Prefab shed vs. custom build

VS.

When we finished packing up the Christmas decorations at the beginning of the year, we knew it was time to begin making a home for our chicks. After all, they were going to arrive in about a month! We checked some prefabricated buildings in town and found a few that would work. The first photo above was one of our favorites. It cost about $1000 and would require a foundation, paint and shingles. Product reviews were terrific, but mentioned that the floor needed some additional joists to make the flooring stable. Considering all this, we decided that building something ourselves would be better built and might cost less.

Now that we're well along our way, I just did the math using receipts from our purchases of materials thus far. The tally for our more substantially constructed coop is about $150 less than the prefab model with the necessary finishing.

That's good news - we have a better product for less money. Now, I did the math for how long the chickens will need to work at supplying eggs for us to break even with the cost of buying eggs at the grocery store! The hens need to lay all the eggs we need for at least 2 years to break even with the construction costs so far. That doesn't include the cost of their feed during those two years or other expenses that we're unable to quantify at this point due to our inexperience!

I'm sure the flavor of those fresh eggs will count for something and we have three families that have mentioned being interested in buying eggs from us when the hens get going. That will help us feel better about our outlay of expenses!