Let's be honest folks!!!

[Beekissed]

It gets single digits here at times but mostly in the teens at the low and average is high 20s to low 30s on regular winters. I think the hay stacked up on the walls is a very thick and effective insulator, as long as you allow for good ventilation at the top of the arch, as I will do. Hay has some humidity of it's own to add to the chicken's...luckily, ventilation is an easy thing to arrange on this style coop. I plan to do a double layer of plastic on the end caps but keep the top of the arch open.

I don't have anything on the bottom for digging preds, as I have a great dog that lives near the coop/chickens...but it's pretty simple to just put a 1x1 welded wire floor on the thing. The wire floor would even make it more simple to move if you move it with the chickens inside...no running over any chickens that way.

Total cost of this build was $205 but would be slightly more with wire flooring and overlay.

 

[blueberrychickens]

Let's provide insight to those who are thinking of quickly building a coop. Answer these two questions...
1) How long would you say it took you to actually complete your coop, start to finish?
2) Were you able to stay within your planned budget?

Coop #1
a little less than a month....
way over budget!

Coop #2
has yet to be started, ask me next weekend!

 

[monaname]

1. Still in progress, start date, July 2011. Window trim and paint job still needed. Also want a rain gutter.
2. Take the budget and light it on fire. I like to think I'm enjoying the most luxurious eggs you can't buy.

 

[SmokinChick]

2 months (with chicks in basement)
I can't spell budget!

 

[EeyoreD]

Thanks, I think it gets a little colder here but from what I'm reading around this site and on the net it seems like ventilation is actually a bigger issue than insulation/warmth (provided the birds are kept out of direct breezes).

I might give it a go, I could probably just add more bales around if anything is an issue.

Thanks again!

It gets single digits here at times but mostly in the teens at the low and average is high 20s to low 30s on regular winters. I think the hay stacked up on the walls is a very thick and effective insulator, as long as you allow for good ventilation at the top of the arch, as I will do. Hay has some humidity of it's own to add to the chicken's...luckily, ventilation is an easy thing to arrange on this style coop. I plan to do a double layer of plastic on the end caps but keep the top of the arch open.

I don't have anything on the bottom for digging preds, as I have a great dog that lives near the coop/chickens...but it's pretty simple to just put a 1x1 welded wire floor on the thing. The wire floor would even make it more simple to move if you move it with the chickens inside...no running over any chickens that way.

Total cost of this build was $205 but would be slightly more with wire flooring and overlay.

 

[mcjessen]

1st coop: took about 3 weeks to build
1st coop: over budget by about $100

2nd coop: had a college student build it. He delivered it a week after we ordered it.
2nd coop: The coop itself as delivered was on budget. But, we added stuff to it. It's almost finished but we haven't even started on the run area yet. So, over budget but will be totally worth it.

 

[TheLoveShack]

We just finished ours. It took 3 people 2 weekends (one was rainy and we worked probably only 6 hours total in the 2 days), and a few evenings in between. We walled off the back section of our pre-existing shed to create a 12'x6' coop area, so just one wall had to be built and the run. We really didn't buckle down, just tooled around, drank beer, painted things at random... We had almost all of the lumber for free, so it ran us about $160 to do the whole project. This does not include feeder, waterer, haven't bought hay for it yet...

 

[Silkie88]

1) 2 weeks (probally 20 hours or so all together)
2) Not a weeeeeeee bit!!
Planed on spending-200
Spent-450!!
The chicks will be in it on friday

Here it is: