Pallet Coop...HELP!!!!

I too needed a home for some hatching babies and in a hurry and on a budget. Keep in mind the I live in Phoenix. I am more worried about too hot than too cold. I am not that worried about rain. Also, I am well inside the city and away from washes and have a solid cement block fence. The only predator I have any concerns about are cats and I rarely see those in my yard. Our end result is a good candidate for an "ugly coup" contest, but we are very happy with it.

One pallet on the ground under a large navel orange tree (yes, I am reinforcing cold is not a problem). On pallet on the west virtical side. A large composite board (yes, it will need painted or replaced to stand up under wet conditions) about 12" by 24" was screwed into the north side in the lower corner to hold the west side to the bottom. The same was done on the East side. We stabilized the top with a 2x4, covered the whole thing with bird netting and called it done for phase one . . . protect the broody and her 1/2 day old babies. The next day we put strips of asphalt roofing shingles around the bottom to keep the babies in. (I had these left over from the previous owners roofing project. Oh, I fort that I put more of the composit boards in the bottom of the coup to keep the babies in and then put towels on top so they wouldn't get splay leg. We stufffed rags in any corners that looked like the babies could fall in. We were thrilled, we had a brooder. Later we will add roosts...and as it rains once in awhile ... sometimes with vengence...I'll need a roof. Still pondering that one. For now the roof is bird netting covered by shade cloth with nice shady branches in many layers above. So far I spent $8 for two 2 x 4's. I have toyed with using canvas for the roof...and to wrap the side in for extra cold days....which aren't cold for fully feathered chickens anyway. The third step we did was use a giant crow bar as a lever to lift it up and put bricks under it to keep it out of the flood irrigation. We love it. When the babies are bigger I will remove the floor boards. In my perfect world I'll put hardware cloth down. Also, I'll need to paint the composit board or it will disintegrate - or so I am told.

I am SURE you can come up with something more elegant with even a little planning. If you want something super cute, google pallet and coup (or doghouse) and there are some fun things on line.

Here's a close up. The pallets are on sides opposite eachother.


The board across the front is the door and is held in place by cinder blocks. It has since been removed to allow Momma to take them around the yard now that they are older.

Oh, my original plan was to make an a-frame style...I saw one at the citrus nursery for their chickens.

If you are in cold country....read up on that. There is a section somewhere around here on that....oh and there are some thread titled open coups too. More imporatant is to keep predators in mind...if you have any, security is very, very important.

Looking for (found and inserted) picture of my ugly coup to post ... to inspire you. It won't take much to improve on it!

PS: Please overlook the many spelling grammer, etc errors. I wanted to share with you but am short on time.

PSS Of course, towels are not the best bedding long term, but that was our short term solution.

 

i am also building my coop outta pallets, but mine is for 6 chickens and will be adding more soon. i am half way done and doing it by myself. my husband did help with taking apart the pallets. we got ours at a local building supply. if you can get the long pallets, they are better. we got ours for free because the workers didn't want to break them apart to put them in the trash. i have been working on mine for three days, here and there. it would be done before now but 4 yr olds aren't very understanding about stuff like that!! first thing we did was build a temp. run so i could put them out during the day. mine are 9wks old and we bring them in at night. the only money i really had to put out was for 2 rabbit cages. i put them together were i can take the tops off. they drink outta rabbit waterer. just a suggestion for something to put them in till you get your coop built. i learned allot about coops just from reading other forum questions. the door to the coop is recommended facing the south. if you check out the coop section there are tons of ideas. if i have a question about something i type it in the search area on the right and find that someone has had the same question and i get allot of info.

 

Here is an awesome large pallet coop.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/38960_dscf3719.jpg

Also, do a search for pallet coops....you will get some sites on the net in general, as well as pallet sheds, which can be used as coops.

I zip tied pallets with small openings together, ran welded wire around bottom, added pallets on top for a temp run when my original batch of chicks were younger.
I have made a small open air one out of 3 pallets screwed together, plywood for roof, then took slats off of another pallet to cover slats in the coop pallets....if that made any sense. (Im in west tx, it gets really hot here so open air works better for me)
You can see it at the back of this pic.


I also made an A frame out of old privacy fence boards. You could do the same with pallets. There are usually good 2 x 4's inside that you could frame with.


Good luck. Keep us posted on progress and post pics!!!!

Katdam: post pics!!!!!