My NEW Breeding Pens

[mommyoftwo]

How are they seem to be holding up to the weather? Someone was telling me that pallets will fall apart outside after a year or so. I love this. I just got into chicken and all ready have plans for four or five coops.

 

[dolfi]

How are they seem to be holding up to the weather? Someone was telling me that pallets will fall apart outside after a year or so. I love this. I just got into chicken and all ready have plans for four or five coops.

i think that it should be like regular wood. you would need to prime and paint if left bare than yes it would mess up

 

[brok3n]

The pallets I used have a heavier deck board and 2"x4"s nailed together in 10' lengths.

They were used to ship sheets of 24 gauge steel. You can check with roofing companies to get them.

 

[DMRippy]

How are they seem to be holding up to the weather? Someone was telling me that pallets will fall apart outside after a year or so. I love this. I just got into chicken and all ready have plans for four or five coops.

Not sure why a pallet coop would fall apart sooner than a reg coop....wood is wood. I know it can be because of the way they are made either because you have a heck of a time pulling them apart with tools LOL.

 

[DMRippy]

The pallets I used have a heavier deck board and 2"x4"s nailed together in 10' lengths.

They were used to ship sheets of 24 gauge steel. You can check with roofing companies to get them.

I got several truck loads of those. I have not used them yet.

 

[Penny Hen]

I love this. I am going to try to adapt this to quail.

 

[KilnChick]

Ok I am back...


Here are some pics with all the divider walls and nest boxes in.

We finished one side wall and started on the back... that is when things slowed way down.  We added doors.  I spent $10 on hinges from Habitat re-store. The doors, most were some kind of solid wood panel from the pallet place.  We had to make some from the pallet tops we had too.  We cut windows in each door so I could just look in to see if I had eggs and if anybody was going to try to get out /img/smilies/lau.gif we added the other side wall once we got to that coop so we could add the door. This method just saved us tons of cutting and was relatively fast.

In this pic all the doors are up BUT we had to cut the taller doors down when my son pointed out we could not put gutters us with the doors that tall /img/smilies/smack.gif he couldn't tell us that before we put the doors up /img/smilies/he.gif That has been fixed.

So the next thing we had to do was add the supports for the roofing.  We lucked out and found a really big pallet.  Never found one like it before.  Same wood as the walls only twice as long /img/smilies/wee.gif So we broke that pallet apart (cut some of it because it was easier) the boards were about 8 inches by 5 ft by 1 inch thick.  We snapped a chalk line from one corner to the other to make an angle.  No waste of wood.  We ran short and had to cut some 2 x 8's we had around.  The wedge is longer the the coop for over hang and we added a board to the bottom of the wedge to attach to the coop.  (I need to get a pic of that don't I /img/smilies/hmm.png ) Maybe you will get the idea from this pic


This is the front.  See the wedge and the board under it???? That is what is screwed into the coop not the wedge.  It is pitched to the back to keep the run dryer.

See the doors are fixed????? /img/smilies/he.gif

Hubby then said, "I want this strong. I want to walk on it if needed."  I still would not walk on it /img/smilies/gig.gif It is just thin pallet wood but it is stronger.  He add the cross members for stability.

While he was making it strong, I started decorating... /img/smilies/lau.gif So we only have a partial wall so the top part I covered with screen from doors we had.  We found some free screening on craigslist and used that to replace the screening on some doors we use to dry our spent gains we use for the chickens and used the old stuff and the left over free screening to block off the top of the dividing wall.  Does that make sense?  It is late and I am getting tired.... please feel free to ask questions. 

Some trees that got in the way are put to use as roosting poles.

We had some sheets of metal roofing that came with the farm but we did run short so had to go buy 3 sheets at $4.50 an 8ft sheet off craigslist. So far we are out of pocket $23.50? plus screws and days of labor.......


I will get some pics with the roof.... can't believe I don't have that pic


That is kinda were we are now.  We have the run panels made and ready to put up and some more interior work to do.   


Stay tuned..... /img/smilies/pop.gif



Thanks for all the kind words of encouragement!  I love BYC! I could not do any of this without the help of other BYCers!

that is awesome! I can get all the pallets I want from work! I'm going to get started on this, just don't need as many. Thank you so much for sharing

 

[ShayBaby]

that is awesome! I can get all the pallets I want from work! I'm going to get started on this, just don't need as many. Thank you so much for sharing

I am so envious LOL. Wish DH worked somewhere he could get pallets. I've been following this thread like a hawk and would LOVE to make something like this, even on a small scale, but pallets are -impossible- to find around here. And on the very rare instance you do find them, you have to pay for them. Good luck with your project!

 

[chick-among-us]

We cheated with some ply wood but everything is on blocks and pallets. By putting them on blocks we didn't have to worry about legs. The division underneath where there is the hole is solid block. I need to get better pics in the morning cause there is much better doors shade cloth and all kinds of improvements now

[/IMG]

 

[DMRippy]

We cheated with some ply wood but everything is on blocks and pallets. By putting them on blocks we didn't have to worry about legs. The division underneath where there is the hole is solid block. I need to get better pics in the morning cause there is much better doors shade cloth and all kinds of improvements now

[/IMG]

LOVE the dividers in the coop! do you have roosting poles? the way mine is they poop in the other pens nesting box....going to fix that soon.

working on putting in a central water system today. next big feeders so I only have to feed once a week or so.

I need to get some updated pic I had to put a new roof system over the runs to keep the rain out. just way too muddy.