Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Pallet Chicken Coop: part2

Remember this? We had put a second row of pallets up and I was getting ready to work on the door frame when I realized that I really wanted the chicken coop closer to the house. The location we picked was out in the open, no shade, and behind the shed/pole barn where we couldn't see it from the house. Had I known how much fun it would be to watch the chickens and put more thought into location, I wouldn't have put the coop where I did.

So-- I made the tough decision to semi-dismantle the coop and we moved it closer to the house where we can see it. I hated to knock down all the hard work we put into it, but better now than to complete it and realize were not happy with where it was.


This is currently how it looks now. It is off to the side in the back of our house and pretty close to a mulberry tree. The chickens will be able to gorge themselves on berries come June. I can sit in the sun room and see the coop or when the girls play outside, I can also keep an eye on the chickens, too. Much better than when I couldn't see it at all.

We've had 4 days of rain and while I am grateful for the rain, it's holding up progress on the coop. I need to start all over again but hopefully it will go a little faster as most of the hard part has been done, I just need to put the walls back into place.


Semi-dismantled walls. I connected them on the inside, so all I need to do is get them standing and nail them back in, then it's back to where I left off.

The husband scored several packs of new roofing shingles from a friend's new house construction, so I am excited about that. We were going to recycle old metal siding from an old shed, but it was really rusted and holey, so new shingles are great! I even spotted a roll of tar paper in the shed from previous owners! How thoughtful! :o) I think we'll have just enough of everything for the roof. There are old gutters in the rafters of the pole barn, so we plan to use one for catching rain water to water the garden with. All this rain makes me wish we had bigger containers for storing the water in, but that will just go on our wish-list of items we'd like to have.

Hopefully the next coop update will have much more progress!

1 comment:

Stephanie D said...

Are you going to let the girls "help" you nail again this time? *s*

I have an old bath basin from the hospital and a large pitcher out on the deck to catch rainwater in for watering plants, but haven't made a concerted effort to really capture it. It's been raining a lot here, too, so there are about 6 inches worth in them--but nothing needs watering right now!

That was sweet of you saying you'd chop my tree down if you lived closer! I'd love for someone to be able to use it for firewood. Over the summer I'll be collecting estimates and maybe I can get someone who will chip some of it up for me to use as mulch.