$$$- how much did you spend?

[Lifetime chicken lover]

I have seen some AMAZING coops on this website!!!

Right now my chickens are living in an old metal shed that I'm converting into a half-way decent coop (using old barn wood. etc.) but its nowhere near as amazing as what I see others put together. I feel pretty stupid when I see the other coops.

I'm just wondering how much money you spent to make your coop?
I would LOVE to make my own coop, but am on a pretty limited budget and am not exceptionally handy (but am willing to learn or live and learn by trial and error). Some of the coops I've seen look like $500-$1000 was put into their construction. Who here has built on a limited budget? And how?

 

[HudsonValleyGirl]

We purchased our coop from a carpenter in my area. It cost 600.00 with an enclosed run. To add our fenced in yard it cost 100.00 in materials and my husband and father put the fence up. They could have made it on their own, but my husband is lazy.

Here are some pictures.


https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=358727

Right now I am saving for an amish chicken coop. It will cost me a little over a 1000.00. My exsisting coop is really limited to 6 hens. I really want like 10 and a rooster at some point.

 

[surfchicken72]

I'm at about $185 so far with only 20% recycled material. (that's all I could get my hands on......)
I think the hardware cloth for the run is gonna be a big expense unless I can find it in bulk.

See my BYC page for the coop "so-far"
only about 16 hours with me and my pops to get to that point., and we're just "ham-n-eggers".......

 

[LovinMyPeeps]

Where you live has a lot to do with your coop too hun. I live in WAY Northern NY, zone 3 for gardening. I have to spend more in order to properly vent, insulate, etc then the runs. One thing I have found is that the major box stores (ie: lowes and HD) will often give you scratch and dent prices, like I did my raised beds with trex decking for 10 bucks a board because the face of them was marred. You'd also be suprised what you can get with stuff off Craiglist and Freecycle.org...

If you have ANY carpentry skills at all, you can probably suprise yourself with your coop. Our local Amish built my newest coop for $300. I am slowly renowing the interior so that it's suitable for this winter... Cheers!

Kristen

 

[ondreeuh]

We spent about $200 on our coop (6x6, shed style). We had saved up materials left over from other projects, had materials given to us by neighbors, scoured the ReStore & similar stores, bought recycled paint, etc. The only things we bought new were some 2x4s, a bit of roof flashing, and a small roll of hardware cloth. The run is going to be more expensive because of the large rolls of fencing materials, 4x4s and pier blocks (although we bought some of those used).

 

[dichotomymom]

When we moved in to our farmette, the guy had already made a lean to attached to the garage with an open top dog run. All I did was put field fence over the top and chicken wire up the sides so around 50 dollars max. I'd love to have a more attractive one some day.

 

[columbiacritter]

We have weather and predator issues. Weather means a lot of rain and sometimes heavy snow loads so coops have to be roomy enough for them to hang out in on rainy days and durable enough to hold up several feet of snow. Plus we are rural surrounded by forest land so predators which pretty much mean 40% of the cost of coop and run is in the run because of all the wire and reinforcing.

Built 4 years ago my main coop 8x8 probably $300 for the materials with 80% being recycled wood from a deck and $150 for wire with all the posts for the run being salvaged. The run is 30' x 20' aprox.

2 years ago 2nd coop was decorative since it was in our front yard so not so much recycled stuff. Easily $300 for a 4x4 bantam coop and 15 x 8 run.

This year 3rd coop I bought as a kit and it was not so great, but I made it work. $300 for the coop, $50 for paint and improvements to make it usable. Salvage lumber to build a platform for it. Recycled posts for the 20 x 9 run. Wire and a gate, $150.

4th coop, isolation area, is a recycled dog house and run so Zero dollars

5th coop, yet to be built, because os issues is being built completely with new material and I'm out of fence posts so those will have to be bought as well. My husband is supposed to be buying all my materials soon so I'm not building it in the hot August sun. I'm figuring around $500 at least for a 4x 6 duplex bantam coop with a 9 x 25 run that will be divided in half to make 2 9 x 12 runs eventually.

All these numbers really don't reflect a true cost when you factor in time, tools, bandaids and beer.