"Chicken Central"... On the Cheep

[ironrdr]

Today I started by laying the vinyl flooring. It was a bit cold out, so the tiles didn't lay perfectly, but once it warms up a bit, they should lay down flat.

Next up was closing the coop in. Here's where I ran into a problem. I measued from the beginning of the project to be able to fit a full pallet from the floor to the header. Only problem was that I didn't calculate in the floor thickness. I tried to place the first pallet, but the space was just short. Time to drop back and punt.

After a bit of thinking (and cussing) I started deconstructing pallets. Gonna have to build the walls plank by plank. With the help of The Girl, I got about 5 pallets taken apart, but only about 5 feet of the first layer of wall attached. The nasty weather and a nasty head cold drove me in for the day.

I'll get more planks attached as soon as this cold lets up.

-darrell

 

[MoonShadows]

Keep up the good work, and keep the pictures coming our way.

 

[SomersetGirl]

Looks amazing!!

 

[1stACT]

Looks great!! Hope you're feeling better soon! Can't wait to see the finished coop.

 

[Kjordanov]

Looks awesome! Wish I could figure out how to use some cutting tools to cut the wood lol!

 

[Eggsoteric]

I'm so subscribing to this thread. Can't wait to see the finished product (looking great so far!). Plus, anyone that can build a coop and still keep their sense of humor about them is okay in my book.

 

[Kjordanov]

I'm so subscribing to this thread.  Can't wait to see the finished product (looking great so far!).  Plus, anyone that can build a coop and still keep their sense of humor about them is okay in my book.  

My thoughts exactly!!!

 

[sunnyvera]

This coop looks great. I love when people repurpose stuff, like pallets, and it looks beautiful, to boot. Keep us posted with more pics.

 

[hungry4eggs]

That looks great, all my materials are reclaimed also but nos in as nice shape as yours. Waiting on my carpenter friend to come help me with main construction, I have walls and floors pretty much together. Leaving the pallets whole so they will frame themselves.

 

[ironrdr]

Sooo, for the past two weeks, I've been kicking myself for not getting anything done on Chicken Central. Between weather and work, I've not had a minute to devote to the up-cycled utopia. But, that doesn't mean I've been neglecting it. In the past two weeks I've managed to acquire almost four sheets of plywood to help in the construction of the coop. Today I put those materials to good use. I've continued closing in the coop. I'll be using the pallet boards as siding over the plywood and existing pallet boards. I have cut-outs for a window and the door on this side. And on the South side I've constructed their nesting boxes. Of course it's different than the original plan, but these should work just fine. The boxes still need some finishing touches, but the basic design part is done. The door to collect the eggs will open from the back and swing much like a regular door. I may make it a double door just to ease up on the stress on the hinges. My sister used much the same configuration on her coop and it worked well. Hopefully I'll have the same luck. Tomorrow, after the bunny business, I hope to enclose the boxes and hopefully some more of the coop. Question: what size for the chicken door? More to come... -darrell