What are these people thinking?

[farmergal]

I wish a $1,000 coop was ridiculous. But my BF and I built our coop ourselves, and we spent $500 JUST on plywood. (It's a 10 x 10 coop.) Lumber's expensive these days! We were really lucky in that we used free lumber from his family for the framing and floor... and old corrugated tin roofing that they had sitting around. The door, which we bought from the recycling center at the dump, was $25. Another $10 for a doorknob/key/lock set. We probably spent $150 (or more, I was too bummed to add it up) on joist hangers, screws, nails, etc. So... sadly, these days, $1,000 doesn't go as far as it used to...

And yeah, 2 x 4s seem to be the roosts that most folks recommend for them to keep their little reptilian toes warm...

 

[Marlinchaser]

This is what I did in one coop, I cut small trees, approximatley 4 inches in diameter the chickens seem to like them, but in other coop I have 2X3's on thier side with the edges rounded a little, and those are working fine, but what they seem to really like is

the rafters at the top of the coop. The guineas are teaching my chickens bad habits.

This is my coop its a 8X12, all 1X10 rough cut pine. I probably have close to $750 in materials for that coop, I have priced simular ones at over 3K but I would never pay that for a coop, knowing what I could construct for 3K in material. But if you cant construct, or have the extra money laying around this shed would not be a bad place to start.