Turning Pallets into Eggs – PART I

From my reading of Stephen King’s, The Stand, I’m making the wild assumption that chickens will survive the apocalypse (they are one of the blessed species). I’m now pleased to report that I’m pretty confident my chicken coop will too. Like the cockroach, it will probably outlive humanity.

It’s lucky the Mayans were wrong because I’ve been making the Super Coop, on and off, for about six months. If the apocalypse had come, I would not have been ready.

You’re still not ready, says Devon (aka Cocky Rooster):

Well, yes. True enough. The roof is a work in progress.

It is going to be a green-roof, with a mini pasture of creeping thyme, oregano, alpine strawberries and chamomile. But I’m sticking with my plan of spending next-to-nothing on the construction and am attempting to collect a couple of thousand corks for the light-weight drainage system. The green-roof is a later post, after much wine has been drunk.

In the meantime, I’m happy to show you the humble beginnings of my Super Coop, most of which started life either as a pallet, or in a skip (US: dumpster). The hardest and most time consuming work was deconstructing pallets and collecting materials. It is also frustrating trying to work around splits and cracks and warps in the wood.

Deo was intent on helping deconstruct pallets but a hanging basket attacked him.

Deo helping with the pallets

Deconstructed pallets ready for coop construction

My dimensions were fixed by the fact that I planned to mount the coop on an old 4’x8′ trailer. The 32 squared feet would give me a comfortable 4 square foot per bird for a flock of 8.

The basic frame

I found an old and broken table tennis table on the side of the road which had enough good wood to make a solid and pre-laminated floor!

The table tennis floor

I wanted an open air section under the roosting bars so I could collect the chicken poop for fertiliser. This is 1/2″ wire mesh.

Wire mesh support for chicken tractor affect

I had some old glass windows from a TV cabinet which I was determined to use (I’ve since taken them out!).

Windows and roosting bar mount

These side panels will support the roosting bars.

Window and roosting bars mounted

Two comfortably sized nesting boxes (I was thinking of Lady Leone here), currently without partition.

Nesting box for egg laying chickens

The completed frame.

backyard chicken coop frame

You may have noticed the chicken feeder on the right side of the last photo and said to yourself, that chicken feeder looks ingenius, I wish there were more photos…

Notes on the Ingenius Inside-Outside Auto Chicken Feeder

Sadly I’m missed a picture of the feeder in action. You’ll have to believe me when I tell you that it works and the chickens comment on it’s genius almost every day.

Turning Pallets into Eggs – Part II is pretty exciting. It involves a rushed panelling job for an unplanned move from Greenville SC to Asheville NC. The chickens experienced a harrowing interstate journey and nearly answered the much asked question:

What happens if a chicken exists a vehicle moving at 70mph?

Coming soon!

One Comment Add yours

  1. lindasgarden says:

    lovely post i can not wait for part two

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.