I brought home 8 baby chicks one day, which prompted my husband to start looking around for things he could use for a coop. His brother had an old shed he had built for his motorcycles, so that was carted home and put in the backyard. Alterations, including an old kitchen door and odd windows from trash and it became the coop. Chickens quickly became a growing hobby and a dog fence with deer fencing added to the top kept the chickens in and predators out. A few more chickens followed each year and my husband searched on trash collection days for storm doors. The next fall he built them a glass house with all the doors and a corregated plastic roof. They thought it was wonderful to take dust baths while the snow piled up outside. Last spring he built me a large shed attached to the coop to keep chicken and garden stuff in. It has a slider on the end and a picture window with side windows as well as a storm door into the chicken coop ( all recycled from someone else's discards). Oh, it also has an all glass storm door on the side of the coop part for extra light in the winter. Our baby coop is a recycled large dog crate with a perch in the center and it is attached to a wire and wood frame. I put it in the chicken area so everyone can get used to seeing each other. When the chicks get good size I put a couple of bricks under the front of the wire frame and the babies can come out and run back in when they get scared. Works really well to introduce them into the flock. My nestboxes are a cast off tool storage bin unit my husband had in the garage. So, if you don't mind driving around on trash days checking what others are throwing away, you can actually save money. I figure we have less that $200 invested in our coop and have recycled in the process.

Glass house made from storm doors. Old kitchen door to coop is open





Baby coop - front lifted so they can mingle - black rubber for rainy days to cover vents

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Inside Baby Box - trying to get them to try pellets as well as chick feed





Inside coop. looking into glass house - left side is the same - front perch across door lifts for cleaning floor





Nestboxes