chickens]

Well we bought a 4x4x6 coop that was old from the neighbor for about $35. Then we added a 12x12x3 run to that with hardware cloth.... $200. Added a roof (R panel... tin) for another $100 becuz the chickens were getting wet. Then a dog attack during the day ripped the plywood off the coop and killed all but 2 chickens.... remodel old coop with new wood was another $150. Decided the 3 ft tall pen wasn't tall enough and wanted to expand the coop to 4x12.... that was another $150. What am I up to now.... about $500?? Then I decided I wanted a bigger run.... expanded that to 12x30 and added welded wire to the outside.... cost another $550..... lastest was expanded the coop to 10x12..... another $150. I still have not painted yet.

Here is a picture of the run....

 

[Tigerjane]

Quote:
I had taken at look at yours already

I like how it matches the other buildings, very clean looking. We'd love to do something like that. I'm just nervous to reveal to my husband how much my "hobby" is really going to cost

 

[dsqard]

Quote:
ibeier I think my husband would KILL me if I turned our barn into a 25000 coop!

 

[montanasandy]

Quote:
I had taken at look at yours already

I like how it matches the other buildings, very clean looking. We'd love to do something like that. I'm just nervous to reveal to my husband how much my "hobby" is really going to cost

How you need to do it is this: Take him and show him some pre-made ones talk about how nice they are and then show him the price!!!

If he likes to build it will motivate him to take on the project! Plus it is a nice attention to yard!

Good luck!

 

[columbiacritter]

The current coop I'm building is the first one my husband has bought the lumber for. Previously I have have bought 95% of the material and I do all the building. This time I said, "Nope, I'm broke, if you want to add another flock here's the materials list."

Boy have I heard about the cost of every stick and roll of wire. He's called me several times asking if I really needed this or that and I've said Yep. I even under estimated on some of it. I'll probably just go ahead and buy the last of it myself rather than listen to him squawk.

I should total up the cost of all the screws, nails and paint I used from my supplies and give him that bill to.

He still hasn't bought the posts and most the wire for the run.

 

[Charles07]

$161 using mostly surplus materials. The only things that I purchased were the siding, door hinges and locks.

For pictures, look at my BYC page.

(Looking back on it, I could have obtained free excess siding if I had looked a bit harder.)