Chicken Coop Build Part 2

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Here’s just a reminder of what we accomplished on day one of the Chicken Coop Build you can read more about it here if you missed the first half of this post. If you’re expecting to see one of those fancy, pretty pink coops run now. This is a salvaged, repurposed, and scavenged coop built in our attempt to spend little or no money. Now on to day two…..

After hubby had the frame work and flooring in (all lumber from our storage racks….so free) he went to work on hanging the pole barn steel (leftover from a job site…so free). We used a sheet of plywood for the door (also left over on a job site…so free). We still have a window to put in for some ventilation but we’re waiting for warmer weather and the chicks to be outside to do that.

So once all that was done I could get down to the fun part…the decorating, if there is a fun part to decorating a chicken coop. 

I moved a section of shelving from our basement that was no longer in use and placed on top 4 ammo boxes that hubby had lying around. The chickens can use for them as pre made nesting boxes, I love it when I don’t have to construct anything. The ladder has been used on my porch as a Christmas tree in the past and also on my deck. My Aunt and I sawed it in half and made two roosting perches. We had to laugh at how all the brilliant ideas, that’s what I call them, worked out. 

Here you can see the inside of the 12X12 coop. Once everything was in place we moved the 50, yes I said 50 meat chickens into their new home. We only had them housed in water tanks for 4 days inside Grama Red’s place and they were starting to outgrow their temporary home. And yes, Red was ready for them to get moved to the coop. We purchased them a little earlier than planned because we found an Easter Eve special of $1 a chicken and we couldn’t pass up that price, they normally are sold for over $3 a chick for the breed we wanted. 

It’s amazing how much they eat. Currently they are eating 3 pounds of food a day and drinking about 4 gallons of water, at that rate they’ll be ready for market here soon. Once the meat chickens get about 4 weeks old we will get 15 laying hens for eggs. 

Here’s a breakdown on what we spent

Framing Lumber and Flooring – FREE

Pole Barn Steel – Free

Door – Free

Window Purchase from Habitat for Humanity – $15

Lumber that we didn’t have – $107

Total – $122 divided by 2 = $61 my share

I say that’s pretty good to build a coop that size. Hubby figured if we had purchased everything new it would have been over $1,000. It truly does amaze me what can be done by spending very little if you’re willing to get creative.  Now if we don’t keep up the chicken business I won’t feel like we wasted much money.