Just had to share some joy

[Momagain1]

that my hubby went from making the coop/run in like 6 wks, to making it in 3 due to next wk he is doing taxes (we have a rental property (dont ask I hate it..loss every month), a home business FT (mine), not to mention regular forms for his "JOB"..etc..so its an all week thing...sooo then the next week he's working 77 hrs (normal)..then the next wk he's off and thats when he'll do the coop/run.

If I order now; I'll get them in 6-14 days they say

so this is what he wants to do:

the 10x10 coop someone here made a diagram of (THANK YOU!!!)..he wants to make sure thats enough to expand w/more chicks tho if needed..?? I'm terrible w/numbers so I gotta go figure it out
a rain barrel watering thing

**DO WE NEED to have the coop off the ground? I seen so many of you w/bricks or whatever below the coop? whats the reasoning behind this..?

I can get free pallets; I seen lots of ppl recommend getting those; can you tell me what those are used for? TIA for that one..

he is now excited (well not sure THATS the right word; motivated is probably better) and is stopping off at his brothers to see what extra supplies they have from their trial/error
for their coop etc...hoping he comes home w/freebies

so..I used to wake up thinking of my kids...today I woke up thinking of my soon to be peeps!!! I think I'm sick

 

[WhySayWhat]

I'm using free pallets...I took one apart to use the lumber on it to "fill in" gaps in the walls. I'm using two of the thicker type (with pieces of 4"x4" as the spacers) as the base/floor of the coop. Those will sit up on 4 concrete piers (the block looking things), because someone told me I needed them, lol, along with 2 8' poles of 4x4 pressure treated wood. Those keep the untreated wood off the ground and away from a shorter life due to rot! For the walls and roof of my coop, I got a couple of pallet crates. Basically, they're pallets with sides. Those, I'm turning upside down so that the attached pallet becomes the roof of my coop. Boards torn from the other pallets can fill in the gaps in the crates.

This works for me because I'm only making a small coop for 3 hens (and I'm actually building it to fit 6 with the minimum space requirement). There are a ton of pallet coops on here though! Just type pallet coop into the search box just under and to the right of the "logout" button.

 

[Captain Carrot]

the idea behind a coop that's raised has a couple of purposes. It keep damp and cold getting into the coop by the floor, it prevents rats and other rodents making a home under the coop and lastly it gives the chickens a little bit more run space.

6 inches above the ground is enough to prevent rodents living under the coop, and keep it dry too.

The pallets can be used for lumber if you prepare them first.