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Recycling Materials to Build your COOP

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ducks4you

ducks4you

Songster
11 Years
Jan 20, 2009
1,572
80
236
East Central Illinois
I was reading the Post:
Our Version of the "Hoop House" where Rafter 7 Paint Horses wrote about using recyclables. I thought we might want to share the ways that we build/equip materials for our coops and chicken supplies by using RECYCLED materials, instead of buying everything new.

I LOVE recycling old materials.
1) Us Horse-People are Constantly fixing things with baling twine/wire.
2) Made "greenhouses" this Spring out of leftover bags from Pine shavings. GOOD way to start greens for the birds, too.
3) Hang bridles/other stuff from really old bent bits nailed to the wall.
4) Support 1 x 2's with 5 in. leftover 2 x 4 cuts (also glue them)
5) Make a 2nd closure for the chicken run with leftover broken piece of dog chain attached with a spring snap
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Add your OWN suggestions for using "leftovers" I think this will help a lot of us to "think green" and save some money
THX BYCers!!! I'll be waiting to read them.
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These are great ideas! I love to recycle as well. Our property was a Longhorn cattle ranch before we moved here. The previous owners left lots of "old junk" that they didn't want. I don't have cows but have donkeys, goats, chickens, ducks and guineas. All of my brooders, nest boxes, hay feeders, etc. were built from things in the junk pile. It has saved me so much! Also, quite a bit of my coop is made from "bad wood" from the house my sister built. I LOVE it!
 
Lets see, where to begin!!

* I found some huge pallets on the side of the road that had free sprayed on the side. They each had 3 "walls".
* I am using the largest base 5x7 for my coop floor.
*I took the rest apart and salvaged as much wood from them as I could.
A bunch of 2x4s, 1x2s, a couple of OSB etc..
* I was only able to save a few nails.

We moved into this house two years ago and have found so many things to reuse!
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Hiding under the massive blackberrys that we tore out we found...
* Over 100 feet of chain link fence, great for the run and garden!
* 4, 8 foot wood post to use for the run
* Extra large roll of that black weed control
* Odds and ends of the thin fencing to use over the vents in the coop.
* They had done landscaping using railroad ties. They attract termites so they have to be moved away from the house. We will use those either as post for the run or around the base of the run fencing.
* we found a pile of old wood and siding behind the shed hiding under yet another annoying blackberry bush.
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The past owners use to have a path into the blackberrys where they would dump with grass clippings. Now that the berrys are cleared out I have found the richest soil/dirt that I have ever seen!! I put 5 wheel barrels into the garden area. 1/3 of the area that we cleared will be for the chickens.

*Old windows from freecycle.org I reframed them and will use some in the coop and some for cold frames in the garden

* Oops paint that was going to be thrown out ~ exterior house paint, perfect to paint the coop and cold frames.

There is a house near by that is being remodeled and next time I see them out working on it I plan on asking if I can take some of thier old siding that they ripped off.

It never hurts to ask. Whats the worst thing that could happen? They might say no and/or give you an odd look, but oh well right. My teenager slides down in her seat when ever she's with me and I do it:oops:

And post "Wanted" on craigslist or freecycle. Sometimes people have stuff that they have forgotten about and your listing will remind them and with your post they have a chance to get rid of it. (make sense?)

I'm sure I will think of a few more things after I post this.
I love to recycle! Not only is it good for the earth, its GREAT for the wallet!!!
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We always use recyclable. Our big coop started from the frame of an old carport. DS reinforced it with 2 x 4's the siding he used old
tin roofing metal sheets someone had given us. The shingles came from someone who gave us all he had extra from his new ly built house. The paint was oops paint got a 5 gallon bucket for 10.00. He took apart large pallets that had 2 x 4's on them to frame the doorways. Now he is building a new grow out coop its 4 feet by 8 feet He used two pallets for the floor and then used pallets on the walls as well Instead of buying plywood to cover the sides he nailed strips over the openings of the pallets making it look very rustic. The door to the coop is a set of levalors that someone gave DH . Once painted they didn't open so no need to put fencing behind it. He built the nest boxes out of scrap plywood. The rrof he made out of more of the roofing tin He made an A frame from pieces of the pallet and nailed the tin onto it We now have a 4 x 8 coop and all it cost so far is 5.00 for a box of nails. We go on regular pallet runs We always have a stack of them You can't build everything with them but they give you a great and cheap start.
 
1. Floor of an old delivery truck, 5.5 ft wide and 15 ft long for a floor and foundation in the coop.
2. Four windows my Dad had from a renovation job back in the 70's.
3. Old storm window from a shed I tore down 10 years ago.
4. 2x4's for the walls and rafters from same old shed.
5. Pressure treated 2x4's from an old picket fence torn down about 15 years ago.
6. Synthetic carpet pad insulation from the carpet we torn out when we moved into our house.
7. Flashing I found in the crawl space above our garage.
8. Sheet vinyl from our old kitchen floor
9. Vinyl siding left over from house and garage.
10. Shelves from an old barn I cleaned up after it fell down
11. Shutters from same old barn
 
I've gotten a lot of use out of some old Cat5 cable I had lying around. This is also called "ethernet cable," and is what you use to connect your computer to your modem or router. It has a plug on the end which looks like a phone cord plug, but a little bit bigger.

Note: this is NOT the coax cable, which connects your modem to the wall. Coax cable is fat and black, and has a round connector with a single pin sticking out of it. Coax is also what you use to connect cable to your TV.

Cat5 cable is actually 8 very thin copper wires, wrapped in a thin coating of plastic/rubber insulation, which are twisted into 4 pairs. Yellow and white together, blue and white together, and so forth. All 4 pairs are then wrapped around each other, inside a plastic/rubber sleeve (which is usually either blue or ecru).

With a pair of wire cutters, snip off the connector ends. Then use a knife to cut a slit in the outside (blue or ecru) sleeve, to free the wires inside. You now have 4 lengths of thin wire, which you can use for a variety of purposes. (It seems to work best if you leave the pairs together, but if you need more, then split the pairs up.)

In the last week I've used it to lace together panels of wire, lash the waterer to the side of the coop, wrap around the ramp (in an attempt to) provide more traction for the chicks, and secure the end of the ramp to the door frame. It's thin, flexible, strong, and free!
 
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Nice! DH has a ton of it packed away from his geek days. He's been saving it because he thinks "may need it one of these days".
Ya, for my coop!
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Its great to read what others are using. It gives others great "new" ideas we woldn't have thought of before, like Mechagrues, I wouldn't have thought of it!

Thanks for the great ideas, looking forward to more!
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