Backyard Chicken Coop

It started back in January with sneaking around town in the dead of night, foraging for pallets left out by dumpsters. I had to be quick, and tricky, because around here, its first come first serve and you better be there before the sun comes up if you want free wood.

Larger brooder box inside the actual coop. 

I managed to score about 30 pallets, and I was going to tear down our metal shed and put up a wooden chicken coop large enough to house 12 hens, though we only are starting with six. Then hubby came up with the genius idea of converting the shed! If we put enough windows/vents in it, our chickens won't roast during the day in the metal. What a lifesaver! That right there saved me hours of work. So we got right to work on the conversion!

The first thing I did was to build a bigger brooder box. As you can see I simply cut some pallets in
half to achieve this, and gave them a floor (one of the pallets had a piece of plywood attached, and I just reused that). I stapled a piece of hardware cloth over the top of it on one side the other side was left "free" so we could get in and out of the box. This worked really well and the really cold nights, I just took a blanket and covered 3/4 of the top of the box to help keep the heat in. This brooder box is going to stay outside in the coop so if we ever get more chicks, we have a place to put them.

Metal doors are off, chicken run is framed out and you can see just how
much pallet wood I managed to score. 

I took off the metal doors, mainly because they didn't work right. They had plastic slides that were "keeping them in the track at the top" which I'm using the word "keeping" loosely here. The doors had certainly seen better days. Not only that I wanted something that I could close up at night and in the summer, still give them some air. So I came up with the dutch style doors.

The run was the hardest part because figuring out exactly how big to make it, where it would go, etc. was time consuming. Once we did that, it wasn't too bad. Just screwed the wood together with big wood screws (which you can find at any home improvement store).

We took the pallets and use them lego style (just fitting them together) and basically built walls inside the metal shed. This gave us something to screw to for the nesting boxes, ladder etc, and will also give us some insulation through the winter as our winters here get pretty cold.

Chicken run extends out from the coop and also encloses the compost pile.
They use the pile to forage for scraps and bugs. 

Simple nesting boxes being held up with pallets and a single piece of plywood along the bottom. I am now using the
portion under it for 2 large containers, one for un-used bedding and one for our homemade feed. 

Next on the list was to make the nesting boxes. We needed at least one, but I made two anyway. We already have chicks using them both for just hanging out in, so apparently two was the right choice. Some people think you need one for each chicken. Well you can do that if you want, but know that they'll probably only use a few of them, depending on how many you have. Honestly, I haven't figured out why this is. But growing up, at one point we had two chickens and 8 nesting boxes in the coop. They both used the same nesting box every day.

I also made a simple ladder from the pallet wood that serves as a way up and down for them. They can get to both nesting boxes quite easily this way.

Simple window system with a wooden board for propping open. 

Windows. They definitely need some windows. In fact, I might have fabric set aside for curtains.


You can see the one here, there's a matching one on the other side, and soon we'll be putting in a vent in the top to help with the heat build up in the summer. The window was pretty simple. I just took a drill, drilled a hole in the corner, then used tin snips to go around where I'd marked the window to be. Next we used pallet wood to "frame out" the window by simply screwing two pieces together with like a sandwich with metal in the middle. This gave us something to attach the window hinges to, and also kept the sharp metal from being exposed. The window is a simple thing that's just four pieces of wood screwed together with L-brackets and then I used a piece of acrylic  as the "window" part. I got this acrylic at my local home improvement store for six dollars. Cheap and it won't break if we get any hail. Which you know we will. I also have a piece of pallet wood that we're using as a prop to open the window with. I might put in a hinge system later on, for now the wood is working.

Dutch style doors offer protection from predators at night but also give a way to add in some ventilation. 

The last thing to do was the doors. This was the most difficult for me, because I had to build two of them from scratch. So first thing I did was to frame out the sides of the coop door way with wood. This gave a bit more structure to the frame for the doors to have something to hang on to. Next I just built the doors. I first made a rectangle from 1x4's that was as tall as the doorway and half the length of the doorway. I didn't get all fancy with mitering corner or anything. i just overlapped the top middle and bottom pieces over the right and left pieces. I didn't measure the middle piece, I just put it where I thought it looked good. Then I used plywood and measured out a piece to go in the bottom portions of each door. Then I just screwed it in. I did the same thing for the top, but these pieces I used hinges and put on the outside of the door so they open. On the inside, I just stapled chicken wire to help keep out other animals. Then I just used simple hinges to attach the doors to the frame of the shed. Just used nuts and bolts and drilled a hole, and screwed it right in. Viola! We have doors.

So then I noticed, how do I shut these and keep them shut? Hubby came up with the idea of an old style latch system like you see in the picture. I just used scrap wood, screwed it together in an L shape and then attached it to the door frame. Then you can use a piece of wood long enough to go into both of them and covered the middle of the door, thusly keeping it shut!

And now we have a chicken coop! And the chickens are happy.