When It Rains, It Pours...Chicken Coops!

 Ever since we knew we were going to be moving here onto this property, I told Bob that I wanted to raise chickens. We weren't able to do that when we were in RV parks, but now that we've ditched that sort of life, I want chickens. We eat a lot of eggs and, quite frankly, we plan on raising them for meat. If a hen wants to go broody, I don't care! Hatch 'em out! I want a sustainable chicken set-up. Our biggest obstacle, besides the eagles and hawks that routinely fly overhead, was finding a reasonably priced chicken coop.

I looked on Facebook Marketplace, on a whim, because it's been a while since I did, and I found not one, but 2 chicken coops.

I messaged both. I mean, when we first moved here, we were looking for a coop and every single time one came onto Marketplace, in my price range, it was immediately snapped up. Unless I wanted to monitor Facebook Marketplace 24/7, I couldn't seem to snag up one of these treasures to save my life!

This morning, my luck changed. I messaged about the first one, asking for the dimensions, because it is exactly what I've envisioned that my chicken coop would look like.

In the meantime, waiting for my message to be answered, I ran across one of those cute little ones that people use for backyard chickens. It was for a ridiculously low price, so I messaged that person, too.

My thinking was that one of them was probably sold, so maybe, just maybe, I could snag one of them. They were both the same price. One of them was down in the Vancouver area, in Clark County. The other was northwest of Winlock, in Lewis County. We are in smack in the middle in Cowlitz County.

Anyhow, the small, cute coop person messaged me back first and asked if we could be there at 10 AM. I replied that yes, we could. We set off in the truck.

I priced these coops at Lowe's. These run around $400. I bought this for $100. Bob just needs to fix the ramp. I'm not going to keep this one. I'm going to resell it because....

the person that was selling this coop for $100 messaged me back as soon as we got home from Vancouver, picking up the cute little one.
We talked it over real quick and decided that if Bob did the few repairs on the cute grey one that it needs, like the ramp being attached and cleaning it out, we could actually sell it and recoup not only the $100, but a bit more than that so that it would lower the cost of the coop that we are keeping.

The cute grey coop would house maybe 3 chickens, at most.
The more sensible coop is not only a heck of lot more sturdy, it will house around 20 chickens.
This is a no-brainer.
We'll sell the cute small coop and we will make a bit of a profit from it.

So, we hooked up the trailer to the truck and took off up north to pick up this one. This is the one we'll keep.

So, now I have a home for chickens, I'm just working on getting a supply laid in of straw (for bedding), food, grit, waterers, feeders, etc. We will also need metal pails with tight-fitting lids to store the chicken feed in. .Slowly, but surely, we're working toward having chickens on Kelpie Kapers Farm.

So, when it rains, it pours...chicken coops!