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My first coop...a pallet coop. - Page 3

post #21 of 91
8/9/11 at 10:44am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyboy718 
Quote:
Originally Posted by oberhaslikid 

You multiply your 6.6 by your 2.9 and it comes out 19.14 square foot.
Divide that by 4 and you get 4.785
Thats 4-5 birds.


Ok, so 4 square feet per bird. Not cubicfeet.  I keep hearing cubic feet and square feet used interchangebly.  Ok, so using the current layout of my floor as it is in the picture. it is 10.25' Long by 3' Wide and thus 30.75 square feet and gives me 3.4 square feet per bird.  Hmmm, I have two birds too many.


Sorry Flyboy!  I did mess you up with the whole cubic ft, square ft.  Sounds like you are on the right track now with some added help! wink

Blessed to be the wife of a loving part time farmer, mother of two wonderful adult daughters (US Coast Guard & Department of State), grandmother of a beautiful grandaughter, sharing our home with 1 Black Lab, 1 house cat, 2 Jersey Steer, 1 Black Baldie Steer, 1 Hereford Heifer, 1 RIR, 1 Wyandotte, 3 Leghorn, 6 Speckled Sussex, 2 Australorp and 2 Partridge Rock.
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Blessed to be the wife of a loving part time farmer, mother of two wonderful adult daughters (US Coast Guard & Department of State), grandmother of a beautiful grandaughter, sharing our home with 1 Black Lab, 1 house cat, 2 Jersey Steer, 1 Black Baldie Steer, 1 Hereford Heifer, 1 RIR, 1 Wyandotte, 3 Leghorn, 6 Speckled Sussex, 2 Australorp and 2 Partridge Rock.
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post #22 of 91
8/9/11 at 10:48am

my old coupe (as my pic)  is 5x8

it always liked 8-10 birds.  12 was starting to get full and at 14 we would start moving some back to the other coupe.

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post #23 of 91
8/9/11 at 10:50am

Nice! Can't wait to see the finished result. thumbsup

Have you hugged your chickens today? I know I have!
Sister of three silkie chickens Sunny, Honey, and Hawk And 9 other delightful chicks! Every day is special with chickens by your side!
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Have you hugged your chickens today? I know I have!
Sister of three silkie chickens Sunny, Honey, and Hawk And 9 other delightful chicks! Every day is special with chickens by your side!
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post #24 of 91
8/9/11 at 11:50am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by teach1rusl 

I think the more I talk, the more confusing I'm making it...lol.  Say you've used three pallets on each side for walls so far.  Then I'd use 8 joiner 2x4 sections.  I think along the floor horizontal boards AND in the middle - can't do the top because you'll be putting another layer of pallets, right?  So one joiner board (midway and at floor level) between pallet one and two, and again between pallet two and three - so four on each side - total of 8.  I think that would go far to making things really sturdy hu 
Pallets come in different widths, so how high would one more level of pallets make it??  Like my pallets are 51 inches wide, so it'd be really easy to cut down one wall side to make a slanted roof and it'd still be plenty tall to walk through...


Ok, I think I gotcha now.  Right now the way I have those three pallets that make up one wall joined together as one complete wall is by  the 1X4's nailed on the top's.  If you look at the pick you can see them.  But, I understand what you are saying about nailing 2X4's inside the pallets to help join them together for horizontal strength.  The whole wall will still sway though as it does now.  I am going to go up at least with another row of a partial pallet on top of the pallets I already have now.  Wasn't really concerned about the gap that will be created between the courses of pallets by the 1X4's because it is the same all the way around and will eventually be covered with particle board as the skin.  But, I could remove those 1x4 joiners and use them on the inside of the pallets to join them together instead of on top, I am going to look at that this evening when I get back to work on it.

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post #25 of 91
8/9/11 at 1:47pm

I have read - for cleaning purposes - make it small enough to reach all corners or tall enough to walk inside.

The coop looks ample big to me for 9 if they have a large run or free-range.

My 4 free-range darlings go into their hutch every night.  I was told the hutch is only adequate for 2 birds, but my girls all pile up in the corner together.  They only use 1/4 of the space in this wretched heat.

Forget formulas and use your best instinct.

I am also starting pallet homes in hopes of keeping my costs WAY down.

Chick In Delight

My every success leaves a trail of failures. Often, the failures are the most fun. 
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Chick In Delight

My every success leaves a trail of failures. Often, the failures are the most fun. 
If you like pictures, check out my BYC page.
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post #26 of 91
8/9/11 at 6:53pm
Thread Starter 

Did a little more work this evening.  Got a late start, so I only got the back side wall on.  And then I played around with roof ideas.  These two pallets are not fastened to the coop they are just sitting there; so I thought about doing this and finishing it out but I have no idea how to fasten these two pallets together or to the wall.  These particular pallets I am using here as an example for the roof have three 2X4's running vertically and then the smaller thinner boards are running horizontally.  Any ideas on how to finish this baby out?  Another course of pallets all the way around and cap it off with a simple roof, pallets on an angle?  Or try to figure out something with making a roof the way I have it in the picture?  If I go another course of pallets that will make it 84" of head room from the floor to the underside of the roof.  If I use the roof style in the picture it will only be about 5' high from floor to center of roof.  Let me know what you think and how I should proceed from here. Thanks.




http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/k533/minden79/cooproof.jpg

(9) Barred Plymouth Rocks
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(9) Barred Plymouth Rocks
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post #27 of 91
8/9/11 at 10:46pm

Going back to that wobbly wall issue. In your picture you have looks like 1x4's laying flat across the 'top' of the pallet wall. I would take those off and replace (the full length all walls) with a 2x4 screwed in. Saw a picture of this a few minutes ago, I will hunt around and try to find it again and post link. If I were building this way I would actually do the same treatment on the floor as well, so the base of your pallet wall would be screwed into a 2x4 instead of the pallet floor, and then the pallet walls topped with 2x4's also. This would raise the height of your wall 3 inches. Too late for you to put a 2x4 sill down like this, but you can certainly top your 'walls' with it. Seems to me it would take care of that wobbly issue. I'll look for the link...I really like your progress so far.

To respond to the guy questioning the actual savings using the pallets as 'framing' ( and I don't mean this in a flaming way at all), you raise a valid point. It all depends on how dedicated you are to saving a buck, you can use pallets for 100% of your coop (walls, 'studs', siding, roof rafters, roof boards, etc.) and save a bundle. I am doing exactly that.  Some people use pallets as 'structure' or framing for walls then use conventional siding as you mentioned, but some use pallets for most of the structure. If I were building using Flyboys method and trying to save the most money possible, I would not attach siding over the pallet walls, I would fill in the gaps vertically by tearing some pallets down and ripping them on the tablesaw to fit the gaps left between the pallet boards. Some question the extra time and effort it takes building with pallets, worth the trouble? For me it is, I have plenty of time and sort of challenged myself to build not just as cheaply as possible but DIRT CHEAP.

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post #28 of 91
8/9/11 at 10:50pm

Found the link...click on "photo 5"

http://www.oklahomahistory.net/chickencoop.html

this is the link to the actual photo...

http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/ChickenCoop051709b.jpg

hope this helps.

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post #29 of 91
8/9/11 at 11:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyboy718 
Quote:
Originally Posted by oberhaslikid 

You multiply your 6.6 by your 2.9 and it comes out 19.14 square foot.
Divide that by 4 and you get 4.785
Thats 4-5 birds.


Ok, so 4 square feet per bird. Not cubicfeet.  I keep hearing cubic feet and square feet used interchangebly.  Ok, so using the current layout of my floor as it is in the picture. it is 10.25' Long by 3' Wide and thus 30.75 square feet and gives me 3.4 square feet per bird.  Hmmm, I have two birds too many.


Impossible to have too many birds!!!  just to little coop..... gig

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AZBootsie

 

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post #30 of 91
8/9/11 at 11:16pm

I think its great to see others using free recycled materials to build stuff!  thumbsup  looks like your coop is coming along nicely. i think the roof set up in the picture looks nice but i would want more room for you to be able to get in there and clean, etc... unless your only 4 ft. tall of course then youll have plenty room for walk in.
DH and i are in the middle of building our own pallet coop - a bit bigger bc i plan on more birds, of course roll ,  the big coop is 8ftX 8ft and not sure how tall yet but we have the bottom row of pallets on all the way around with a space for my door and a space for the chicken run door. luckily i wont have to put real walls on due to location, just chicken wire all the way around. but i am having the same problem with figuring out what to do next of course - as we are just building as we go with no plans and are not builders. hu 

we did already complete a mini coop for the bantams out of 2 pallets and a plywood floor up off the ground - came out so cute im thinking of building a few more mini coops hide dont tell DH though -

Im loving using the pallets for stuff - next after the big coop will be a pallet compost area somewhere in the yard -

GREAT JOB - will be checking back for more pics as you go  clap

mommy to 2 DD's, married to my love, my DH 
my birds-  trio of bantam cochins, three BR hens, 1 SLW rooster, 4 EE hens, 1 production red. pair of muscovy ducks, 2 black sex link pullets 4 roosters (about to go to freezer camp) 2 oeg bantams, pair of silver phoenix and 1 gold pullet. and a couple of kauai feral chickens(2 hens 1 roo)

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mommy to 2 DD's, married to my love, my DH 
my birds-  trio of bantam cochins, three BR hens, 1 SLW rooster, 4 EE hens, 1 production red. pair of muscovy ducks, 2 black sex link pullets 4 roosters (about to go to freezer camp) 2 oeg bantams, pair of silver phoenix and 1 gold pullet. and a couple of kauai feral chickens(2 hens 1 roo)

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