Today I started construction on the chicken coop. We were planning on taking the day to go down to Nipomo to purchase one from someone of craigslist, but he turned out to be unavailable and our time is limited. The chickens we want will only be available for a few more days, so I had to start now.
I went over to Home Depot and plopped down a slightly more than expected $725 for the lumber I needed. This is after I spent $30 on the discounted 2x4 that were being salvaged from a greenhouse. With the $25 for the truck rental, that brings us to $780. But wait, there's more!It turns out I purchased the wrong nails on my initial trip, so I had to go back for more: $16. Also during the construction of the floor I accidentally hammered into a knot in one of the floor joists, which upon attempting to remove I promptly broke the hammer handle. I was a little shocked at this, but I had another hammer so I tried again - SAME THING HAPPENED! New Hammer: $7.
Total cost to this point: $803.
The good news is that we have a completed floor and a partially assembled wall frame. Not bad for an afternoons work.
I am slightly modifying the plans that I found online. They are for a 6' x 6' coop with three nesting boxes, which isn't bad but we wanted something a little larger so we could handle more chickens. I am building an 8' by 8' coop, with five nesting boxes. We should be able to handle up to 10 chickens when I'm done.
