Quick Answer: A starter chicken-coop setup runs anywhere from about $300 to $2,700+, and the coop itself is usually 60-80% of that: budget pre-built coops for 4-6 hens run $200-$520, mid-tier walk-ins for 6-10 hens run $700-$1,699, and premium walk-ins for 10-15 hens run $1,399-$2,299+. On top of the coop, budget another $65-$85 for predator-proofing hardware cloth, $70-$229 for an automatic door, and $20-$120 for a feeder and waterer, depending on whether you go basic gravity or automatic. Ongoing costs come mostly from feed — per Oklahoma State University Extension, a mature hen eats about 91 lb of layer feed a year.
Every review on this site prices one product at a time — a coop here, an auto-door there. New keepers rarely ask “what does the OverEZ Medium cost,” they ask “what does it cost to get started, total.” This guide answers that question directly: a full starter budget by flock size, pulled from the actual coop, hardware, and gear prices already verified across this site’s own reviews, plus what feed actually costs to run once the flock is up and laying.
Starter budget by tier
| Tier | Example coop | Coop price | Predator-proofing | Auto-door | Feeder + waterer | Total starter budget |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Budget (4-6 hens) | PawHut wood coop | $200-$520 | $65-$85 | Skip or add later | $40-$60 | ~$305-$665 |
| Mid (6-10 hens) | Producer's Pride Guardian | $700-$800 | $65-$85 | $139.90 (Run Chicken T50) | $60-$90 | ~$965-$1,155 |
| Premium (10-15 hens) | Omlet Eglu Cube | $1,399 | Built into panels | $229 (Omlet Autodoor) | $80-$120 | ~$1,708-$1,748 |
| Premium, wood walk-in (10-15 hens) | OverEZ Large | $2,199.99-$2,299 | $65-$85 | $139.90-$229 | $60-$120 | ~$2,465-$2,734 |
A few things worth noticing in that table. The Eglu Cube’s predator-proofing is already baked into its twin-wall panel design and integrated run, so there’s no separate hardware-cloth line — one reason its total lands closer to the wood mid-tier option than its $1,399 sticker price alone suggests. The OverEZ Large, by contrast, is priced closer to premium but still needs the same $65-$85 hardware-cloth reinforcement as a budget kit, since it ships with standard welded wire rather than a sealed panel system.
½-Inch 19-Gauge Hardware Cloth (Roll)
- ½-inch, 19-gauge is the standard raccoon/weasel-exclusion spec — see our predator-proofing guide for exactly where to use it.
- Budget it in from the start rather than as an after-the-fact repair once a kit's stock wire fails.
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What ongoing costs actually run
The coop is a one-time cost (10-15 years with basic upkeep, per general coop-building guidance); feed is the recurring one. Per Oklahoma State University Extension’s budgeting fact sheet for backyard hens, a mature laying hen eats roughly 0.25 lb of feed per day — about 91 lb per year per bird. For a 6-hen flock, that’s roughly 550 lb of layer feed a year; multiply by your local 40-50 lb bag price to get a real annual number, since feed costs vary meaningfully by region, brand, and whether you buy organic or a value line like Nutrena NatureWise (see our best chicken feed guide for a full brand breakdown).
A separate 2026 coop-cost analysis lands in a similar range to this site’s own brand-specific figures from the buyer’s side: small flocks (3-6 birds) typically run $400-$900 total for the coop, scaling to $2,000-$3,500+ for large flocks of 15 or more — directionally consistent with the tiered table above, even though the exact numbers depend heavily on which brand or DIY plan you choose.
Gravity Poultry Feeder + Waterer Combo
- A basic gravity set covers a small flock for $40-$60 combined — the low end of every tier's "feeder + waterer" line above.
- Upgrade to a treadle feeder or heated waterer later once the coop budget itself is settled — see our best chicken waterer and best automatic chicken feeder guides.
Where the real savings (and real risk) are
The biggest lever on total cost is coop tier, not any single accessory — going from a budget wood kit to a premium walk-in more than triples the total. But cutting corners on predator-proofing to hit a lower number is the one place this site consistently recommends against skimping: a $65-$85 hardware-cloth upgrade is cheap insurance against losing the entire flock to a single bad night, which is a far larger loss than the up-front saving. If the budget is genuinely tight, it’s better to buy a smaller coop sized correctly for fewer hens (see our chicken coop size calculator) than to buy a larger coop and skip the wire reinforcement it needs.
The bottom line
Plan on $300-$700 for a genuinely minimal but safe 4-6-hen starter setup, $1,000-$1,200 for a solid mid-tier 6-10-hen walk-in with an auto-door, and $1,700-$2,700+ for a premium 10-15-hen setup depending on whether you go pre-fab panel (Eglu Cube) or wood walk-in (OverEZ Large). After that, budget ongoing feed at roughly 91 lb per hen per year (per OSU Extension) and multiply by your local bag price — the coop is the big one-time number, but feed is the number that keeps recurring for as long as the flock does.