I am disabled and unable to work and my boyfriend has been out of work for a while. Needless to say, we don't have a lot of money except for my SSI and the occasional work my boyfriend gets.
Where we live used to be my boyfriend's grandparents' farm. It's not near as big as it used to be so the only place we have is what his grandfather and uncle used. It looks more like a garage, but it's never been used for that. If it wasn't being used for fowl, it was being used as my boyfriend's kids' game room.
SO, when I came along we agreed we wanted chickens and ducks. We had both grown up with them (more my boyfriend Aric than me, I only lived with them in the summers at my sister's when I was a kid) so we had a little experience. Problem was "chicken-proofing" our back yard.
Aric is a wonderful handyman and he had a lot of scrap stuff laying around, so he started on the first coop using scrap wood laying around and a few pieces given to us by friends.
This is the final product
But, very quickly our stock kept growing. Either we were finding great deals on chickens and ducks, or people were just kindly giving them to us! This was when we decided it was time to open up the "garage" again for our winged creatures.
Like I said, the "garage" was being used for Aric's kids' game room and storage for Aric's tools, snow blower, bikes, etc., but there was still plenty of room! In fact, you could still see where the posts, etc were from when it was used for a coop before!
Now granted, we didn't have all the wood laying around, and we are a bit picky when it comes to stuff like this, so we did spend a little more than we had planned on wood. In total it was about $50 at Menard's. This cost is mostly the poultry wire
This is the garage as Aric is removing the mini basketball game on the wall. Notice his son's pool table now moved to the right and later covered with plastic.
The frame is now up using 2x4's for the supports and the slats are 2x4's cut in half.
Now the door is in and Aric is installing the poultry wire.
Fortunately there was already a hole in the wall from this being used as a coop in the past. All he had to do was take the cover off and install the ramp!
The next door neighbor had several pallets he wasn't using, so Aric tore them apart and combined a couple to make a bigger roost. If you ask around a lot of people have them sitting around not being used. Even some stores or storage companies have them that they give away.
These are 5 gallon paint buckets Aric cut in half to make nesting areas. Just for fun he cut up a couple of 1 inch pvc pipes for little roosts or steps in front of the nesting areas.
Aric is the king of finding creative ways to make things when there's little money. If you have any questions feel free to email [email protected]
Where we live used to be my boyfriend's grandparents' farm. It's not near as big as it used to be so the only place we have is what his grandfather and uncle used. It looks more like a garage, but it's never been used for that. If it wasn't being used for fowl, it was being used as my boyfriend's kids' game room.
SO, when I came along we agreed we wanted chickens and ducks. We had both grown up with them (more my boyfriend Aric than me, I only lived with them in the summers at my sister's when I was a kid) so we had a little experience. Problem was "chicken-proofing" our back yard.
Aric is a wonderful handyman and he had a lot of scrap stuff laying around, so he started on the first coop using scrap wood laying around and a few pieces given to us by friends.
This is the final product
But, very quickly our stock kept growing. Either we were finding great deals on chickens and ducks, or people were just kindly giving them to us! This was when we decided it was time to open up the "garage" again for our winged creatures.
Like I said, the "garage" was being used for Aric's kids' game room and storage for Aric's tools, snow blower, bikes, etc., but there was still plenty of room! In fact, you could still see where the posts, etc were from when it was used for a coop before!
Now granted, we didn't have all the wood laying around, and we are a bit picky when it comes to stuff like this, so we did spend a little more than we had planned on wood. In total it was about $50 at Menard's. This cost is mostly the poultry wire
This is the garage as Aric is removing the mini basketball game on the wall. Notice his son's pool table now moved to the right and later covered with plastic.
The frame is now up using 2x4's for the supports and the slats are 2x4's cut in half.
Now the door is in and Aric is installing the poultry wire.
Fortunately there was already a hole in the wall from this being used as a coop in the past. All he had to do was take the cover off and install the ramp!
The next door neighbor had several pallets he wasn't using, so Aric tore them apart and combined a couple to make a bigger roost. If you ask around a lot of people have them sitting around not being used. Even some stores or storage companies have them that they give away.
These are 5 gallon paint buckets Aric cut in half to make nesting areas. Just for fun he cut up a couple of 1 inch pvc pipes for little roosts or steps in front of the nesting areas.
Aric is the king of finding creative ways to make things when there's little money. If you have any questions feel free to email [email protected]
