# Coop Building Day!!!



## Chippets

It's finally here! We're building our coop with pallets and wood we have on hand. Here we are so far!









Here's the site in the pen.









A friend and my hubby hard at work.









The base! Now to level it! Woo hoo!!


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## Chippets

The sides are going up!


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## Apyl

Good job, congrats on the new coop. I so wish I could find somewhere to get pallets. Everywhere around here sells them back to pallet companies.


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## rob

looks like its going to be a great coop. cant wait to see the finished product.


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## Chippets

Had to stop for the day due to severe weather. Darn it anyway!! 
All in all, not a bad start! And it's bigger than I thought we'd have too! Chicken math, here I come!


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## Chippets

Have a question - I want to paint the inside of the coop but is there a certain kind of paint I should use? How long before I can put the chickens in?


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## 7chicks

I just used whatever paint I already had laying around. Some was exterior, some was interior. Are you going to close up the spaces in the floor from the pallets? Unwelcome critters will make their way in otherwise.


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## Chippets

7chicks said:


> I just used whatever paint I already had laying around. Some was exterior, some was interior. Are you going to close up the spaces in the floor from the pallets? Unwelcome critters will make their way in otherwise.


Oh yes, we'll put down plywood.


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## hennypenny68

When you do paint try to get white paint they call it white washing my gran parents did it my parents did it and I do as well it helps you telling you have a mite problem because you can see the little blood marks they leave around and I was told the bugs don't like to go in there cause its bright and bugs like dark places and its nicer for you as well cause you can tell if it needs a cleaning better with the light colour it has worked for me so far and I haven't had a mite or lice infestation yet.


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## hennypenny68

Sorry I forgot to say if you can't get white paint u can use a mixture of lime and water and mix it to a consistency of paint and use that my gran parents could use paint they couldn't afford it. Make sure to use a mask when mixing it lime is hard on the lungs then wash all the inside down with it. And google it if you want there's a lot of info about white washing and it worked for me so far.


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## Regina L

I found a 50% off mistinted can of a light aqua blue, and I swear my girls just love it! And it has the same purpose as the white paint, so that we can find bugs. Feels very calming..
I'll see if I can learn how to download a picture and ill try to post it here


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## chicken_coop99

Coop looks great 

That was a good idea of using pallets i never thought of that


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## Chippets

hennypenny68 said:


> When you do paint try to get white paint they call it white washing my gran parents did it my parents did it and I do as well it helps you telling you have a mite problem because you can see the little blood marks they leave around and I was told the bugs don't like to go in there cause its bright and bugs like dark places and its nicer for you as well cause you can tell if it needs a cleaning better with the light colour it has worked for me so far and I haven't had a mite or lice infestation yet.


Yes, that was the idea we had as well - white, is brighter, can see everything really well, less if a problem with bugs.

My friend approached me at church today with an offer of a big piece of corrugated opaque plexiglass for the roof; gonna see if that will work today. That will keep things lighter for sure, but will it get too hot in the summer and will it be too cold in the winter (Wyoming)? Any comments or ideas on that?


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## chicken_coop99

I would say it would work i wish I had a window on top for light inside the coop because it gets dark


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## Regina L

I wonder if it will withstand the snow pack, 99.

Also, I have a couple of windows in the coop area, both for ventilation and light. 
On one side I have those "portholes" looking windows and I have chicken wire stapled inside, so that no critters will go in. 
And on the front side I have a teenie window (also stapled chicken wire inside) about the size of an 8"x10" picture frame, that can be kept open or closed with a super simple piece of wood latch


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## Chippets

We have walls!!









I am also wondering about the snow - we usually have very dry snow, but in the spring we can get the heavy wet stuff. That's what happened this spring and it broke trees and actually killed some. They had already started getting their leaves. I know it is all reinforced with 2x4s, but still I wonder. In any event it will certainly be good for the summer and if needed I guess we can change it out. The guys just headed out to pick it up. Stay tuned!


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## Regina L

I painted the inside of my coop last week during the day and they slept there at night, with no problems


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## Chippets

The donated roof arrives.









It's a little short for the width, so the guys are coming up with a plan.

















And the chickens are enjoying the scrap wood and are very curious about the whole business.


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## Chippets

Rlabrum said:


> I wonder if it will withstand the snow pack, 99.
> 
> Also, I have a couple of windows in the coop area, both for ventilation and light.
> On one side I have those "portholes" looking windows and I have chicken wire stapled inside, so that no critters will go in.
> And on the front side I have a teenie window (also stapled chicken wire inside) about the size of an 8"x10" picture frame, that can be kept open or closed with a super simple piece of wood latch


Yes, I plan to use hardware cloth in the windows for now. I'm going to go down to the recycle store and see if they have any small windows I can use. That will be much better in winter.


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## Chippets

Oh and I was wrong about the roof - not plexiglass, it's fiberglass. And pretty thick, too, I might add ...


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## bcfox26

Looking good. We built ours with pallets too but not near that size! Looks great so far


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## Chippets

Thanks for all your comments  Things will slow down now with the workweek but the weekend is coming! Today I let the chickens check out their new digs ...

















And SubaRoo decided to take a leisurely moment to sunbathe.









Hubby has decided he doesn't like the donated roof - he thinks it looks too "ghetto" lol!! I said its a structure built out of thrown away pallets!!! If he frames the roof in nicely you won't even notice it didn't quite fit across.  And the chickens don't care!!


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## Chippets

Interior siding started today. Gonna be a long tedious process to get the inside and outside finished!


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## chicken_coop99

Looks great if I ever build another coop pallets are a good idea


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## Chippets

Haven't updated in a while but the interior is now finished with the slats from the pallets. The window on the back wall will be covered with hardware cloth and shutters will be installed. The door isn't hung yet but it is finished and has an opening at the top for ventilation and light, and we'll fashion a cover for when we need to close it.

Here's the view from the southeast corner looking out the front door









And here is the view looking into the coop from the door









As you can see, we haven't started on the outside yet!

Hubby cut his thumb while culling yesterday, so he has surgery tomorrow to repair the tendon. My son and a friend worked into the night tonight to finish the interior walls, install one removable roost so far, and make the door. Next I will put plywood on the floor and seal/paint inside so we can start the deep litter. I keep forgetting to measure how big it is. I drew the size out in the dirt and the guys just built it!


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## Bee

How nice to have handy men around to build a wonderful coop! And I love that you repurposed pallets! They are another extremely useful material to have around any homestead...invaluable and can be used for so many things. 

Before you use up all the pallets, remind me to show you some vertical gardens done in pallets...think greens for the gals that cannot be scratched up! 

And I dearly LOVE the name Subaroo...instant classic and I wish I had thought of it!


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## bcfox26

Looks great. Bee I'd love to see the vertical garden. I have some pallets to use up


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## Bee

Could be you could plant them and hang them on the side of your coop for chicken friendly greens that they cannot scratch up and destroy! I'll have to dig for that pic...and remember the site it was on.


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## Chippets

Yes, Bee, please look for it! We plan on doing more stuff with pallets. Free building materials? Yeah!! 

And the name SubaRoo - thanks, glad you like it! We have three Subarus right now and love how they get us through the Wyoming snow, so it was a natural name for our Roo! We love Subarus so much I had someone tell me I should change my last name to Baru - my first name is already Sue, lol


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## Bee

As promised...a link and a pic. Now, I'd do it a little differently than they did but it's really a neat idea that I wished I had thought of..very rustic and will match your coop. I hope you never paint your coop and keep that rough and rustic look.

http://lifeonthebalcony.com/how-to-turn-a-pallet-into-a-garden/


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## Chippets

Yay! Thanks, Bee! What a great idea!!


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