Which is cheaper. A DIY or bought?

depends on what you have on hand. For me DIY is wayy cheaper but we have lots of scraps on hand and I don't care what it looks like, as long as it is safe.

have you looked into the pallet style coops? There are lots of pics on here all sizes and nearly free most times.

 

I would still probably do a pallet one and put siding or tin on it.

take a look at this one:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=16313-pallet-coop


it looks just like a storage building.

 

DIY if you have tools... DIY even if you need to buy a few.

My shed so far cost 650 in all new raw materials from Lowe's. ALL plywood, no OSB, built to spec done right. OSB in the PNW often just falls apart in a few years, which unfortunately is what 95% of bought sheds are assembled with. I even sprung for 16 OC walls for the front, back, and floor! Many prebuilts are 24 OC and do not include a real foor or roofing materials.

Tools: 2 hammers, a skill saw, 2 drills, hand saw, L Square, speed square, 2 wooden horses. Only thing bought new was the skill saw that ran $160 as we plan on keeping the nice Milwaukee tool forever, but they can be found for like $50 bucks or less.

I figure I have about $150 left of materials to buy... so for 800+100 of unanticipated extras, I should have a shed to my specs for under 1k with a quality that cannot be bought in the PNW from a box store.

It's not that great, but it is my first real shed build.

 

We turned 1/3 of our large shed into our chicken coop, that way we could still store our stuff. Pre-fab or even shed kits were cray expensive. In stead of $700 + for a shed, it cost us around maybe $350, including insulation. We used smaller trees from our back yard for the posts of the run.

 

I'm going to build a simple pallet coop. Nothing fancy, but then again I plan on only having 3 hens.

 

If it needs to look nice, and you don't have the materials, I would look into sheds, sometimes lows and home depot have clearances or good sales and then you can make it into the coop you want.

 

If you are handy at building and have the time, build it yourself and you will get exactly what you need.

If your crunched for time, consider having the building shell built and you set up the interior per your plans

If you don't have the tools and knowledge, have someone build it but you provide the plans and measurements and should be there to oversee so you're not disappointed with the final product

 

Cost is going to be about the same, but the prefab ones are very cheaply made. The lumber is cheap, the hardware is cheap, the doors are weak, they don't use enough framing.