I acquire free wood. Be it pallets, fence, furniture elements; in the alleys, on the Craigslist, friends, roadside, neighbors. I'm not exactly sure what I'll do with it at the time, but man hands gotta handle, and creators gotta create.
I originally let my backyard chickens build and ramshackley modify their old coop on their own. It was always a surprise hot mess of unpermitted additions, levels, ramps and flaps. A hodge podgery of materials were used, sometimes irreverent graffiti showed up, little hammers and tool strewn about the yard. You get the picture.
Taking on a more befitting backyard coop came mostly about because I ran out of rooms to "restore" in the wife and I's small vintage house. I really crave hands-on projects, figuring things out, and summertime cussing, so I figured it was time to give a go at building a new tiny house in the yard for the old birds with my amassed wood pile, and in the end we would see which one they preferred. In the spirit of a Louisiana raised boy, why not bring some swamp charm to the Arizona desert.
New semi-finished ADHD project.
Previous coop cacophony held together assumedly by rudimentary nails and homemade toilet glues.
Our girls have the run of our in-town backyard. We do have a strict no porch policy but a loose nightly curfew. I decided to adopt my mother's rearing rule that you could try anything you felt like you needed to as long as you did it in the driveway, so I keep our kids' leashes loose in the yard and I'm sure our western neighbors appreciate it more than my old southern ones ever did.
This pallet fence is all it takes to keep the poop off the porch. I was pleasantly surprised that because there's not much surface area to land on top of, it does the trick stopping them and it's step-overable for me.
I started the coop build closer to all my tools and supplies, plus I didn't want any begrudged bird problems on my hands or on my tool handles.
So I built the new tiny house in parts, sponsored by free wood pieces and harbor freight clamps. I can't walk and chew numbers at the same time so the rule was a tape in the pocket and a pen or two in the ponytail at all times. I had no blueprints to start, I just a couple printed out pretty photos for inspiration and started scrawling numbers on every piece of scrap wood that was large enough not to lose from here to there.
I feel a little bad about using 3/4" furniture grade birch plywood, but I got a load of it for free so...
From a distance, the stained glass sells. Up close, it's just some cast off plexi with some glue and paint. Beams = fence wood. Door = lath from an old house. Blue decor = antique desk I turned into nightstands. Roof = leftover pieces from another project and came off an old Missouri barn. I replaced the shiny roof screws later with some others I rusted (the chickens would have noticed right away the unauthenticity).
Salvaged fat acorn style antique table legs and some random wood.
Porch = side of the road crate. Walls = pallet wood. Decor beam also from table.
Progress would have gone a lot faster without having to take pet breaks for Perch and Sammie.
Maybe I'll sleep here tonight before anyone else calls dibs on top bunk.
The hens kept coming in and exploring and I soon found that waterproofed birch is not conducive to bird jumps. So I stapled down some trash truckbed cover, added sawdust and then straw/woodchips atop. This flooring plus the two completely removeable side walls should really help with cleanouts. For the birthing boxes, I cut cardboard for the floor (again the hard birch failed me in that egg drops went pop) and foam insulation for the ceiling.
Upper ventings. *I borrowed the top feature style from some old houses I've hunted for. Just used the drill and grinder. Hidden PVC spacers allow the heat escape without letting the rain in.
Added barrier against summer tin without loosing upward drafting. Staggered perches abound.
The door and the window stay open but I did add some opposite side vents.
External feeder.
I got the peck and drop feeder about 96% sparrow proof (but also the repeating trap, camo face paint and slightly cracked open office window helped thin down the statistics). Plus the feeder gives the chickens something to do. We also play apple tetherball and grape football for activities in our little neck of the woods.
I have a bucket with those Rentacoop auto water cups out there but our main water source/foot cooler is this:
The waterhole started out as just a mud spot for them, then a river rock surrounded liner, throw in a couple little koi and minnows for mosquito control, then somebody down the road was giving away water hyacinths (do not tell the Southland), then I needed a little bubbler pump so why not throw together a flume from some wood and a scooter wheel for ambiance. The pump runs up into a bucket filled with lava rock and window screen then back in. Before you ask, the blue 55 gallon drum takes our washing machine water and runs it out to the trees or wherever in the yard we move the hose. A washer uses about 45 gallons per load and the detergent used is gray water safe- same price as the others at Costco. Thanks to wife who paints it prettily every couple years.
That's about the extent of the chicken yard.
I have some things in the mail from the still southern brother, you know, skins and tails for the wall, maybe some moss for the tree. I'll add some rusty stuff as time passes (oh I forgot to put on the stove pipe!). It's fun to keep up the size-scale game with things around the shack. I'll probably never be done trimming things out and having fun with random ideas here and there. Maybe a chimney or barn cupola?
All 12 of the birds fit easily and although I'm not inclined, the shack could fit more.
I really made the porch steps just as a decorative selling point but the chickens use them up and down. George the rabbit loves to sleep at the bottom of the steps as he patiently awaits his friends to wake up come morning. He also may think he's a chicken and always joins in at weed eating time.
The breeds (and muts) that I have above root height and pot handle:
Cuckoo Maran
Wellsummer
True Blue Witing
Mystic Onyx
Rhode Island Red
Leghorn white and brown
Americauna
*I'm sure I'll get one wrong- we all just call each other by name around here.
I originally let my backyard chickens build and ramshackley modify their old coop on their own. It was always a surprise hot mess of unpermitted additions, levels, ramps and flaps. A hodge podgery of materials were used, sometimes irreverent graffiti showed up, little hammers and tool strewn about the yard. You get the picture.
Taking on a more befitting backyard coop came mostly about because I ran out of rooms to "restore" in the wife and I's small vintage house. I really crave hands-on projects, figuring things out, and summertime cussing, so I figured it was time to give a go at building a new tiny house in the yard for the old birds with my amassed wood pile, and in the end we would see which one they preferred. In the spirit of a Louisiana raised boy, why not bring some swamp charm to the Arizona desert.
New semi-finished ADHD project.
Previous coop cacophony held together assumedly by rudimentary nails and homemade toilet glues.
Our girls have the run of our in-town backyard. We do have a strict no porch policy but a loose nightly curfew. I decided to adopt my mother's rearing rule that you could try anything you felt like you needed to as long as you did it in the driveway, so I keep our kids' leashes loose in the yard and I'm sure our western neighbors appreciate it more than my old southern ones ever did.
This pallet fence is all it takes to keep the poop off the porch. I was pleasantly surprised that because there's not much surface area to land on top of, it does the trick stopping them and it's step-overable for me.
I started the coop build closer to all my tools and supplies, plus I didn't want any begrudged bird problems on my hands or on my tool handles.
So I built the new tiny house in parts, sponsored by free wood pieces and harbor freight clamps. I can't walk and chew numbers at the same time so the rule was a tape in the pocket and a pen or two in the ponytail at all times. I had no blueprints to start, I just a couple printed out pretty photos for inspiration and started scrawling numbers on every piece of scrap wood that was large enough not to lose from here to there.
I feel a little bad about using 3/4" furniture grade birch plywood, but I got a load of it for free so...
From a distance, the stained glass sells. Up close, it's just some cast off plexi with some glue and paint. Beams = fence wood. Door = lath from an old house. Blue decor = antique desk I turned into nightstands. Roof = leftover pieces from another project and came off an old Missouri barn. I replaced the shiny roof screws later with some others I rusted (the chickens would have noticed right away the unauthenticity).
Salvaged fat acorn style antique table legs and some random wood.
Porch = side of the road crate. Walls = pallet wood. Decor beam also from table.
Progress would have gone a lot faster without having to take pet breaks for Perch and Sammie.
Maybe I'll sleep here tonight before anyone else calls dibs on top bunk.
The hens kept coming in and exploring and I soon found that waterproofed birch is not conducive to bird jumps. So I stapled down some trash truckbed cover, added sawdust and then straw/woodchips atop. This flooring plus the two completely removeable side walls should really help with cleanouts. For the birthing boxes, I cut cardboard for the floor (again the hard birch failed me in that egg drops went pop) and foam insulation for the ceiling.
Upper ventings. *I borrowed the top feature style from some old houses I've hunted for. Just used the drill and grinder. Hidden PVC spacers allow the heat escape without letting the rain in.
Added barrier against summer tin without loosing upward drafting. Staggered perches abound.
The door and the window stay open but I did add some opposite side vents.
External feeder.
I got the peck and drop feeder about 96% sparrow proof (but also the repeating trap, camo face paint and slightly cracked open office window helped thin down the statistics). Plus the feeder gives the chickens something to do. We also play apple tetherball and grape football for activities in our little neck of the woods.
I have a bucket with those Rentacoop auto water cups out there but our main water source/foot cooler is this:
The waterhole started out as just a mud spot for them, then a river rock surrounded liner, throw in a couple little koi and minnows for mosquito control, then somebody down the road was giving away water hyacinths (do not tell the Southland), then I needed a little bubbler pump so why not throw together a flume from some wood and a scooter wheel for ambiance. The pump runs up into a bucket filled with lava rock and window screen then back in. Before you ask, the blue 55 gallon drum takes our washing machine water and runs it out to the trees or wherever in the yard we move the hose. A washer uses about 45 gallons per load and the detergent used is gray water safe- same price as the others at Costco. Thanks to wife who paints it prettily every couple years.
That's about the extent of the chicken yard.
I have some things in the mail from the still southern brother, you know, skins and tails for the wall, maybe some moss for the tree. I'll add some rusty stuff as time passes (oh I forgot to put on the stove pipe!). It's fun to keep up the size-scale game with things around the shack. I'll probably never be done trimming things out and having fun with random ideas here and there. Maybe a chimney or barn cupola?
All 12 of the birds fit easily and although I'm not inclined, the shack could fit more.
I really made the porch steps just as a decorative selling point but the chickens use them up and down. George the rabbit loves to sleep at the bottom of the steps as he patiently awaits his friends to wake up come morning. He also may think he's a chicken and always joins in at weed eating time.
The breeds (and muts) that I have above root height and pot handle:
Cuckoo Maran
Wellsummer
True Blue Witing
Mystic Onyx
Rhode Island Red
Leghorn white and brown
Americauna
*I'm sure I'll get one wrong- we all just call each other by name around here.
