Virginia

[finnfur]

I'm not far from you...west of Short Pump. Wanted to tell you, I'm not sure you can find an inexpensive one. I've been looking for half a year...Richmond craigslist, chicken swaps, etc. To be honest, I think the only way you are going to be able to get a coop you can afford is to build one yourself. I'm in the same boat...can't afford hundreds of dollars on a coop (I needed another one...chicken math, ya know) so I built one out of scrap lumber I found off craigslist...including pallets.

Good luck!

Yes " AFFORDABLE" is a very relative term LOL - i have seen several on line built from pallets but even then you need other materials.
Do some "google" and there are lots of ideas . After the chicken tractor we progressed to coops on trailers and Enet fence to move them around for grazing. Works for us but not cheap either.

 

[pysankigirl]

Does anyone one have any suggestions for where I can buy a fairly large affordable coop? I want a coop that can hold about a dozen bantams but I am having trouble finding that I can afford. Thanks so much! I live in Mechanicsville.

man, I LOVE building coops. love designing them, building them...but not paying for the materials. I want a pallet buster

 

[HaplessRunner]

Does anyone one have any suggestions for where I can buy a fairly large affordable coop? I want a coop that can hold about a dozen bantams but I am having trouble finding that I can afford. Thanks so much! I live in Mechanicsville.

As others have noted, you basically cannot buy an affordable coop. Wile I was very lucky in June of 2012, I found someone on CL that had to move and sold me their doll house 8x10 coop for $1500. They had paid well over $3k for this coop 8 months earlier.

While building one can take a lot of time, you can re-purpose/recycle other materials into your new coop. Having faced some resistance from my DW on costs, I decided to try and build my second coop. I found that the prices of plywood and T-111 were around $38-48/sheet which I felt was too expensive. So I found a local sawmill and had some rough cut 1" x 10" x 10' oak boards that provided a corresponding cost of $18/sheet equivalent. I could have chosen poplar boards and the cost would have been ~ $15/sheet equivalent. The window for this coop came from Habitat for Humanity Restore for $25. Like I said, it took quite some time to build since I still work for a living. But I now have a 4x8 coop with nest box that is a tank! I also used stainless steel crews in all exposed areas which was more costly but will never show rust stains.

I, too, was tempted to try a pallet-based coop but I could not get enough pallets that were in decent condition to make this work. Good luck with your new project. It will be a work of love!

 

[DCchicken]

As others have noted, you basically cannot buy an affordable coop. Wile I was very lucky in June of 2012, I found someone on CL that had to move and sold me their doll house 8x10 coop for $1500. They had paid well over $3k for this coop 8 months earlier.

While building one can take a lot of time, you can re-purpose/recycle other materials into your new coop. Having faced some resistance from my DW on costs, I decided to try and build my second coop. I found that the prices of plywood and T-111 were around $38-48/sheet which I felt was too expensive. So I found a local sawmill and had some rough cut 1" x 10" x 10' oak boards that provided a corresponding cost of $18/sheet equivalent. I could have chosen poplar boards and the cost would have been ~ $15/sheet equivalent. The window for this coop came from Habitat for Humanity Restore for $25. Like I said, it took quite some time to build since I still work for a living. But I now have a 4x8 coop with nest box that is a tank! I also used stainless steel crews in all exposed areas which was more costly but will never show rust stains.

I, too, was tempted to try a pallet-based coop but I could not get enough pallets that were in decent condition to make this work. Good luck with your new project. It will be a work of love!

I found a lady in NC that sells 5x6 Amish style coops for around $500. I had two delivered and they are better built than the coop I built. She uses left over wood from the construction of new homes, so it is recycling (somewhat). I think I gave her around $200 in gas to cover the trip from NC to MD. Well worth a look. I am going to buy 4 more from her in the Spring. I don't remember her email but she posts quite often on NC craigslist.

 

[Mtn Laurel]

We used a lot of recycled material when building our coop. The tin roof was from a roofing friend, it was slightly dinged in places and he couldn't use it for new roofs. The windows were from a friend that does remodeling, he gave them to us instead of taking them to the dump. We found lumber on the cheap off craigslist - a man who had a sawmill and had to reduce his stock. The hardware and hardware cloth was our largest expense as we had to purchase it new. It took us a year to accumulate the materials before we could begin building the coop.

Call in favors from all your construction friends, start snooping at the dump, check out craigslist, and stock-pile all your finds until you have enough to begin building. Good Luck!

 

[Tiller]

I've seen one builder posting coops off and on in the SW VA farm and garden section of Craigslist. Other then that pretty much everyone has said it all.

 

[finnfur]

I am in the pallet business but most scrap pallets are different/odd sizes unless you find a end user. we do give away scrap un resell able pallets . The plant is in Portsmouth. We built our coops and got the siding material from the Amish shed builder. Its called Duratemp and is laminated wood composite in sheets 4'x8 and 6 high. the trailer shed in my avatar s made out of it.. it has a 25 year warranty and is cheaper than regular house siding. its pre primed gray but still needs paint . they also have 1x4 for corner trim and window trim molding
Windows and doors came from several Habitat for humanity stores - great deals there but you need to be there frequently to catch the deals.
good luck

 

[chickeneer45]

My suggestion would be check with the Amish shed builders -try to find the actual builders not dealers they make coops also - will deliver and set up . 
We have a Chicken tractor 4'x8' I had thought of retiring but might be tight for 12 Bantams - we started with 6 RIR hens in it .

Would you be willing to sell it to me? I currently own 7 bantams, and I am only planning on buying one or two more. How much would it cost and where are you located?

 

[finnfur]

Would you be willing to sell it to me? I currently own 7 bantams, and I am only planning on buying one or two more. How much would it cost and where are you located?

Here is what it looks like - I will measure again to make sure I gave the correct size.
Update Edit - Bottom footprint is 4'x8' and box/nest/roost is 3'x4' - I altered the ramp and hinged it with rope and pulley
so you can close them in upper box by pulling rope and securing up - It had chicken wire on bottom also but I removed it to allow better grass access . If you need more info let me kow

 

[Maggiesdad]

BRRRRrrrrrrrr !!!