Will this hen house work?

[abc123no]

My husband and I have been wanting laying hens for a while now, but we have house and car repairs that are more important. We've been trying to think of very inexpensive ways to build a hen house. We would probably get four or five hens.

First off, is there a house we could build for under $50 that would fit four or five hens? We have some chicken wire and wood so we could create a fence to surround whatever we use.

Now the idea I have, I got from a neighbor, but he may not have laying hens. I noticed he has a tent. Would a camper's tent be a suitable hen house? We could add milk crates or something of the sort for bedding/laying.

Our whole yard is fenced in.

 

[Judy]

People do build coops for next to nothing, by scrounging materials, using pallets, see what's on your Craig's list, etc. However, people who've never seen a raccoon or fox or whatever in their area suddenly start seeing them when chicken is on the menu. Hardware cloth or certain other strong types of wire can protect them, but chicken wire will not. It is good for keeping chickens out of an area, like your garden, but will not stop most predators. Dogs are one of the prime predators and chicken wire won't even stop them if they really want in.