My NEW Breeding Pens

DMRippy

Pallet Queen
8 Years
May 18, 2011
14,981
545
381
Nashville
Well, it finally happened, I hatched some chicks and hubby said "we need to build those breeding pens NOW!!!!" So we are
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BUT it had to be CHEAP... So Free was best! We have a huge supply of great pallets and that is our foundation for these breeding pens.

The first thing we did was take 10 pallets of the same size and type and made tables basically by adding legs that were 2 ft. We moved them all to the area for the pens and laid them out to be attached to each other in the field.

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We added some boards all the way around as a ledger to line up the wall boards and to attach the tables to each other for stability

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We had already pulled the pallets apart and had the boards ready to go. We cut 10 boards in half so they were about 18 inch tall (for the pop door area) and another 10 that were cut in half and half the width of the other (see pic) that made the opening about 12 inch.

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We had to use a board on the inside to secure these short boards to the coop

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so we did that all the way down the front.

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Then we added some very thin wood we got at the same place to the coop floors to keep chickens feet from poking through the plastic we added for easy clean up. The wood you see too is for the next step.

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We took apart some pallet tops (they look like a window and are stapled and come apart easy) cut them to 12 in lengths and made 12x12 panels for the nest boxes we also cut some longer boards to run the width of the coop to hold the nest material in place. We used those same pallet tops as a partial divider wall and Covered that with thick black plastic for privacy. Easy to replace if it does not work or hold up.

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I need to put the baby to bed so more later.....
 
Ok I am back...

Here are some pics with all the divider walls and nest boxes in.

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We finished one side wall and started on the back... that is when things slowed way down. We added doors. I spent $10 on hinges from Habitat re-store. The doors, most were some kind of solid wood panel from the pallet place. We had to make some from the pallet tops we had too. We cut windows in each door so I could just look in to see if I had eggs and if anybody was going to try to get out
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we added the other side wall once we got to that coop so we could add the door. This method just saved us tons of cutting and was relatively fast.

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In this pic all the doors are up BUT we had to cut the taller doors down when my son pointed out we could not put gutters us with the doors that tall
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he couldn't tell us that before we put the doors up
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That has been fixed.

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So the next thing we had to do was add the supports for the roofing. We lucked out and found a really big pallet. Never found one like it before. Same wood as the walls only twice as long
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So we broke that pallet apart (cut some of it because it was easier) the boards were about 8 inches by 5 ft by 1 inch thick. We snapped a chalk line from one corner to the other to make an angle. No waste of wood. We ran short and had to cut some 2 x 8's we had around. The wedge is longer the the coop for over hang and we added a board to the bottom of the wedge to attach to the coop. (I need to get a pic of that don't I
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) Maybe you will get the idea from this pic

This is the front. See the wedge and the board under it???? That is what is screwed into the coop not the wedge. It is pitched to the back to keep the run dryer.

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See the doors are fixed?????
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Hubby then said, "I want this strong. I want to walk on it if needed." I still would not walk on it
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It is just thin pallet wood but it is stronger. He add the cross members for stability.

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While he was making it strong, I started decorating...
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So we only have a partial wall so the top part I covered with screen from doors we had. We found some free screening on craigslist and used that to replace the screening on some doors we use to dry our spent gains we use for the chickens and used the old stuff and the left over free screening to block off the top of the dividing wall. Does that make sense? It is late and I am getting tired.... please feel free to ask questions.

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Some trees that got in the way are put to use as roosting poles.

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We had some sheets of metal roofing that came with the farm but we did run short so had to go buy 3 sheets at $4.50 an 8ft sheet off craigslist. So far we are out of pocket $23.50? plus screws and days of labor.......

I will get some pics with the roof.... can't believe I don't have that pic

That is kinda were we are now. We have the run panels made and ready to put up and some more interior work to do.

Stay tuned.....
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Thanks for all the kind words of encouragement! I love BYC! I could not do any of this without the help of other BYCers!
 
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OMG- This is awesome! Can I pay you and your hubby to come out to Smith County and build this for me? I'll feed ya, pay ya and play with the baby the whole time you work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Very Very nice!
 
It looks good!! Really cool use of materials!
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Can't wait to see the finished product!!!
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The only thing I am questioning is the black plastic? Wouldn't they ingest it? I'm thinking wire would be a better way to go.
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