Topic of the Week - Recycling (In) The Coop

[Egger4me]

So many great ideas . Awesome everyone!

 

[Spotgieter]

This is ALL so ingeniously cool!

This is brilliant!!! You definitely have a gift for recycling and a wonderful imagination. This is very inspiring. I've been trying to find inexpensive ways to build a house for our gander and male ducks. Thank you for posting!!

 

[Lilion]

My main coop is half of a shed that was here when I moved in it is 8x10 of the 16x10 structure the window became the door into the run which is an old chain link dog kennel I got for 25$. The wall I built to divide the shed was built from free pallets, I built the nest boxes into that wall...I will have to get some pictures next time I am out there. I think all told I am like less than 75$ into my main coop.

I would LOVE to see it! We're about to take a 12x24 shed and convert part of it!

 

[Shabby Chic-Hens]

I diy a lot of chicken toys. I made a little hanging pecking thing out of old CDs.

 

[SmiYa0126]

Finally someone got some good from a politician lol used their signs for some good.

JT

I was thinking the same thing...

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

I have been searching for any kid playhouses for sale, I would love to make one into a chicken coop, especially because I have a new flock of young chickens that need nesting boxes before the pullets go into lay. Their laying time is still about two months away but I want to be prepared! I do not have much recycling to share but old, unused buckets always work as nesting boxes, and unused wood is what can be used to hold up the nesting boxes. Speaking of wood, it can be used for perches and swings to give the chickens something to do when they are bored. Bantams especially love climbing on things and flying so extra wood in their coop and pen is always welcome.

 

[Ecarroll]

My grandfather was a fisherman so we have all sorts of old fishing gear and stuff laying around, including lots of empty bait barrels. We up cycled one into a chicken waterer using those little screw on water cups you can buy.

I’ll get a better photo when I get home

 

[Gill-b]

I am not sure of it is worth posting this, but maybe there is a recycle idea or two that can be adapted for a chicken coop?
...so here it is. Please see quoted post below:

My bird loft is made from a large pallet box and a wooden crate (both previously used for transporting heavy machinery parts), plus other recycled wood and materials, including nails recycled from dismantling crates. The roof is a single piece of corrugated sheet metal which was left over from another project, and which we bent in the middle to form the roof pitch. The roll down side flaps are from an old canvas tarp which we cut and stitch to size for the bird loft. The varnish is what we had left over from varnishing an outdoor wooden work table.

We built the bird loft firstly for a "flightless" Turtle dove to safely spend time outdoors; and secondly to have an outdoor space for any other rescue birds that come through my care before rewilding them.

[I rescued the Turtle dove over two years ago when I found it on the ground with an abscess the size of a golf ball and a broken wing. The broken wing never healed properly and so this Turtle dove presently lives indoors in a cage barely big enough for her; with supervised time spent walking around the garden when the weather is nice and the wind is not blowing.]

View attachment 3814732

The bird loft has been, and is for the time being, a work in progress, with things added on as we find materials for it. Busy making doors for storage space on top; and going to use the space below for plant seedlings with greenhouse netting around it.

Is there a reason why one should not varnish on the inside of a bird loft or coop? I am just interested to know as I had already finished vanishing the loft before posting this thread.
I have left the perches unvarnished - thank you again for your advice.

And here (see below) is a picture of the bird loft taken today while it is pouring with rain. The canvas side flaps are rolled down to keep the rain out; and the storage space on top now has doors which still need latches and handles.

 

[Sylvester017]

I am not sure of it is worth posting this, but maybe there is a recycle idea or two that can be adapted for a chicken coop?
...so here it is. Please see quoted post below:


And here (see below) is a picture of the bird loft taken today while it is pouring with rain. The canvas side flaps are rolled down to keep the rain out; and the storage space on top now has doors which still need latches and handles.

View attachment 3886115

Seeing your rain storm protection reminded me of our rainstorm seasons. No matter what we did using tarps or popup canopies over a small coop it was useless to keep it from leaking.

So we figured a larger barn coop would be more weather proof. Nope, it leaked too!

So exasperated we finally built a slab floor with an overhead patio roof to keep the coop shaded during summer and dry from rain in winter and no more ugly useless tarps that flapped apart in the wind or wore holes thru or ripped. If we ever stop keeping chickens (probably keep chickens forever) the patio will make a nice evening lounge space.

 

[Sylvester017]

Not sure if this counts as recycling but I over-ordered cedar raised garden bed frames. I took one 4'x4' frame, filled it with children's sandbox sand, secured a 10'x10' popup canopy over the sandbox, and it is now a chicken dust bath -- covered and cool from the summer sun and dry during winter rain storms.

The canopy legs are buried in the soil to keep the canopy from blowing away in the wind. The cover deteriorates and has to be replaced every year. So rather than buying an expensive replacement cover every year we just grip clip a heavy duty new tarp once a year. Not as smooth as a fitted cover but it's worked for us for nearly a decade.

HAPPY SANDBOX BATHING!!