I recently decided to go for adding chickens to our "homestead" and was shocked how much you can spend on the start up. Here is what I did instead:
Asking paid off. I just posted on facebook if anyone had a coop for sale. A friend had two too many and we snagged the one that fit on our truck for free (is a recycled crate with chicken wire covering, we had to add a roof and more chicken wire spent ~$60 on materials)
Got 2 chicks for $3 ea from a friend
Asked my meat CSA farmers if he had any extra chicks and they gave me 4 1 year old hens for FREE as they had too many at the time and were just going to slaughter some.
Part of the fencing was picket and posts we picked up from a neighbors pile, and some new purchased chicken wire.
All in all between the food, materials, bedding and waterer, we spent under $200 for 4 hens and 2 chicks! Not free, but considering coops can cost 3 times as much, I feel pretty good about it!