Factor in your own cost for time spent on labor. Shopping and building can take a while. Plus if you need any additional tools, that is an added expense. But having a coop you like and makes it easy to care for your hens is the most important. 5 pieces of 4'x8' plywood: $100 3 4'x1" dowels: $12 12 8 foot 1x2s: $18 200+ wood screws: $20 2 smaller fixed pin utility hinges: $2 4 larger fixed pin utility hinges: $5 5 hook & eye: $5 1 1x12x8 piece of wood: $15 Chicken Wire: $16 1

Finishing your chicken coop is the most exciting part of the project. Here you can put in a lot of personality and color. You should paint the outside of the coop to protect it from weather, and the inside floor of the coop to protect your birds from mildew and other elements. Materials needed: Chicken Wire (not much) 1 gallon exterior paint 1 quart accent exterior paint 1 quart primer (we used Kilz Premium Primer) Tools: Paint brushes Rollers Paint pan Drop cloth (for ramp)

There are so many options for how to build nesting boxes. Horse N Hound sells 5 gallon buckets that you could attach to the wall of your coop with bolts. You could use milk crates, old book shelves with plastic bins - there are many options. We decided to build ours. They took half an hour and were very simple to make. Materials needed: 1 1x12x8 piece of wood Wood screws 2 scrap pieces of wood about 2 feet long, 3 inches high Tools: Yard stick Circular saw Jigsaw Safety glass

After we built this lovely ramp, someone noted that we could have just used the coop door and made it into a ramp. Do what you want - hindsight is a blessing. :) Materials needed: Wood scraps from your coop Wood screws. Make sure they are not too long that they go through to the other side. Tools: Yard stick Gloves Circular saw Safety glasses Drill Pencil Tape measure Click here for step-by-step instructions #howto #chickens #chicks #chickencoop

There are a lot of great ideas for building your own chicken coop from the back of a car, to an enclosed coop with a garden area, from modern to traditional. This blog addresses the most basic coop. This is a Saturday project. Ours took about 8 hours, but we spent a lot of time working out the kinks and taking photos for this blog. If we could do it all over again, we would probably make a coop that you could stand up in. If you can stand up in it, you are more likely to keep