Repurposed/recycled materials: stories and ideas

[kuntrygirl]

TouchO'Lass :

Geesh. My efforts pale in comparison to all the above, but here's the top frame from my former hay shelter tent (two winters and it collapsed) attached to my unused dog run = chicken run

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/84860_100_0533.jpg https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/84860_100_0584.jpg
An old dresser headed for the landfill
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/84860_100_0529.jpg
Turned sideways and modified = brooder
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/84860_ugly_brooder.jpg

An old apple crate reinforced, covered and ventilated to be my interim coop:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/84860_100_0595.jpg https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/84860_100_0594.jpg

I LOVE re-utilizing whenever possible! DH HATES when I come home with a truck full of 'schtuff'!

I LOVE your recycled treasures. I especially love the dresser turned sideways. That is an excellent idea!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY RECYCLING EVERYONE !!!!!!!!!

 

[crossgirl]

I'm all about the recycling/repurposing! I'm on remodel three (since March!) of my former dog house coop but you can see what I've documented so far on my page. As the chickens grow and as I get more chicks I keep having to change things. Errrrrrrr, my DBF has to keep changing things. I'm patiently waiting for him to install eggboxes and finish some little things on this last go round then I need to partition some of it off so I can throw the last three chicks in there. I can't wait!!!

 

[kuntrygirl]

I just wanted to list a few places that I get some of my free pallets/materials from (if anyone is interested).

1. Our local glass company gets daily shipments of large pieces of glass in and they HAVE TO get rid of the pallets. Just about ALL of the pallets are BRAND NEW wood.
2. Car dealerships or farm machinery/implement stores sometimes receive things in shipping crates. I have gotten shipping crates and made it into my goat and sheep "mini - houses".
3. Wal Mart's bakery gives away empty 5 gallon frosting buckets. I have used these as nesting boxes and feed buckets. I scoop feed in the buckets and take the feed out to the chicken yard and pour into the feeders.
4. Our local cooking oil food company has empty 55 gallon barrels that they are needing anyone to take. I make troughs out of the 55 gallon buckets.
5. ANY and ALL constructions sites (new homes being built, schools being remodeled, painters painting building, contractors tearing down buildings) will have material (lumber, PVC pipe, metal tin, nails, screws, hinges, etc) that can be recycled.
6. We make some of our feeders and waters from empty industrial size vegetable cans (#10). We cut them 3/4 of the way, flatten the front of the can to meet the back and then sand the part that was cut for a smooth surface. You can put feed or water in these cans. This saves on buying those expensive feeders and wateres from the feed stores. (I will try to post pics later.)
7. I pick up FREE rice sacks from the feed stores or feed mills. I use them to line my brooders so that the baby chicks and moms don't have to walk on the hard wire. Papertowels are too expensive. The rice sacks work perfect. And you can take them out and spray them off and clean them and let them dry and RE-USE them. The rice sack materials IS NOT slippery, so you don't have to worry about the baby chicks slipping and sliding and getting spraddle leg.
8. People on Craigslist and local FREE CYCLE YAHOO GROUPS are ALWAYS giving away something for FREE.
9. Driving around I may see what looks like a junk yard and it's actually a person's house. I stop by and ask them if they have this or that and 90% of the time, they will give me things. They just want some of what they think is JUNK gone.

All of the above have helped me get those items that I needed.

 

[Kikiriki]

Incredible list! Thanks for sharing it

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
You're welcome.

Also, wanted to post a pic of what I did for recycling idea #6. Please see pic below.

6. We make some of our feeders and waters from empty industrial size vegetable cans (#10). We cut them 3/4 of the way, flatten the front of the can to meet the back and then sand the part that was cut for a smooth surface. You can put feed or water in these cans. This saves on buying those expensive feeders and wateres from the feed stores. (I will try to post pics later.)

It's not the prettiest feeder you may want to own but it's functional. I use these feeders for newly hatched baby chicks, ducklings, gosling and poults. The metal feeders are too heavy for them to tip over. Cleaning is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO EASY. They key is to make sure that they place where the feeders are cut are sanded down VERY well. I place marbles in the waterers so that the babies don't drown. I have been using these for about 10 years and have NEVER had any type of problem with them. Feeders and waterers for baby chicks in the stores can run as much as $5.00 each. That's $5.00 I would rather keep in my pocket. As I said, the outside is not pretty but it's what on the inside (feed and water) that's most important.

Before & After - I have pellets in this can to show you how large and how much can fit in the feeder.

 

[Heathero617]

Both my run and my current living quarters have been free thus far and most likely will be comleted under the free and recycled catagory. The living quarters was a chicken coop many moons before my parents bought the property, it has since been a pen for a pot bellied pig, and a brooder for countless emu, its is currently refered to as "the cat house" with a senior citizen feline living in there. My pen ios constructed from materials recovered from a deck dismantle, a steel sided building dismantle and the front entry gate that was on someones sidewalk modified with an old screen window frame with 1/2 x3 welded wire fitted to it. The "box" in which they snooze in was made initially for my second set of chicks as a brooder but we moved it once they were big enough to be outside in the "cat house" It is constructed of 4 interior solid panel doors so their box may not have nesting boxes or a roost inside, but it is 80 inches long and 36 inches wide and 36 inches tall closed in completely on one end with corrigated aluminum siding and the other end opens to a 2x2 area where the entry to the box is and is securely closed in with hardware cloth that was left over from another project my dad did. I have the walls lined in simple 1/2 inch chicken wire as this is merely to keep the chickens from picking at any loose splinters on the walls and to keep any smaller pests out, this was used for the emu brooder. I have a disassembled patio's worth of red brick lining the bottom around the entire parimeter of the pen and 2x2 area in the entry way of the coop. The bottom of the steel siding is nearly 6 inches under ground, then recently i laid a bunch of river sand which was left over from when my parents moved their house to a different part of the property >yes it was cool to watch them move an entire house 1/4 of a mile and it took nearly 2 weeks<. The hay that I put in the box for nesting and sleeping is from our own property, we sell the use of the property to a local dairy farmer and there is always scraps left, I just go around after they bail and collect it all. As a matter of fact, they just cut it yesterday so within the next day or 2 i will have even more in storage, which is good, i'm getting low from the winter use. The corners of both the pen and the coop are actually 4 HUGE cedar trees. Whoever built the "coop" building installed the 4 used within by diging holes and putting the cedar tree trunks nearly 2 feet in the ground, and we actually lag bolted 2x6's to the 2 trees at the edge of the pen. The trees will still be standing long after the pen falls apart i'm sure. Once we revamp the "coop" next week, the nesting boxes will be actually the metal "bins" used in those closet organizer systems. They are deep and they will allow for ventilation. My perch which i just "installed" the other day and noone uses unless we put them up on it ourselves, is a branch from a tree that was cut down to accomodate the pen. I've just got it stretched catty corner in the corner.

So there is my recycled coop and pen information

The building of the "box"

All it was before was chicken wire, its a bad picture but you can see, nothing of substance to protect anything.

This is the "peep playpen" used only when people are around to supervise. My dad "made" this while I was out of town and they were caring for my 10 little chicks. They absolutely loved it! Just an old ladder i wouldnt trust to hold a cotton ball up with chicken wire stapled to it and draped over the top securely. I had the new babies out in it yesterday and they really enjoyed scratching in the grass and dirt.