My favorite coop has plans for sale (Country Living Magazine coop)

[BlueBetween]

I love this coop - it's one of the inspirations for mine, with the storage built in and all, though theirs is so much more elegant than mine turned out. I was surprised to find it in Country Living magazine this month and if you follow the pages to the end, there is a link to purchase the plans for it. Wish they'd had them 3 months ago!!

http://www.countryliving.com/outdoor/outdoor-living/ultimate-chicken-coop-roosting-house#fbIndex2

 

[ThinkingChickens]

That is so beautiful. The plans are $40 but I bet materials are going to be in the $600+ range unless you can find some free materials. It's lovely though and I'd pay more for a coop since I have a small yard and need mine to look good. =0)

 

[BlueBetween]

the article says she spent... um... I think $1600 - all materials from Home Depot. But I'm sure it could be built for less.

 

[jm93030]

Im just wondering for how long will last that clean.

Personally is not worth to spend more that $100 in a coop

sorry no ofence just my experience as a begginer and also wanted to buy the best

at the end it gets dirty

make the numbers and you will be paying more for your eggs if you decide to go fancy coop.

 

[BlueBetween]

well, she has pictures of it when it was brand new and the chicks were babies... and then pictures of it now with them grown up and both are spotless... she must have had to scrub that thing for the photo shoot! Mine will never again be as clean as it was the first day, and I'm ok with that.

 

[CarolynF]

I saw the article, too. Yep $1,600! The 16" concrete footings may have contributed some to that, and they used 1/2 inch hardware cloth for the whole thing. I don't think they used enough ventilation, though. The cupola on the top doesn't look functional, does anyone know if it is? I was amazed at how quickly the $ add up. Mine cost over $300 and it's small and very plain. The wire was a big chunk of the cost.

Very pretty though.

 

[ThinkingChickens]

If it's convenient to use and has vinyl siding it might be worth it to many folks. I have Eglu houses so I'm more interested in the looks and ease of use over it being cheap. I think I could build this one for under $1000 but I'd have to stalk the ReStore and Home Depot cull bin. LOL It's beautiful. A totally dreamy coop.

 

[MakNugget]

I'm not surprised at the quote. If you buy everything new (and fancy) and nothing second hand it's easily that expensive. I'm not so inclined *ahem* to say how much my coop and run cost, but it's very close, weighing in at a raised 5x4x5 inside a 8x12x8 run.

I'm determined to spend MUCH LESS on my second coop, but it's still going to be with all new construction. Spent $285 at HD for 99% of all the wood and roofing materials I'll (should) need. What remains are screws, fender washers, hardware cloth, primer, paint, caulk, and various hinges and pulls, which can easily end up adding another 150 or 250 to the final bill. I'm doing better at sticking to my estimate so far... we'll see how it holds up when I finally move the girls in, ha.

 

[BlueBetween]

my coop may have been about 2/3rds that price... I don't know because I stopped counting after $600... at that point, I no longer wanted to know. BUT, the nice thing, is we have now made a tractor out of the scraps and that thing has cost almost nothing - we had to get some wheels and another latch... but everything else was scrap or extras. So I feel better about the cost now that I have a tractor too.

 

[MakNugget]

Quote:
I know what you mean. It wasn't long for me to get into denial mode -- I just wanted to get it done!!

The good thing is that after this next coop, I should have enough scraps to actually build something useful like a proper broody A-frame or a feeding table. That's assuming I'll want to see another screw again for a few weeks after the coop...