Hey everyone!
This is our first ever chicken coop!
I went through so many ideas and designs and then we just threw all those ideas in a big pot, cooked it, burnt it and started all over from scratch with a limited idea of what we really wanted and just kept building like legos!
I wanted a big coop with all the bells and whistles and my husband wanted something for “the chickens to live in” and this is what we came down to.
He has construction experience and I have dream board experience
This is a true story of how a husband and wife built a coop completely from scraps (besides the screws we paid for and a few cinder blocks) and did it all without a solid plan written down and mostly working separate from each other. He works 12 hour shifts and we had a time crunch of vacation coming up - we also have a 19 month old daughter who helped a lot and also didn’t help so much. But we love her so that’s okay. This is not a story of how to build a perfect coop. This did require janky pieces to be placed to make full size requirements and fill gaps.
THE STORY:
It all started with me walking outside to having found my husband already having the base in place.
We don’t have heavy equipment for leveling the ground so we worked with making a surface that would be level to build on top of by using pallets and cinder blocks.
Once we created a level base we added 2x4 to attach the pallets and began laying 2x4 across the whole level surface to create the floor. My dog felt this was her new home. We built the length to be 12ft and the width to be 6ft. All the boards were different sizes but luckily they all reached the width. On the far right side behind the dog we had to cut planks to fill over the top because of the difference in pallets otherwise the floor would have been uneven on top.
Next we started adding pallets. Of course they were all free and things that are free aren’t all the same size. So this took some puzzling to figure out what to put where.
We then began stacking as we built our base which on our part was not smart but we had limited materials at first. We did not plan out how many pallets we would need or how they would all fit together. But it worked out eventually.
We started working on the roof after it kept raining. We were worried the interior would be destroyed before we ever got the roof off. Luckily this wasn’t the case. My husband is 6’3” and on a step ladder. We wanted to make sure we could fit in it without having to duck down.
Given the nature of how we had to build our arches we had to redo them a few times to make them all the same height. They still ended up a little off but in the end it didn’t matter.
Here is an interior view
For some unknown reason we felt like building the the nesting boxes. We put in a piece of plywood to help attach them to and cut planks down to 16x16x16 and made 3 boxes 18” off the floor. I also painted the floor and about 12” up the walls in exterior paint.
We took a thick piece of pallet and 2x4 to create a doorframe to hold our door we found at a business’ trash in town. It also came with hinges and a little window. It however was too tall so we cut it down to fit our door frame. Our lab loved laying on the cold dirt under the coop
We used planks across the arches so we could attach the metal roof. Since it was rusty we just wanted to provide an additional layer. We later found out after a rain storm it was just too rusty in some spots to provide perfectly against the rain. We started with the top and folded it over the arches so it was rounded and water could not run down inside it.
then just kept adding layers I also built a rectangular piece at the top of all the pallets to make it so the tin could lay over it and the water run off away from the coop kinda like a rain cover for the windows underneath.
When I went to lay screen I realized we messed up when attaching the pallets together. I felt vertical boards would be more stable but then realized it caused issues with the screen to be laid on the outside.
I cut out “windows” from the pallets where I wanted to have them. It might look like over kill but it’s HOT here.
I ultimately had to go back and cut off the boards where my window screen would lay.
Then I went to town on putting the screen up which was hard
I stapled it all down then went back and placed trim over all the sections of screen. Again this was all free wood!
we screened in the arches and all above the pallets/door we also built a cover to the boxes to prevent anyone pooping in them. I also had to screen above the boxes to keep the chickens off them because they started roosting there. In this imagine they are using their actual roost bar but usually roost up top on the flat plank.
We ultimately had to place tarps over our roof just to make sure everything was secure. This was the cheap short term option we plan to paint the whole top in a outdoor sealant. But that was going to be expensive and time consuming. I so far have only painted this side of the coop raising a toddler is hard y’all and it does not allow time to paint coops especially when your husband is on mandatory over time working over 72hrs a week. We added a latch and key to keep the door closed since we did not add in a handle that has a locking mechanism (again more work this was the easier option since We had it all on hand)
Washer and screws were added to the upper interior screens.
There were scrap pieces of wood put inside to eliminate gaps that we were annoyed with
The tin roof is screwed down onto the wood planks on the outside that are screened over so the tin cannot be picked up by critters.
We bought an Ador1 Door and that was the most expensive purchase we’ve made but it’s seriously worth it. I had to cut a few boards and move around some screen but it was easily placed and I loved it from that moment. If you are ever wondering if an automatic door is worth it - IT IS BUY THE ADOR1 - it was literally the easiest part of the whole build. I also built them a ramp from scrap materials left over from the build.
There were at least 100x where we said “let’s just burn the whole thing down and get rid of the chickens”.
It was stressful to not have a plan and to not have the time to work together without a toddler also helping. A lot of work I did alone (like all the screening
) and it may not be perfect but for the last 2 months it has kept our chickens dry and safe!
I made fake eggs from left over dollar tree Easter eggs in blue/green, filled with rice and taped close. My chicken are 16 weeks and have started showing interest in laying in the boxes (no poop either!) so in the next few weeks I hope to find eggs.
The end! Oh and we’re still happily married after this whole thing
This is our first ever chicken coop!
I went through so many ideas and designs and then we just threw all those ideas in a big pot, cooked it, burnt it and started all over from scratch with a limited idea of what we really wanted and just kept building like legos!
I wanted a big coop with all the bells and whistles and my husband wanted something for “the chickens to live in” and this is what we came down to.
He has construction experience and I have dream board experience
This is a true story of how a husband and wife built a coop completely from scraps (besides the screws we paid for and a few cinder blocks) and did it all without a solid plan written down and mostly working separate from each other. He works 12 hour shifts and we had a time crunch of vacation coming up - we also have a 19 month old daughter who helped a lot and also didn’t help so much. But we love her so that’s okay. This is not a story of how to build a perfect coop. This did require janky pieces to be placed to make full size requirements and fill gaps.
THE STORY:
It all started with me walking outside to having found my husband already having the base in place.
We don’t have heavy equipment for leveling the ground so we worked with making a surface that would be level to build on top of by using pallets and cinder blocks.
Once we created a level base we added 2x4 to attach the pallets and began laying 2x4 across the whole level surface to create the floor. My dog felt this was her new home. We built the length to be 12ft and the width to be 6ft. All the boards were different sizes but luckily they all reached the width. On the far right side behind the dog we had to cut planks to fill over the top because of the difference in pallets otherwise the floor would have been uneven on top.
Next we started adding pallets. Of course they were all free and things that are free aren’t all the same size. So this took some puzzling to figure out what to put where.
We then began stacking as we built our base which on our part was not smart but we had limited materials at first. We did not plan out how many pallets we would need or how they would all fit together. But it worked out eventually.
We started working on the roof after it kept raining. We were worried the interior would be destroyed before we ever got the roof off. Luckily this wasn’t the case. My husband is 6’3” and on a step ladder. We wanted to make sure we could fit in it without having to duck down.
Given the nature of how we had to build our arches we had to redo them a few times to make them all the same height. They still ended up a little off but in the end it didn’t matter.
Here is an interior view
For some unknown reason we felt like building the the nesting boxes. We put in a piece of plywood to help attach them to and cut planks down to 16x16x16 and made 3 boxes 18” off the floor. I also painted the floor and about 12” up the walls in exterior paint.
We took a thick piece of pallet and 2x4 to create a doorframe to hold our door we found at a business’ trash in town. It also came with hinges and a little window. It however was too tall so we cut it down to fit our door frame. Our lab loved laying on the cold dirt under the coop
We used planks across the arches so we could attach the metal roof. Since it was rusty we just wanted to provide an additional layer. We later found out after a rain storm it was just too rusty in some spots to provide perfectly against the rain. We started with the top and folded it over the arches so it was rounded and water could not run down inside it.
then just kept adding layers I also built a rectangular piece at the top of all the pallets to make it so the tin could lay over it and the water run off away from the coop kinda like a rain cover for the windows underneath.
When I went to lay screen I realized we messed up when attaching the pallets together. I felt vertical boards would be more stable but then realized it caused issues with the screen to be laid on the outside.
I cut out “windows” from the pallets where I wanted to have them. It might look like over kill but it’s HOT here.
I ultimately had to go back and cut off the boards where my window screen would lay.
Then I went to town on putting the screen up which was hard
I stapled it all down then went back and placed trim over all the sections of screen. Again this was all free wood!
we screened in the arches and all above the pallets/door we also built a cover to the boxes to prevent anyone pooping in them. I also had to screen above the boxes to keep the chickens off them because they started roosting there. In this imagine they are using their actual roost bar but usually roost up top on the flat plank.
We ultimately had to place tarps over our roof just to make sure everything was secure. This was the cheap short term option we plan to paint the whole top in a outdoor sealant. But that was going to be expensive and time consuming. I so far have only painted this side of the coop
raising a toddler is hard y’all and it does not allow time to paint coops especially when your husband is on mandatory over time working over 72hrs a week. We added a latch and key to keep the door closed since we did not add in a handle that has a locking mechanism (again more work this was the easier option since We had it all on hand)
Washer and screws were added to the upper interior screens.
There were scrap pieces of wood put inside to eliminate gaps that we were annoyed with
The tin roof is screwed down onto the wood planks on the outside that are screened over so the tin cannot be picked up by critters.
We bought an Ador1 Door and that was the most expensive purchase we’ve made but it’s seriously worth it. I had to cut a few boards and move around some screen but it was easily placed and I loved it from that moment. If you are ever wondering if an automatic door is worth it - IT IS BUY THE ADOR1 - it was literally the easiest part of the whole build. I also built them a ramp from scrap materials left over from the build.
There were at least 100x where we said “let’s just burn the whole thing down and get rid of the chickens”.
It was stressful to not have a plan and to not have the time to work together without a toddler also helping. A lot of work I did alone (like all the screening
) and it may not be perfect but for the last 2 months it has kept our chickens dry and safe!I made fake eggs from left over dollar tree Easter eggs in blue/green, filled with rice and taped close. My chicken are 16 weeks and have started showing interest in laying in the boxes (no poop either!) so in the next few weeks I hope to find eggs.
The end! Oh and we’re still happily married after this whole thing
