Sink Cabinet Chicken Coop

[aileen]

My husband and I got our first chicks almost 3 weeks ago. We started looking into building a coop and took some plans to Home Depot. I had a brilliant idea that I thought would save us time, frustration (mostly my husbands) and a little money. We bought this Sink Base Cabinet from Home Depot: http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...&langId=-1&keyword=sink cabinet&storeId=10051

It looked plenty big to us in the store after looking at some coops online before we left. Now I'm pretty sure it's way too small.

We have 3 chicks and the cabinet floor is 3' x 2'. We need to build a roof and we're adding a nesting box onto the back and planning to use the cabinets for cleaning and to put the door on the side. Any ideas on how we can make it bigger for our chickens? We have a few weekends to work on it before it's time.

I'm hoping I can find a solution and we won't have to return it and build from scratch. We're on a pretty tight budget and don't really have any scrap wood we can use.

 

[KDK1]

Buy another one just like it, remove the backs if they have one, join them together back to back, paint with high quality exterior grade paint. Add roof, ventilation, nesting box, roost, hdwr, DONE! Or... return that one and build from scratch. It would be much cheaper!

 

[the3ofus+oursixchicks]

i me myself would not spend another 100$ on another cabinet. if i were going to spend 200$ i would buy the wood and build one cheaper. we are rebuilding our whole run its around 8 ft high and 20 or so feet long and 10 feet wide. for wood to do that (pressure treated too) plus 150 ft by 6 ft of chicken wire and nails ran us a little over 200$. so think about what you can do with 200$ just on wood and no chicken wire. i think you can do something better with your money and maybe save some too.

 

[Cargo]

Yep. Build your own 4x4 coop. 4 sheets of plywood, some 2x4s, hardware cloth a couple hinges and a box of screws.

It is harder than it sounds, so you need to start building it ASAP.

 

[aileen]

After doing more research and seeing that 2 sq ft is the minimum according to the guide on here, we figured they would be fine since that's exactly where we are. Plus, honestly my husband already started working on it so we can't return it.

We're in an area that snows maybe 3-4x a year and melts the same day, so they won't be cooped up in there all that often. Their run is going to have probably 18+ sq ft per chicken and we're planning on covering part of it so that if it is raining, they can still go outside.

I think it'll work for now while funds are tight and if we decide to add to our flock, we may just add on or rebuild. I love that the full cabinet doors give me access to the entire inside and there is already laminate-like material on the floor so cleaning it out will be a breeze.

 

[suzyQlou]

I think that's actually a cute idea. Having a covered run will make a big difference. Lots of folks (especially in warm places) have 3-sided coops that are open on one side. Your covered run might feel like it's a part of the coop.

I see two things might make you reconsider your arrangement: Your tiny chicks might grow bigger than you ever expected, and you may think they look cramped. Properly ventilating the coop for cold weather might prove difficult, and you may worry about your girls getting frostbite or picking on each other when they are stuck inside in freezing weather.

For now, when the chicks are still small-ish and the weather is nice, it will probably make a very cozy home!

 

[aileen]

Thanks for the advice!

This is what we have so far. Sorry for the grainy pictures, the light in the garage is pretty dim. I'll get better ones when he has the garage door open and is working on it. Right now the roof isn't permanently secured, I may have my husband raise it a little more for better ventilation. It has 2" spacing across the back and is angled around the edges. We are also planning a good sized window on at least one side, possibly 2.

We'll also be adding a nesting box onto one side once we (well, I guess he, not we haha) build it. We were contemplating just putting one inside, but I don't want it to be too cramped since it's already on the small side so I think adding a nesting box to the side would be good and increase the square footage.

We're very hopeful this will be sufficient, but we're prepared to make alterations as time goes by if needed.

 

[aileen]

We (mostly)finished our coop! We ended up adding about1 foot onto the back to make the inside about 9 sq feet for our 3 chickens. It's not 100% done yet, we still need to get the window wired and propped open and we still need to make the ramp as well as wire the ventilation up top. The run is about 3 feet by 12 feet, so I think they have plenty of room and they love it! We had to keep them inside because we got snow and cold weather two weeks in a row and couldn't finish the coop and those chickens were not happy. Neither was I, those guys can make a mess.

They live in their coop now, but sine there's no ramp I just go out there and put them outside myself and put them back in at night. We're afraid one of them might actually be male, so we'll be watching him closely. He/she went from being the tiniest one to growing faster than the other two. It's the one not pictured below because he can't get up on the 2x4 door frame to roost like the other 2 can.

 

[suzyQlou]

Looks cute! I'm glad the weather finally cooperated for you, and I hope all your chicks turn out to be girls.