DIY Cattle Panel Chicken Coop for Under $200

By Jeffrey Green

The chirping coming from inside the cardboard box gave away the surprise.  Several weeks ago my youngest son convinced my wife that we needed more animals. Without telling me, the person who does the chores for the critters, four puffy chicks barely bigger than an egg were presented to me like a gift. Apparently I wasn’t acting as excited as they hoped. My wife assured me “it could be worse, he really wanted a rodent.”

We actually love keeping chickens. It’s been a few years since we had fresh eggs from our own hens. In the past, our chickens were easy to manage. They were fully free range during the day with a coop for evenings. Like chicken-shit-on-our-back-porch and roost-in-trees level of free range. There were fewer predators where we lived then. Now we live in Washington state where eagles will snatch chickens from the air. A chicken coop with a covered run is necessary.

We bought a small enclosed coop, but the chickens quickly outgrew it.

The chickens needed more space. None of the chicken coop designs online appealed to us. Although they looked nice with cedar wood siding and cute ladders to nesting areas, the covered runs seemed too small for us free rangers. And the chicken coop kits were expensive and still required assembly.

We wanted something bigger.

I recalled a few YouTube videos on cattle panel greenhouses and cattle panel chicken coops. They appeared affordable and easy to build. So we made a materials list and got started. (Get full materials list and tools list here).

Materials cost around $190. The job only took about 6 hours of work. The chickens are much happier!

Here are the steps to build a DIY cattle panel chicken coop:

Step 1 – Frame the Foundation

At 8′ (96 inches) X 8’4″ (100 inches) the frame is suitable for a small cattle panel greenhouse or large chicken coop.

The frame made with 2x4s (96 inches x 100 inches) and fastened with deck screws and corner braces. The cattle panels we used are 50 inches wide so two of them fit perfectly in the frame.

Step 2 – Attach Cattle Panels

We attached two 10-inch pieces of 2×2 to the bottom of the frame in order to act as a shelf for the cattle panels to set evenly in the frame.

We used 1 1/4-inch galvanized staples to secure the cattle panels to the frame.

We used zip ties to connect the cattle panels together where they met in the middle of the coop.

Step 3 – Build a Door

We used 2x4s, deck screws, and mending plate fasteners for the door frame. Once the door frame was in, we secured the cattle panel to it using galvanized staples.

For the door itself, we used 2x2s secured with deck screws and corner braces.

Step 4 – Attach Poultry Netting

Using zip ties and a staple gun, we attached 3-foot tall poultry netting across the lower side walls.

Step – 5 Frame and Net Back of Coop

We used 2x4s, deck screws and corner brackets for the back framing. We wanted it sturdy enough to handle the weight of roosting boxes and a door to easily access eggs without going in the coop.

Step – 6 Attach Door and Netting

A simple gate latch fit perfect. It auto-latches so the chickens can’t get out and the dog can’t get it when feeding them.

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