Building a $50 Chicken Coop

Every year has a new decor trend but in recent years people have been going crazy for pallet furniture. There’s no doubt that we have made some questionable decor choices in the past (who else here remembers inflatable furniture?). Even benches made from old headboards was popular at one time. Pallet furniture is so great though because there is no limit to what you can make from it. So with that in mind I’ve decided to build a pallet chicken coop, and I’m trying to do it for under $50!

 

Almost 2 years ago I built a small chicken coop(pictured above) with cabinet doors that we found at a local discount home goods store. We managed to build a 4 X 4 coop that stood 3ft tall at the highest point. After supplies I had only spent $30 but it wasn’t big enough for my growing flock. It lasted longer than I had hoped for and after it fell apart last month I knew I had to figure something else out and I didn’t have much time to do it.

Build a cheap chicken coop for 15 chickens

After putting together a plan I decided I wanted a coop that could comfortably hold 15 chickens and something I can walk in. I also wanted a large window so my 5 year old son could look in on the chickens for home school projects. I decided it would also be great to have a small storage area in the coop to hold feed and bedding for the birds. Seems like a large wish list when you only have a $50 budget doesn’t it?

 

A big factor in building and collecting supplies for this coop is being in the right place at the right time. We were able to get 20 pallets free of charge from a local business, and found some discount wood at the local home improvement store. We found a very large window out on the side of the road and purchased an can of exterior OOPS paint from Home Depot. We were even able to get our floor boards for free!

 

First step was to put aside the 6 best pallets we could find to construct the walls. These had to be pallets that had little or no rot and thick and even spaced boards. Second step was to pull aside 5 pallets to cannibalize. Pallets with boards roughly the same size as the gaps on our wall pallets. we used our reciprocating saw with a construction blade and cut the nail between the board and the stringer. Removed all top boards, and used those to fill in the gaps in our wall pallets. Some of the boards weren’t the right size so we had to use a table saw to cut them down.

After finishing the fill ins on the walls we turned our attention to the floor. We built the floor frame with some discount wood that we purchased at Home Depot. We used 2X4’s to construct the frame that sits 8ft long and 4 1/2 feet wide. We added joist every 3 feet to hold the floor boards on. The floor boards were a pain because they had rusted nails on both ends which had to be straightened and removed before we could do anything else. Once the nails were removed it was a breeze to finish up the floor.

We had to build a wall to fit the window in, so once again we put some of those discount 2 X 4’s to good use. We attached the 3 lower pallet walls to the floor frame and then moved the frame containing the window over to it’s place. Next step was painting! The OOPS paint we purchased was too dark for our taste so we added a quart of white to it just to lighten it up a little more.

So far we are 3/4 of the way done and have managed to only spent $34 on paint, screws, and discount lumber. To keep up with my newest DIY projects check me out on FreeRangeMommy.com or follow me on Facebook!

 

Part 2 to come!