Our New Pallet Coop

[Auntiejessi3]

Very nice coop!

 

[gtaus]

I have the Harbor Freight version of that:
https://www.harborfreight.com/14-amp-1-12-in-capacity-corded-electric-chipper-shredder-69293.html

I use it on lightweight stuff like raspberry canes and end of year peonies. Then the stuff goes into the compost nicely.

Yes, those small electric chippers are great for lightweight stuff. You can clean up some stuff out of the yard and end up with a bucket of woodchips to use for your chicken coop litter, nest box, or compost pile, for example. I would only recommend those chippers for people who do not expect more out of them than something like you do.

If you want to lay down 2 or 3 inches of woodchips in your chicken run, then you should probably consider other options.

For anyone considering getting any woodchipper, you need to plan on either buying new chipper blades, sending them out to a sharpening service, or learning how to sharpen them yourself. I might be a stickler for having sharp chipper blades. I resharpen my blades after about 3 hours of run time on each edge.

I purchased a Harbor Freight 1X30 belt sander and that has worked great for me to resharpen my chipper blades...

I bought my sander as an open box sale for around $25.00. Sometimes you can get a coupon to reduce the full retail price. Anyways, it paid for itself in the first 3 sets of chipper blades I sharpened myself instead of buying new chipper blade sets on Amazon...

I am hard pressed to tell you if a new set of blades is better than my resharpened blades. I don't know much about sharpening blades, but even I was able to get them razor sharp using that 1X30 belt sander. You have to expect to replace or sharpen your chipper blades if you use the woodchipper for any length of time. Again, I like really sharp blades and only run my blades for about 3 hours before I need a new edge.

I know this woodchipper side topic came up as a way to process waste pallet wood, but I would not recommend processing pallet wood through a homeowner woodchipper. For the wear and tear on your chipper, it's just not worth running waste pallet wood through it to make a relatively small amount of wood chips.

 

[gtaus]

I went for pallet wood to cut expenses, only have around $350 in this coop, that's a few pressure treated 2x4's ,screws hardware cloth and hinges locks and saw blades, bits, tar to cover the screw holes on the used tin that was used.

That's all the reason you need. You really have built something that will last for years for many chickens. Compare that to an "inexpensive" chicken coop kit sold at our local Fleet store...

That's $500.00 for a coop only big enough for 3 chickens! And the build quality of that kit makes pallet wood seem like premium wood.

Well, that coop kit looks pretty for a year or two before they fall apart. And if someone buys one for their backyard flock, I'm OK with their decision. But if you have some skills and are willing to make your own coop, you can build something much more solid that will last for many years, for many more chickens, on a fraction of the cost - especially if you use salvaged and pallet wood like you did.

Again, that is a fantastic pallet coop build you made.

 

[Scissors65]

Just completed our pallet coop,all used material other than pressure treated 2x4s on the ground, pallet wood is not for the faint at heart, it takes a lot of time demoing and trying to make odd pieces work into the build,you also loose at least 20% of your pallet from it busting while disassembling. It has been enjoyable, built it in two phases, 7ftx12ft first, then a 7ftx8ft, 20ftx7ft total, I left them where they could be separated or could open up to use as a whole.
View attachment 3870499

Very cool!! Great job

 

[GNeerChick]

Very cool coop!

 

[Love Donkeys]

Your coop is absolutely beautiful!!!
When you can reuse an article that would end up in a landfill or a scrap heap it makes you feel good inside.

 

[olivigus]

That is one cool coop!

 

[HowIsItDone]

That's beautiful! A work of art.

It may be constructed from pallets, but it's no pallet coop.
This is a pallet coop!

 

[Imataken]

Yeah, 4 years ago I found out that our county landfill has all the free wood chips I could ever use and since then my chippers have seen little action in the past few years. Before that, I used them a lot. But it's hard to beat FREE wood chips if you can find them locally.

I paid about $150.00 for the Sun Joe electric chipper about 5 years ago and over $1,000.00 for the larger gas chipper I purchased maybe 20 years ago. I have not used my gas chipper in 2 or 3 years.

I use my electric Sun Joe chipper to process small branches I pick up in yard cleanup, maybe once a month in the summertime, but only for small jobs. It does make nice brooder and nesting chips.

If a person's main goal is to process waste pallet wood, buying a woodchipper might not be cost effective. I would consider any number of other options to use waste pallet wood before trying to chip it up again, like I did, one time only with electric chipper and then decided it was not worth the effort.

Not sure where you are located but I get free woodchips from chipdrop.com they drop off a truck load usually within a day or two which is great for me since my run is 20 by 30ft I have them drop the truck load right at the run door so all I have to do is spread them out.. I used to have to use a wheelbarrow from my truck to my backyard took forever lots of work I feel spoiled now that they just dump them right at my coop door

 

[gtaus]

Not sure where you are located but I get free woodchips from chipdrop.com they drop off a truck load usually within a day or two which is great for me since my run is 20 by 30ft I have them drop the truck load right at the run door so all I have to do is spread them out.. I used to have to use a wheelbarrow from my truck to my backyard took forever lots of work I feel spoiled now that they just dump them right at my coop door

I live in northern Minnesota. I signed up for chipdrop.com a number of years ago, but nobody in my area was participating at that time. So, I had to look elsewhere and that is when I finally found out that our local county landfill had free woodchips. It is a 20-minute drive, each way, on the other side of town, to the landfill and it only takes me about 20 minutes to load up my 4X8 foot utility trailer with wood chips.

One advantage I have with the small trailer is that I can move it anywhere on my property where I wanted to use the wood chips. So, I really can't complain about anything.

It's great that you can get chipdrop to dump their load right at your coop door. From what I understand, many people get their woodchips dumped wherever is convenient for the truck drive, which I can understand.

If you are a certain age or physical condition, and if you have to move large quantities of woodchips, I recommend getting a 4-wheeled Gorilla cart instead of a wheelbarrow...

They come in various sizes. I recommend a person buy a 4-wheeled cart with the convertible handle that goes from manual hand pulling to converting to tow behind a riding mower with a hitch. I find it easy to use the manual mode for loads 2X-3X the weight I could safely move with a wheelbarrow, but for really heavy loads or long distances, I just use my riding mower to move the material.

My "Gorilla" cart is actually made by a different company and was sold at Menards a few years ago. Getting an "off-brand" cart on sale saved me about $80.00 at the time. But Menards does not sell those off-brand carts anymore. Having said that, I think the genuine Gorilla carts are worth the money. They are just safer to use and can move a lot more weight with much less effort.

FWIW, I thought maybe I could get a lot of free pallets at the local landfill as well. Turns out, they don't give any away. They bury them as soon as they get them. What a waste!