What are you willing to pay?

[Shannon33]

Hmm... well my husband built ours. But if not for him, I would have been COMPLETELY lost and would have had to hire someone. I think I would be willing to pay about $800ish if it was very well made and attractive. I know people pay a lot more though, because there is a place near us that sells them. The ones they sell are very very cute but small, I would say for 4 chickens, with a small attached run and they charge $1200. I know they sell a lot because there are always new ones out front, I can tell by the different colors.

ETA: I just looked at your page. The coop the place near me sells looks as nice as yours but is MUCH smaller. For something like you have with that nice run, I could see people paying more.

 

[chi-rn]

Went to your BYC page. Coop is beautiful. You can see mine on my BYC page. Paid $1200 for it & the attached pen underneath, but then my husband added the surrounding run for more room. We were told that our coop would house about 25 small hens (not bantams)-- I think that would be very crowded & we don't plan to put that many hens in there. We have lots of predators in our area, & most neighbors have given up trying to have hens because of this. But we shopped long & hard for a "predator-proof" coop.

I would say your coop built on-site would bring easily $2500-$3000 for the serious chicken-lover who cannot or doesn't have time to build their own. Beautiful!

 

[jcatblum]

My husband built our "city" coop & cost around $500 for him to build. Plus many hours of labor. I would expect it would be at least $1000 to have it built by someone else.

When we moved he priced out building a shed that was 10*16. He REALLY wanted to build it. Time was not on our side so I found sheds that were built off site & delivered. Paid $2600. Only labor on our part was mowing the spot for it to go. Also only came out to be $200 more than building it ourselves.

Not sure there is much profit in building coops. DH used to build fish tank stands & canopies for a local fish store. I would be surprised if he even was making $5 an hour, but the man loves having a project!

 

[BoltonChicken]

Use 3/8" cabinet grade plywood for the coop and nesting areas with cedar fencing as siding. 4 x 4 PT pine for supports, 2 x 4 as rafters and studs. 1/2" hardware cloth over sides of entire run, screwed in using 1 1/2" deck screws with 1" fender washers. Roof with sheathing under metal roofing. 1 Sgle. entry door, sliding door on coop.

You should be able to build it for $10 per square foot (including a small profit for yourself) using the following standards:
4 sq. foot per chicken in coop.
10 sq. foot per chicken in run.

For instance, 10 chickens would require a total of 140 square feet or a cost of $1,400. This is with all material purchased from a lumber yard. It can be done cheaper.

 

[calista]

We spent about $3000 in new materials for two of these:

http://bioengr.ag.utk.edu/extension/ExtPubs/Plans/6195.pdf

Labor was free or the total cost would have been double that.

I know, I know -- I have a serious "chicken Jones." My husband remains puzzled why I'm not into diamonds and shopping at Nordstrom's, but he thinks this hobby will cost him less in the long run.

It would be too cruel to explain the concept of "chicken math" to him.

 

[lizage]

We bought this coop for about $1100 delivered. It can hold 8-10 standard size chickens. We live near Amish country and we drove by this one farm that had them out for sale. A guy and his sons build them and they are sturdy!

Overall view

View with door open and access to nests open

View of roosts (on left)

View of 4 nest boxes (on right), window (which comes completely out), electrical outlets and light switch (light is above the window).

 

[Kudzu]

$5,000.00 and make darn sure you get what you want, make sure it is turn key ready. Pay it and never look back, remember you can't take it with you.

 

[chawk]

My DH said "Showoff" LOL! No seriously he said it was awesome. I love mine he built me, be critisizes himself about it all the time... its not square, its not this its not that. He wants to know where the heck you were when he was doing ours LOL! Onto the topic at hand, there is a place up the road from us that sells ones not this nice for $2000. and up.. I say go for it. Its really lovely!

 

[CapeReds]

How long you want the structure to last is the big factor. If you plan on keeping your pets fornthe long run and you only want to build it once, I would think that T-11 siding and 3 tab shingles on the roof would be the cheapest way to go.

 

[CrazyFowlFreak]

$2000 minimum.