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Serious question, why do so many people think a $20 plastic coop from a big box store is a good idea for living animals?
I saw a neighbor in my town get one of those flimsy things three days ago. The wind blew it over that night and their two new pullets were running loose in the street at dawn. It took four of us an hour to catch them. Chickens need real shelter from weather and predators, not a glorified toy. What's the cheapest but actually SAFE setup you've ever built for a small flock?
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markl752mo ago
My old palmer hut lasted ten years on fifty bucks of scrap wood.
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corad842mo ago
How did you keep the moisture from rotting it out so fast? My first shed was all scrap too, @markl75, but I learned the hard way about putting it right on the ground. Got maybe half that time before the floor joists were mush. These days I'd at least throw down some cheap cinder blocks as a base, even for free wood. That ten year run is seriously impressive for fifty bucks.
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fionaf191mo ago
Oh man, you are so right about those cheap plastic coops (I call them "chicken-shaped garbage cans"). The cheapest safe setup I ever built was basically a glorified doghouse on legs made from salvaged pallets and scrap plywood - it was so ugly I named it "The Frankencoop." I totally messed up the roof slope though, so I had to seal it with tar paper and prayer basically. @markl75, I don't know how you got ten years out of fifty bucks of scrap wood because my first attempt lasted about six months before it started leaning like it was drunk. But hey, the chickens didn't care about the crooked walls (or maybe they were just being polite about it).
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