*Random Thoughts of a SUPERMOM!*: Project Chicken Coop

Showing posts with label Project Chicken Coop. Show all posts

Monday, March 11, 2013

Pallet Chicken Coop: Part Two

Things have been crazy busy around here. Between our attempts at starting a farm, my attempt at getting healthy, and all the things that the boys have had going on at school, I really haven't had any time to be creative or crafty! I seriously miss it...but sometimes everyday like comes first. Anyway, our chicken coop project is pretty much complete. The chickens are actually already living in it! These are some pics I took of the rest of our construction of the coop...I will try to add another post later this week with the run so that you can see the whole finished project. If you missed the first part you can check it out here: Pallet Chicken Coop: Part One. And I totally messed up on the name, so the first one says Pallet Chicken Coop and the second one says Project Chicken Coop....oops!

We used two glass front kitchen cabinet doors that we found at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore for the front windows of the coop. Jason cut two holes out of the front of the coop to accommodate the windows.

We added some cozy nesting boxes inside for the when the chickens are ready to lay eggs. I read online that the chickens like for it to be private and dark, so I'm thinking about maybe adding some burlap curtains at some point...it just depends on how much poop they get on everything:)

We added a tin roof with some sheets of corrugated metal.

Jason installed the windows using the hinges that were already attached to the windows.

We added some access doors on the back side of the coop behind the nesting boxes so that it would be easy for the boys to gather eggs.

This is what it looks like with the doors closed.

A closer look at the nesting boxes.

Jason added a door on the side of the coop so we can clean it out and access the food and water that he put underneath the coop.

After the whole coop was built with the pallets, we went back and filled in all the gapes with pieces of plywood from the inside. It was pretty easy to do and covering the gapes makes sure that the chickens will stay nice and warm. After we were finished assembling we added all the finishing touches.

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I painted the whole coop with a mixture of lime and water...kind of like a whitewash effect. We added a door for the chickens to use made from a recycled kitchen door.

I painted the windows, doors, and some of the trim a bright yellow color. It was leftover from our patio project from a few years ago.

I'll try to get one more shot of the finished project and share the other details that we added to the coop to make if really functional and hopefully really easy to maintain.

Linking up here..

Friday, January 25, 2013

Pallet Chicken Coop: Part One

For about a year Jason and I have been talking about getting chickens. With a house full of growing boys, we needed to find some easy ways to cut down on our grocery bill. A garden is on our list of to do's for this spring, and I figured if we were going to be farmers we might as well add a little livestock into the mix too! I did a lot of research online, and I feel in love with the idea of a pallet chicken coop. One because pallets make the cutest stuff....and two because pallets are free which means our project would be way cheaper than if we bought all new supplies at the hardware store.

We started our adventure with a trip to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. Our original intention in going to the ReStore was to look for electrical fixtures and old kitchen cabinet doors. I had seen a suggestion online to use glass front cabinet doors as window for the coop, and I figured the ReStore was the best place to look for something like that. We ended up with a couple of glass front kitchen cabinet doors and a truck load of FREE pallets! Jason picked up some extra lumber at the hardware store and then we headed home to start building.

We decided on a layout and measured how big the base for the coop needed to be. Jason started the base with four 4X4 posts for the corners. Then he attached them together with 2X6's to make a rectangle.

We used some scrap plywood from another project as the floor...and we got a little help from the kiddos!

After the base was made, Jason dug holes for the four posts to sit in. We picked up the base and sat it down into the holes, and then let the kids fill in the holes with the extra dirt.

The next step was to build the walls. Our coop ended up being three pallets across. Jason just laid them down and attached the three pallets together with extra wood strips from other pallets.

We had plenty of pallets, so some of them {the ones with broken slates or missing nails} got used for parts.

The design we decided on was a back wall that was one pallet high and a front wall that was one and a half pallets high. After we had the front wall put together, the top edge of the pallets were trimmed so that they could be stacked.

After the walls were trimmed, we put the walls into place and attached them to the base with lots and lots of nails. Here is a picture of the back wall in place:

It turns out that pallet wood is actually really good quality...which means it is HARD! Which means you need a lot of muscle and a little bit of patience to get nails to actually go into the wood! We had quite a few bent nails laying around during this project:)

And here is a picture with the partial front wall in place:

Here is a side view of the coop with the base and walls up:

Check back next week for part two...we get the rest of the walls up, add doors and nesting boxes, and I paint the whole thing!

Linking up here..

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Project Chicken Coop: Pinterest Inspiration

The week between Christmas and New Years at our house was spent working on a fun outdoor project: a chicken coop. We made quite a lot of progress during that time and I have a lot of pictures to share with you. But before I show you what we came up with, I thought it would be fun to share some of the inspiration that I found on Pinterest. It still amazes me how much stuff there is on Pinterest!