Renaissance Woman Meets Reality: Chicken Coops, Pictures and Other Experiments

My chicken coop made of old pallets was one of my great experiments this spring. Parts of the process was easy and obvious, other parts were maddening. There was no plan. There was just the need that it used materials on hand. Could not exceed the dimensions of the materials and hopefully, not turn out butt ugly.

Another experiment was the chicken tractor. Again, there was no plan. Possibly an insinuation, but no plan. It had to be made of materials left over from the coop. It was done to get the little buff orpingtons safely away from the broilers. It also was to serve the purpose of getting me more comfortable, once again, of building farm stuff. We always need farm stuff and the better I get at kicking it out, the smoother the little farm will run.

Today's experiment is posting pictures. Finally! the long promised pictures. I told you that I had been taking them. I'm sure no one believed me any longer, but at long last the day has arrived. Cross your fingers and we will see how this goes. With luck, this will be a progression of photos, showing the building the coop.

I did not do this in any sensible order. I started with the sides because they were my first bit of inspiration. Then I had to back track a bit and build the base. The base size was mandated by the size of the already built sides. The hardest bit was the roof. I would urge anyone who tries this to not do as I did. First timers especially, please do not try to do the center weird angles and rafters with bird's beaks to catch the sides. The coop is small enough that a plan and template for rafter trusses should be drawn out on an oversized cardboard box. Make your project as easy as possible! It is an easy thing to attach already built trusses. It was lucky that I had an old sheet of plywood that I could cut for the floor and the roof sheeting. Sometimes buying the cheap plywood is the way to go. Sometimes your time is worth more then money.