Kuntrygirls Page

This page is dedicated to the joys of recycling. I am a fan of reusing and recycling anything that you have or can find for whatever purpose you need. Because of my tight budget, recycling and reclaiming used wood and pallets helps me in keeping the cost down when building things for my chickens and other animals. I am HUGE fan of using pallets, so throughout the years, we have collected tons of pallets. Many people prefer buying new lumber from the store but for those of us who need every penny that we can save, prefer to go this route. Although it does take time and work to take apart pallets, in the end it literally can you save you hundreds of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
Some of the places that we get our pallets and recycled wood/lumber from are glass companies, farm implement stores, car dealerships, furniture stores and construction sights (home, new business, schools, etc.). I also check Craigslist every day. People are always giving away things in the FREE section. In addition, I belong to a yahoo group called Freecycle. Members post free things that they want to give away. You may also want to post on Craigslist or your local freecycle group any item that you are looking for. You never know who needs to get rid of something. I also barter.
Please take a look at my chickens coops, chicken stalls, chicken house, raised/open air coop, guinea pen, sheep pen, brooders, portable roosts, portable nesting boxes and feeders that have been created from pallets and other recycled wood.
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This pic below is a 4 stall chicken roosting area. The 5th stall is an enclosed 2 brooder stall. The 6th stall is the feeding storage where all of the animal feed is stored. The roosts are designed to where we can take out when we need to turn the stalls into breeding pens or duck and turkey brooders. The chickens go in the stalls during the day to take a nap or to get out of the heat. Upon nightfall, they go in to roost for the rest of the night. All I have to do is go out and close and latch each stall. In the morning, I go out and open the stalls and the chickens fly out when they get ready. Waterers are placed in all of the stalls, so the chickens don't have to leave out to go to the main waterers in the chicken yard.

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The measurements are 28 feet long - 10 feet wide - 8 feet tall. It has a "sun room" where they can hang out during the day and then they will go in their enclosed area at night to roost. We purchased 3 yards of sand which only cost us $20.00 for all 3 yards. The roost is from a tree that we cut down.

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We decided to build a raised/open air coop. The temps in Louisiana are so hot, so we wanted to give the birds as much ventilation as possible. Underneath the coop is also additional area where the animals can get under when it rains or to get out of the sun.

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This is our "Guin Pen" for the guineas. My co-worker gave me a dog kennel, so we used 2 sides of the dog kennel to build this pen. Pallets were used to complete the pen. The tin was found at a construction site where workers were building a tin metal building. They allowed us to take the FREE leftover NEW tin. We will use the other 2 sides of the dog kennel to build another pen.

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This is a portable roost that can be taken out when needed. This was made from pallet wood.

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Rabbit Shed

This is our sheep pen. It is 30' x 30'. This wood is recycled wood that we found.

This is the sheep feeder. It is made from pallets and free tin. It holds 5 gallons of feed.




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Recycled Feed Storage Building













These are feeders that were made from pallets. The longest feeder is 4 feet long. It is very sturdy, so the animals cannot tip it over. And the chickens DO NOT roost on it. It can hold 5 gallons of feed.

PVC Pipe Feeder - This feeder holds 5 gallons of feed.

This is a 4 compartment brooder that we built using pallets. When the girls go broody, we place them in their own little compartment so that they can have peace and quiet. When the babies hatch, they remain in these brooders until they are old enough and can be moved to a grow out pen.

This little wooden box was found at a school. Well actually we found 10 of them. I don't know what they used them for but they told us that we could have them. We use them for the broody hens. We place hay in the wooden box and place the eggs in it. The hen also has her food and water right there. Our girls do not like to move around when they are broody. They will get up to poop and stretch their legs and then right back on their nest.

This is a 6 compartment cage/brooder that someone on Craigslist gave to me. We use it the 1st stage grow out brooder.

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This is the chicken house where the nesting boxes are located. Our set up is different from others. The girls do not lay eggs in the same place where they roost. They roost in a different location. When they are ready to lay eggs, they go to the chicken house and lay their eggs and then leave. It's connected to the open air/raised coop. Everything that we used is recycled material. We still need to paint though.

This is a pic of the nesting boxes that we use in the other coops. It is portable so we can move it as we need it. It is made from pallets.

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The pics below are benches, tables and chairs that were made from pallets. You can take the benches and fold the back forward to make a table.

I hope that this page can give you an idea on building a chicken coop with recycled materials or using pallets or recycled wood for your chicken houses or coops. If you have any questions about using pallets or recycled wood to make chicken coops, chicken houses, chicken feeders, brooders, nesting boxes or roosts, please email me or visit my website http://happyacresfarm.webs.com/.