Mini, foldable. portable, profitable, coop and run!!!!!

[teenchik]

Ok, so here is the idea, spring is coming, my girls are laying, my rooster is fertile, I want some cash. Being a middle schooler with out a job, cash is a little hard to come by. So my plan is incubate some eggs, hatch some chicks, get a booth at a flea market sell chicks with feed, hay, and their own little coop and run.

But of course it's never that easy. The problem is coop and run. I keep designing and redsigning but cannot find a plann to fit my idea.

I dont think my idea is unreachable. But i don't know how to do it so I call on the handy, thrifty, diy, chicken loving, experts out there for some help.

If you guys will help me I will be grateful

 

[dianaross77]

What about using door hinges with pins, or something similar, so the coop could be broken down and put back up easily? It would be a great idea to paint them fun colors to attract buyers.

 

[teenchik]

I have concidered that and I see the idea, but what shape would be best? how much of it do I make the coop? how do I put a floor on the coop? could I put a perch or nesting box? how? how do I have it break down? fold on on it's self? break down like a card board box? where can I get cheap henges? I dont have any money to buy them. how do i get heating? i am going to sell them as chicks. I have endless Ideas but there are lots of different questions and qualifications to concider budget not the least of my propblems.

 

[dianaross77]

Wow! That's a lot of questions. Hinges are fairly cheap if your buying regular smallish one. You might be better off selling a kit. You cut all the pieces and provide instructions on how to put it together. For heat I would suggest a heat lamp. Those are cheap and easy for novices to operate. For how many chickens are you thinking?

 

[teenchik]

EUREKA!!!!!!!

it will just be a compact of boards with bolts and nuts to put the thing together. It's probably big enough for 3-7 chickens.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
I am not trying to rain on your parade, but can I caution you about something about entrepreneurship that it is better to learn from *other* peoples' examples than by insisting on making the mistake yourself?

You can't always sell things you've made, thus you need to be prepared to potentially LOSE whatever money you put into making them.

This is not a huge deal for an adult who is willing to put up a few hundred or thousand or tens of thousands dollars as 'working capital', but if you are a middle schooler, the cost of the materials to make just ONE coop, and feed just ONE hatch of chicks, is likely to be a pretty big deal to you (especially if your whole point is that you are feeling short of money).

Making an adequate (-sized, and adequately-secure) coop and run for even just 3-4 chickens is hard to do for less than $300 or so unless you can build something out of totally-scrounged materials. Do you HAVE that kind of money to put up, are you willing to possibly lose much of it, and is the economy in your area such that you can realistically expect to sell the thing for more than the materials cost you?

Also, do you have plans for what to do with the chicks if they do not sell, and will you be ok with being "out" the cost of feed etc for them if you get stuck with them for a longer period of time? And the cost of the flea-market space, as well?

I am concerned that by middle-schooler standards, this seems like a rather high-investment project with relatively low prospect of making much, if any, profit.

One alternative would be to post fliers at local feedstores etc saying you are taking chick ORDERS... this is still risky in that many people will sign up for chicks and then never actually come get them, leaving you profitless AND with chicks to feed. But if that happens you can THEN try to sell them to other people, so at that point it becomes the same as (the chick part of) your original plan anyhow.

Another alternative is to get serious about scrounging coop and run materials. Then when you have enough to build "something reasonable", build it and put it up for sale. You may not get a *huge* lot for it, but probably not too far from what you'd have gotten for one built with store-boughten materials and this way the money will be almost pure profit. And you can always offer to hatch some chicks for the buyer

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Henferno]

Really, with smart shopping and minimal scrounging, you could probably do that cute little coop for under $100. I'd say go for it, if you really want to. That's actually something I was just thinking of doing for these past few months (I'm a jobless highschooler, I understand)--and jeez, who wouldn't want to buy a cute little set-up like that, especially city people who just want "a few hens for laying?"

And if you do go for it, despite the well-thought-out risks pointed out by Pat--The best of luck to you!

 

[Christine21656]

Could you sell plans for that coop? Maybe try to design one with the least amount of cuts, and the most simple you can think of. Good luck!