Making a Pallet Coop!

[lifeofpaine]

Hey everyone! I was searching on Pinterest for chicken coops and we just cant afford those coops.. lol so I thought HEY! what if I took pallets(2pallets long and 2 pallets high) and put insulation in them and then put plywood on the inside of the pallet (to be the inside wall) and the siding stuff on the outside (for the outside walls) then I will have an insulated coop for cheap! ) then I just need to put hinges on one side to make for easy cleaning, make window holes for sun light, and make nest boxes.

I have 5 delaware chickens and I live in Fountain, CO which is between colorado springs and pueblo. Fountain has a 2sq ft/bird rule for coops, but we hope to move to colorado springs soon and they have a 4sqft/bird rule. Up to 10 hens, no roosters. This coop im planning will be 64sqft lol would that be too big for just my 5 hens? I may get 10 total in the future

What do yall think? Will it be warm enough for just my 5 in the winter?

 

[yogifink]

Check out the Coops page on BYC, there a quite a few people who have made coops out of pallet wood. The link in my signature (school coop) was made from pallets.

Skip the insulation, proper ventilation is more important. (Save yourself a few extra dollars)

No one every complained about making a coop to big.

 

[write2caroline]

I love pallet coops.

The hardest part at first was learning to take the pallets apart. We hammered from the back side and used the claw part of the hammer to lift off the boards. My husband even straightened the nails to reuse them.

I would recommend that you use vinyl flooring on the inside - makes clean up a breeze. I also put the pallet coop up on 4x4s so that I would not have to bend down to get into it. I think I paid for the plans on my pet chicken for $9.

We used oops paint and paid $5 and because of the brand we lucked out and got a $5 rebate. Seriously, the whole thing cost us nothing but time and it was so worth it!

Caroline

 

[write2caroline]

I was thinking about your mention of moving the coop, you might want to assemble the edges with those simpson strong tie l bend straps so that when you move, you can disassemble your coop and reassemble it at your new place.

Caroline

 

[Hawkly88]

I just built a coop with pallets and it came out great. In my opinion well anyway. Trying to break down pallets is very time consuming and hard to do. So I used the whole pallet and used plywood to cover. The size of mine is as follows the floor is 4 pallets and I was going
to go up two for the sides and relized that it was going to be too tall so I went a pallet an a half tall