15 Budget-Friendly DIY Chicken Coops That Are A Must See!

diy chicken coops pin image

If you have been thinking about getting chickens, here are 15 budget-friendly DIY chicken coops to you can build yourself!

There are many GREAT reasons to keep chickens as pets. They’re entertaining, help teach kids responsibility, they’re fairly low maintenance, they lay eggs that you can scramble for breakfast, and they can also be processed for meat.

Everyone has a different idea what the perfect coop and run is… there are tractors which are movable coops so your birds will always be on fresh grass. Then there are traditional coops that are stationary.

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I have 30+ birds right now so I use a large coop, a small predator-proof run, and I built a chicken moat around my garden. The chicken run has an automatic door that opens when the sun comes up and lets the chickens into the moat. The door closes after the chickens go to sleep at night. During the day, the chickens roam around the perimeter of my 60×70′ garden, eating bugs and keeping grass from growing into the garden.

I’m putting cattle panel arches around the garden (over the moat) this year so I can use them as trellises. Currently I have four of these arches that I use for grape vine trellises, but I’d like to use them all the way around for everything from growing luffa to cucumbers to pumpkins. Chickens will help keep bugs off the bushes and eat produce and greenery that falls off or ends up in their zone. This helps cut my feed costs.

If I had a smaller flock, I’d consider one of the Omlet coops (see photo on the left). I didn’t discover the brand until long after I had a ton of chickens, but I bought similar style setups for my rabbit and guinea pigs through the company.

They’re easy to clean and you can move them each day to a fresh spot. This reduces how much you’ll spend on bedding (which can get costly) and how much time you’ll spend cleaning.

We move my son’s rabbit each day in one of these hutches with the attached run and it’s been an easy job for him (he’s 11) or for me to do. We haven’t had issues with predators getting into the run, but if you have a high predator load, I’d suggest buying the automatic door as well. You can buy the biggest coop (for up to 10 chickens) with a 12′ attached run, automatic door, wheels, and handles for under $1800 which is, in my opinion, a really good price for something that will both retain value and is made of a material that won’t decay. And with the price of good currently (sigh), you might come out ahead.

This is what the smaller Eglu hutches with runs look like. We house a rabbit in this one. She mows our grass.

A lot of the coops I’ve seen at the local farm store are poorly made and sell for somewhere in the $500-1200 range and I doubt they’d last a year. I keep hoping to find someone selling one of these Omlet chicken tractors used, but I get a sense that people hold on to them as I rarely see them listed. When I do find them, they seem to hold value well as I never see the steal that I’m hoping for (wink).

For my personal use, where I keep such a large flock, I love the idea of trading in my wooden coop for two or three of the hutches with wheels and an automatic door that I could move around the chicken moat.

I do feel that finding the RIGHT coop matters- I’ve seen so many people who started to keep chickens, then had their flock wiped out by a fox or raccoon… usually they give up heartbroken. I’ve seen people get frustrated because their coop was difficult to clean or they needed to relocate it.

I really hope that if you take anything away from this post, that it’s that getting the RIGHT COOP is one of the most important decisions you’ll make. It can reduce how many chores you have to do, how much time you spend enjoying your pets (and free breakfast!), and how much money you spend overall… and with livestock, sometimes you save money by spending MORE MONEY upfront. If you save $100 on the coop, but then lose 5 chickens to a fox, you’re not ahead (laying hens seem to run around $20 in my area).

Depending on your plans for your birds and how many you’d like to raise, some coops are better for certain purposes. Here are 15 DIY chicken coops and tractors that you can make for your backyard poultry.

Need an easy shelter and don’t want to DIY? Here’s what you can buy.

Omlet makes a ton of chicken shelters and runs that are movable and have lots of accessories available. You can add wheels and handles to move the run as needed which is nice. The cages look like they’re well predator-proofed, and you can get an attached run up to 13′. They even sell an automatic coop door that opens and closes when the sun rises and sets. The Eglu Go is their easily movable shelter and run. They have perches to add on, swings, treat holders, and even chicken clothing. Totally worth checking out if you like to geek out over your poultry.

Here’s a video of our Omlet Automatic Chicken Coop Door and Light!

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