How to Build a Chicken Coop for less than $400.00

Believe it or not, this will eventually be our new chicken coop.

Right now the chickens are in a very nice barn with an attached run. It has one half for chicken and animal feed, the other half has perches for the chickens and my guinea fowl to sleep.

Why are we going to use an old trailer instead? Because the chicken barn is really nice! So I want hubs to clean it out and use it for storage of such things as snowmobilies, lawn mowers and other large items.

The run can be moved and attached to this trailer. The trailer will be moved to the back corner past where the existing chicken barn is. We have 100 acres so space is not an issue.

Right now hubs is building a door for the new chicken coop. He's gutted the insides and it will make a nice cozy barn for our chickens and guinea fowl. Hubs tries to do everything for free or as cheaply as possible.


The only reason it is so near the house is because hubs needs electricity for his power tools.

If you are thinking of getting chickens you need to build a proper home for them. The book on the left is pretty good with ideas an photos to go with it.

So if you aren't sure where to start, this book might just be for you.

Chicken farming

I found an interesting story on chicken farming in the news and I thought it might interest some of you.

Having spent his working life in advertising, including founding the multi-million pound agencies, Samuels Jones Isaacson Page, and Eurobrand Communications, Graham Page felt ready for a change.

He was fed up with the daily commute into London and, as a widower, wanted to be around more for his three children – so he sold up, got out and in March 2008, at the age of 63, set up a poultry farm.
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Commercial Producers Play Chicken with Avian Flu

In the late 1980s thousands of chickens died from a cancer caused by a virus known as avian leukosis virus J because they were all descended from a few roosters susceptible to the disease.

This is just one example of how a lack of genetic diversity can imperil livestock and agriculture. Similar instances abound from the Irish potato famine of the 19th century to cattle raised for meat—one bull named Ivanhoe passed on his genetic susceptibility to an immune system disorder to roughly 15 percent of all the Holstein bulls in the U.S. today.
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10,000 Hens Suffocated

Authorities in Kosovo say 10,000 hens suffocated in a chicken farm following a power outage. Police say the birds were left airless when a night guard fell asleep and failed to turn on the backup generator when the power went out.

Chicken Farmer Among New Survivor Contestants

"Chicken" Morris, a chicken farmer form Marion, Virginia, is among the contestants in the next Survivor show, set in China.