I've come to the conclusion...

I bet if you keep an eye on craigslist or freecycle you could get everything free you need to set up for chickens.
They don't need a fancy coop just sturdy and dry as for a run well heck people allways have extra fencing laying around...
Paint to if you wanna paint the coop people usally have extra laying around.
Use you imagination and I bet for free or nearly free you could have a great set up....
I would even send you free some eggs to incubate (when those stubborn bantam hens start laying),you can make a incubator to.....You could test em for me.....

 

I know your frustations all too well. Money is tight here too. My husband has only been working 8-16 hours a week. Search Craigslist, I'm sure something will come up. If there's a will there's a way. Trust me I know.

 

I'm about to start building a multi-pen coop almost entirely out of pallet boards. Our local Tractor Supply just throws them in a dumpster - they told me I can have as many as I want. It's a pain to have to tear them apart and tap the nails out - but it's either spend the time or spend the money!

I have a little girl potty training, too, and it's tough to try to get some serious work done with one that small tagging around "helping." Don't give up on your dreams! I bet you could have a small chicken tractor knocked together in no time and get yourself a few hens to start with.

 

one way to save money on a coop is to find warehouses and other places that give away crates and pallets..we have built a rabbit hutch, chicken coop, goat pen, and a huge chick brooder for practically nothing using scavenged pallets and crates thrown away.. you can get a box of chicks from a feed store for 10 bucks.

 

I would think even an old chest of draws would work in a pinch provided you live in a warm climate. I think it would be good enough for 3 chickens. You would need a small piece of plywood in place of the draws. A person can get very creative when they need to. There's usually free chickens on Craigslist. Even scrap building materials would be good.

 

If you're going to get a better kennel for your dogs, can chickens have the old one? Maybe you can add that idea into your plans.

 

Honey, ANYTIME you see a dumpster overflowing on a job/worksite, get IN it!!!! The construction people throw stuff away left and right and if you ask, they don't care if you pick through. Just make sure you leave the place as clean as you found it. We built a 30x60 coop out of pallets, I found the door on the side of the road where they were re-doing an old house, found the 2x4 wire rolled up nice and neat in a dumpster behind a battery store, and bartered for the tin on the roof. All it cost us was the hinges to put the doors up!! The pallets my husband gets are like 6x12 with hardwood 4x4's on the bottom for runners, so those are our corner posts. It wasn't fun tearing down 40 pallets, but it was fun filling that big old coop up with birds!!!! I'd rather work or barter for something, than pay for it ANYDAY!

 

I feel you.

I have sadly come to the same conclusion. I keep an eye on craigslist and watch for free pallets to pick up. My problem is that we don't have a truck. Just a hatchback Versa and a regular car. Hard to fit the 'structural' elements in that small of a space.

Piled on top of that we've got a large tax bill to take care of this year that Hubs and I are both having to remind each other (when we want something) "Taxes first!"

To do the coop/run the way I want to do them will be costly. Then Hubs reminds me that we want to sell our house in a few years and he swears no one will want to buy a house with a chicken coop.

I'm rather down about the whole thing.

 

That's exactly what I was going to suggest after reading the opening of this thread. If you dogs get a new kennel, old kennel can become chicken run. If you can find someone local and just get a few hens , or buy a few at a feed store, kennel is the run and you can build a wee coop out of scrap wood.