Newbie need advice!! coop construction

[wendyrun]

Hi everyone,

I just want to say what a wonderful time I've been having lurking here
so much information and have been learning a lot!!!

Here is my dilemma...
we are not people who can make things. we are not handy...I'm so envious of all the folks here who are handy but we are just not in that crowd.

I read the thread on really bad coops on CL, have been looking for people in my area who build and found this ad and thinking it sounds reasonable...

http://gainesville.craigslist.org/grd/1723898645.html

that is a fair price for the simple coop listed as the number 4, yes??

I got a book and it has directions and dimensions to DIY and, well, it's got too many directions. I just can't see us getting this done. (Keeping Chickens Ashely English - anyone built that tractor?).

so the possibilities are
1) pay someone to make something without getting taken for a ride
2) mangle the DIY coop ourselves
3) invite my dad, the engineer, to visit us in FL and mangle the DIY coop - which is better than what we can do but will be uglier than someone else making it

We can't get chickens until they have a home but I am not in a hurry.

and thanks to the wonderful people on this site who've waded through and thoughtfully posted our local ordinances, chickens are not chickens unless there are more than 2, and our HOA says "No livestock or poultry except as household pets".
I think we're good for 2 hens, but it's a little sketchy. We have ~ 1/2 acre and want something we can move around and (cough cough) quiet girls....
I just don't want to have to mess with getting a permit for anything, and a permanent structure even with a fenced yard, sure to draw more attention...

the question for those who wade through my too long post ...
suck it up and pay someone and what's reasonable??
or make something awful - and let my dad putter through it and just get over how ugly it will be?
it's got to be movable and light!

thanks in advance
Wendy

 

[chicks4kids]

I think it's too much. I understand you saying that you're not handy at all, but chickens don't need much. You could build a much nicer coop for $150. I just bought 4 of those same coops for $40 a piece from a guy off of craigslist. I think that if you bought this coop for $150 you would quickly want a larger one and wish you hadn't bought it. That's my honest opinion.

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

Coop Number four is a tractor and that is definately not something I would keep chickens except during the day, definately not as a permanant residence. sorry.

I suggest you call around your local carpenters and see if they can build you something small. Look on my BYC page I can't cut straight worth a darn but I have the imagination to do stuff

I just get frustrated with myself for not being able to create something like I picture it in my head, but I do a passable job of making it livable and simple usually. lol

I will see if I can't find you guys some simple straight forward plans (I like these

myself) on how to fix a good secure tractor or a small mini coop similar to mine that can be converted into a tractor with wheels. Maybe someone else can beat me to it, I won't beable to go looking till the morning.

Good luck you guys!

 

[chicks4kids]

Do you have a cordless drill??? If so, or even if it's a corded drill, you can build exactly what your chickens will want.........seriously. I hate to see you spend that much money on #4. The 4 chicken pens I was speaking of currently house my meat chickens..........not at all what you want for your egg layers. Do you have any friends that you could coax over with a 12 pack to help you construct some kind of chicken house?? Pizza and beer can work miracles sometimes............gets the imagination going too

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

Quote:
LOL I dont know if I'd trust a bunch of folks with beer and power tools

that just screams a trip to the hospital there. - lol I got a good laugh at my own quick imagry...
"Hey look you guys Bob cut his finger off with the miter saw!" or
"Oh man I didn't mean to drill a hole in my hand...Um you guys I can't feel my fingers...."

Offer the beer after the coop building for the day - pizza during.

 

[kungfukitty]

Very funny and all too true!

 

[aubreynoramarie]

no way! beer aND powertoold just means it would be done faster! and in a very..."abstract" way"

 

[lcoil79]

Anyone else notice that coop#2 is off of this site?

 

[Laurajean]

Well, I suspect my opinion might be different than a lot of other posters here, but I say save yourself the headache and have someone build one for you. You said more than once you aren't handy and will mangle it, and you said more than once that if your dad, etc "help" it will be ugly and you'll have to deal with it. If you're anything like me, you want a coop you can feel pleased with and be able to look at without cringing and regret.

The one you linked to on Craig's list seems pretty lame for the price, honestly. You can do a lot better than that or just hire a local carpenter (not a big company, but a local one-man show type) and pay a reasonable amount to have it done right. That's what I am in the process of doing. I've tried to explain on here that I don't think I could handle building a coop, etc and everyone said "Sure you can!" Well, I can't. I have Fibromyalgia, so I wouldn't be able to physically handle it, but even without that I don't feel handy enough. So for me, it was worth it to look through the paper and find a guy to come build it for me. All my neighbors can come over and admire it and tell me how I should have just done it myself and saved money, blah blah, but it's my headache I spared not theirs. I find that handy people have an easy time trying to convince others that being handy is easy, but they don't know how "un-handy" we can really be!

I feel like I sensed from your post that you don't want to do it yourself and I think you don't want your family botching it either. Just save yourself the headache and let someone with the skill build you a small, simple coop that you can feel happy with. Oh, and I agree with the other poster who said keeping them in a model like the CL one would not be a good idea. They need more space than that, but you should be able to find someone who will build one more suitable for a fair price.

Good Luck to you, and

 

[smilingcat]

Why not print out some of the very nice coops shown in the coop design page here and ask a carpenter in your area to give you a quote. There are so many who are out of work with the building industry, I'm sure someone would do it for reasonable price. You would want someone other than a "handyman" or someone who does framing only. You want someone who can do the finish work.

And definitly, beer is at the end of the day not during construction.