We hosted a couple of birthday parties and were generally busy, so we didn't have Day 2 on the coop until almost a month later (October 5th). During that time, I also gathered some more free supplies:
My neighbor/helper, Brent, gave me the idea. Fence panels are much easier to dismantle than pallets! My little brother brought over a truckload and dumped it between our houses.
I actually enjoyed pulling these apart!
There was enough wood to do the chicken coop, a small project for the neighbor, a play house and maybe even a small fence for us! Let's not get off point, though... chicken coop...
I purchased a pre-cut piece of vinyl flooring for about $25-30 at Lowe's. We just cut a chunk off the end of the roll, laid it down on the floor, and tucked under or folded up where appropriate. Since we decided to put walls on the inside, we weren't worried about gluing the floor down. The flooring will make for much easier clean up of the coop.
I actually got to do some of the construction on Day 2!
Its coming along! The nesting box was covered in tar paper left over from another job (to keep the touching wood from rotting). Fence panel pieces all over the inside and outside of the coop, except the inside of the nesting box.
Brent built a cute matching door (with more fence panel pieces) and framed in the entry (with scrap from a job). I stapled the flooring around underneath. We made the ramp out of an old waterbed sideboard that was in the yard when we moved in and chunks of branches trimmed around the yard. The branches are just stapled onto the board, which is screwed into the doorway. (It was later moved down a bit to make it easier for the chickens to use.)
I got it covered for upcoming rain using those same trusty fence planks. Once again, we put about five hours of work into the coop. Isn't that door the cutest?!
Stay tuned for Part III! Its nearly finished!
