Look what my son and I built today!

[MommyMagpie]

All from scrounged lumber, plywood and a pallet. The floor is leftover sheet vinyl from my upstairs bathroom. We only spent $35, for drip edge, hardware cloth and door hinges. The door will be repurposed from a large window screen. My friend's husband thinks he has roofing lying around that we can have, so we should be able to finish it tomorrow and move the new girls out of their pen in the basement. I have to figure out a way to get a light in there; the other coop has an outlet so I have a place to plug it in and they will run off the same timer.

The hardest part was dealing with the tree; I cut back only the minimum necessary to get the coop underneath and a couple of times had to sit on some very poky twigs to get in a good position to drive screws into the walls. It will be painted as soon as I can get some paint off freecycle, either a light brown or a green color.

 

[CrestedGirl]

 

[zathura12]

Super good.

 

[KandiandJerry]

Great job!!! We love to recycle wood!!!! The best part is you and your Son working on it together!!!

 

[MommyMagpie]

All finished, and the girls are moved in. The nest box is behind the hanging feeder, attached to the wall, and son donated a couple of golf balls to it. It has a poop board fastened to the top to prevent any poop from getting in there, and the poop board doubles as a midway stop on the way up to the roost. Waterer is just inside the door to the right, set up on an old slow cooker crock, upturned.

Son did the roof all by himself; I cut the drip edge and felt paper, then told him how to install those and the shingles (which we got from the friend's husband I mentioned in my original post. So all told we have less than $40 in it.

 

[2DogsCoop]

Looks great

 

[theoldchick]

Good for you! You'll have lots of circulation in that coop.

 

[MommyMagpie]

Quote:
Yes, I decided to go for the most ventilation I thought I would ever need, and when it gets cold I have some 4 mil plastic sheeting for the door and about halfway up the side vents; this will leave 6 inches at the very top for air circulation during the winter.

It still needs to be painted. Hope we can scrounge some green or brown exterior paint somewhere.

Our next project is to enlarge the original coop; I have a friend bringing us some spare lumber from a monastery soon. If I can double the size of coop #1 we will have room for 12 hens which is what we think is the best number for us.

I was just out there to look at the hens to see how they were doing out there and two of them are squished together on the poop board, and the other two are cuddled up together in a floofy ball right up next to the door. Silly Cochins.