Upcycled Chicken Coop

I'm very excited!  The Little Upcycled Coop was finished today.  The only thing we bought is 3 boxes of screws costing around $21.  Everything else was reused, and well FREE.  That in its self is exciting.  I will warn you now.  It will not win the cutest coop of the year award, but it might just win the cheapest coop of the year award.  Check out the other blog posts on our little coop if you would like to see the beginning steps involved in building this coop.


Today's first step was setting up the walls.

I was on babysitting duty since my husband needed help.  They used screws to tie the pallets together on the long sides.

Next they installed the window that will serve as my door.  Sorry I couldn't get a picture.  Then they ran 2x4x10's along the top, and screwed the tin roofing to the 2x4's.  Here is a picture of the finished coop.

One cute Little Upcycled Coop.  The chicks aren't living there yet, I still have to put fencing up.  I hope this project gave you some ideas on making you own upcycled coop.

The Small Tale of the Moody Broody

Moody Broody after I counted her eggs today.

Meet my Moody Broody.  Saturday June 9th my little hen decided she was going to be a mama.  I wasn't sure she was in it for the long haul so I took most of her eggs away and left her with only 4.  The next morning she was still sitting, so I added 10 more for a grand total of 14.  I marked all of her eggs with a colored pencil to keep track of witch eggs were hers.  The other hens decided that they would take over her nest.  It doesn't seem to bother her, but it did make me mad.  I just knew that one of her eggs would be broken.  Of course on Monday one of her eggs was broken, and I was broken hearted.  One of Moody Broodie's babies was killed.  I tried to move her nest, I took both her and her eggs and placed them in the dog house with straw.  She was not impressed and would not set.  I moved the dog house into her old run so she could be with her pen mates, well that didn't work.  I had no choice but to put her back in one of the nesting boxes.  I had to do something.  Then it occurred to me, I've seen nesting box curtains made by The Chicken Chick .  They didn't need to be fancy or fabric, just functional.  I needed to keep her out of site so the other hen's wouldn't lay their eggs with her.  Tuesday (yesterday) I figured it out, a feed bag would solve my problem.  I cut the back off of a feed bag cut it in half, and stapled it to the nesting box Moody Broody was using.  Drum Roll please.......... this afternoon when I went to count Moody Broodie's eggs there were only 13!  No extra eggs.  This is such a simple fix.  I hope you had fun with my story.  I'll keep you updated on Moody Broodie's hatch.  They are due July 1st!  Just in time to help us celebrate Independence Day. 

Here is the nesting box curtain.  Moody Broody is behind it happily setting on her eggs.

Second Coop-How to

I thought I would share what we are doing to the coop so far. My husband has borrowed a saw and is taking the pallets apart and putting them back together so that they are solid wood on the front. They will then be used like plywood to make the coop this part of the work is taking several days. With the temperature in the 80's we won't work in the heat of the day.

What a Cute Little Helper.

Don't worry Daddy is standing just out of camera range, and he doesn't have power or a bit.  I take good care of my little helper.  You can see how we are putting together the pallets tho.

Day 2

Day 2 of coop building and nothing is really going to get done.  Our nephew was dropped of yesterday, and he does not like power tools.  We have picked up some more screws which makes my husband happy and a old window that will serve as our door.  Building will be put on hold in tell next week.  Have a great weekend!

Our Second Coop

Sorry there is no pretty picture, but I wanted to share that we have officially started on our second chicken coop today.  Our first one was built by my dad and some friends of the family.  We have had it for the last nine or so years and it currently houses our Blue/Green flock.  I've felt like I should add a few more hens but wanted to add Brown layers.  If you mix your blue layers with brown layers you get Olive Eggers.  Although the eggs are beautiful, and I've got some Olive Eggers in the incubator I would like to have blue,green,brown,and pink eggs.  Anyway all of this means I need a second coop.  In the spirit of reusing what is around the community I've decided to use pallets.  Don't let me fool you, I also don't have the money to build one with all new materials.  As for today's work, we started taking off the front wood of the pallet, and using that to make a new front that is solid wood.  So far so good and we have 4 complete pallets done.  I'm looking forward to getting these little one's out of the house.