Showing posts with label Hen House. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hen House. Show all posts

DIY Pallet Wood Week-end Chicken Coop Hen House

One of the greatest problems poultry keepers have, in our experience, is getting people to look after hens for short-notice, short-term breaks. Most smallholders or homesteaders have similar friends, neighbours and family members who are willing and able to come and either live in their house or visit on a daily basis to look after poultry or livestock whilst they are away on holiday. We have a long-standing and reciprocal agreement with friends to do just this for three weeks every Summer. 

Weekend chicken coop


What happens though if you get invited out to dine, party, stay the night or unexpectedly have the chance to get away for just a few days?  In that case, this project is for you because it allows even the most underconfident of neighbours to feed, water, collect eggs and put your flock to bed without ever having to go into the coop or enclosure. Thus they avoid what they most fear and what often puts them off from saying 'yes' - escapee chickens running amok!

DESIGN

The criteria for this coop was that is would provide not only those facilities mentioned above but also that it would be interesting enough to provide amusement for 4 bantam hens and a young Polish cockerel/rooster, all of whom are normally free-range. Furthermore, when their owner was in residence, the birds would be able to use the coop, the run of which has a fully opening front section, as a home-base for their daily activities.

DIY weekend chicken coop

In addition and probably because all these birds come from our 'Jungle Fowl' stock and have a propensity to roost outdoors on clear nights, the idea was to train them to come and eat their evening meal inside the run and thus go to roost in the coop. The chickens live in a gated beach front residence and a rooster crowing at day break is not something everyone wants as an alarm call.

Chicken coop and run from pallet wood
The location of the garden also informed on the design, as this gets some typical Winter and Spring Storms. Thus, although using untreated pallet-wood planks, I was going to cut a rebate in each one so that the walls would be windproof. 

I also decided to add a wire layer to the run roof to avoid puddling from the heavy rain and a rainy day area beneath the coop. This would both insulate the living space and allow for the chickens to be outside and with the opportunity to dust bathe, even on the wettest of days. As a further feature for outdoor sunbathing, the run sides were built up with an additional pallet wood plank width to serve as a wind break.


MATERIALS

Untreated Pallet Wood Planks:
  • Standard Length (120cm or 48") - 52
  • Long Length        (150cm or 59") -   8   
Tongue & Groove Panelling - 1.2m² or 13ft²
Heavy Duty Tarpaulin - 4m² or 43ft²
Chicken Wire: (12mm or ½"pitch 1m or approx 1 yard wide) - 4m or approx 4 yards
Hinges - 3 pairs
Screws
Nails
Linseed Oil & Natural Pigments
Door Furniture - I make all my latches/fasteners from pieces of pallet wood

CONSTRUCTION - CHICKEN COOP


Weekend chicken coop from pallet wood
As mentioned above I started by cutting a small rebate into each long edge of the pallet planks.

Each of the walls of the coop were made up of a frame cut to 25mm 1" square timber from pallet wood to which were nailed the prepared planks.

I began the build with one completely covered side and then went on to construct the opposite elevation to this, which was to incorporate the nest box and a bob hole or sliding door.

This could be used by the temporary carer to place the food and water in the run before remotely opening the roost bob hole door! This second elevation was also hinged at the top and bottom so that the whole side could be opened for easy cleaning of the roost area.

Make your own chicken coop


DIY chicken coop and run


SIDE ELEVATION - BOB HOLE DOOR

The door itself was made up of three cut pallet planks which were nailed to upper and lower battens of pallet wood.

Build a chicken coop and run from pallet wood

The door opened and shut by way of an upper and lower guide, each made from selected thicknesses of pallet planking.

DIY weekend hen house


SIDE ELEVATION - NEST BOX

Predator safe coop and run
Supported by the centre rail of the door, the nest box was made up of two side sections which were made from horizontally-laid planks. These are screwed to the door frame, a pallet wood stretcher is then fixed to the base plank of the side. These then form the frame work to support the base of the nest box. A front panel was preassembled using just a top batten to which the vertically oriented planks were attached. The batten was the exact internal dimension of the nest box and the planks at the two ends extended at least 2cm (1") beyond the batten. This panel pushes straight into place and is then screwed to the sidewall edges and then to the lower batten.

Weekend hen house DIY


The surplus on the front of the nest box could then be trimmed to width in situ with my jigsaw.


Chicken coop for the weekend

A tarpaulin cover was then added. A small retaining plank was screwed onto the inside of the door to prevent straw and eggs from being in danger of falling when the door was opened. I attached an inner tube rubber along the hinged side of the lid for extra water-proofing due to our very wet climate. The lid of the nest box, however,  was further protected by the large overhang of the main roof.

FRONT ELEVATION 

The centre rail for the framework was wider than the rest of the frame timber,  this to provide a support for the flooring planks.

How to make a chicken coop

The planking at the two vertical sides of this elevation were the full height of the panel and extended beyond the timber frame so as to furnish a means of screwing this elevation to the side walls. This same technique was used on the rear elevation.

How to make a hen house


FRONT ELEVATION - BOB HOLE

The construction of the bob hole was the same as on the side elevation except I added a staple to each side edge of the door, so as to allow the attachment of a cord to open and shut the door from the outside of the run. Furthermore I also added a threshold (see below) to the frame beneath the bob hole to attach the ramp.

Making your own hen house

FRONT ELEVATION - RAINY DAY AREA

The wall of the front elevation only extended down as far as the centre support of the sides, so as to provide a sheltered area beneath the coop.  This also meant that when the birds were in free-range mode they would still be assured of a dry area in which they could dust bathe.

REAR ELEVATION

This was similar in construction to the front wall, except obviously the pallet planks extended to the ground and the dimensions followed the slope of the single pitched roof.

ROOF

Low cost chicken coop
The frame for the roof was such that there was an inner plank on the two side elevations, so that when fitted the roof could be screwed through these to the side walls. 
 
Once the frame was made the top face was clad with the tongue and grooved panelling, which itself was covered with tarpaulin 

Because the roof was to be single pitched i.e. sloping to the rear of the coop, the front and rear elevations of the roof were angled so that when the roof was in place, these faces would be vertical. This to ensure runoff of water form the roof was effected.

The entire roof had an overhang of approximately 3" -4" or 75mm to 100mm on all edges. The front and rear frames of the roof were spaced so as to fit over the front and rear coop walls and two additional side planks were attached so as to do likewise. (pointing photo above) 
 
The roof simply pushes on to the walls of the coop and because of the tongue and groove is light though solid and easy to handle. No other securing is necessary as it is deep enough to fit snuggly to the coop.

FIXTURES & FITTINGS

The interior of the coop had a stand alone roost with detachable droppings pit for ease of cleaning and to stop the hens from walking in their own droppings when in residence. This was made from pallet wood and chicken wire.

Make a chicken coop from pallets

We had thought of using a plain plank as a ramp up into the coop but as we had to think about the definite eventuality of chicks, we added little steps which would be easier for little feet to negotiate.

THE RUN

The sides of the run, as with the coop were based on cut-down pallet plank frames, with chicken wire stapled to them. The front of the run was a frame within a frame, as this allowed for the whole front to open for easy access during free-ranging.

Making a low cost coop and run


The top and bottom rails of the run on each side elevation extended beyond the profile of the side panel to allow for the run to be screwed to the coop. This was done to allow for the run to be easily removed, if and when the whole unit needed to relocated and also to allow for an extension to the sides of the run if the flock became larger.

As already mentioned the side elevations had an extra plank added to the bottom rail to allow for a wind proof area for the birds to lie down and take sun baths.

RUN ROOF

This was made with a slope to allow for our climate, which can be stormy and particularly on the ocean front.

Pallet wood coop DIY

As previously mentioned the roof was first fitted with a chicken wire top, prior to adding the tarpaulin, in order to avoid rain puddling on the top.

FINISHING

The woodwork was painted with linseed oil, which had first been tinted with a mixture of natural mineral and earth pigments. Information about using these can be found in the related articles below

FILM



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Until next time and from a cold day in Normandie,

Cheers, Andy

© Andy Colley 2018

RELATED ARTICLES


Pallet Wood Hen House/Chicken Coop & Prototype Tiny Tiny House - Part 1 Construction

We designed and have already built one of these coops not just as accommodation for the hens but as a prototype we could build here in the workshops... read more

How to Make a Low Cost Router Table

I have several jobs lined up over the next few months which will involve the use of a router. These include making several wooden doors. Much of the planking I will be using will need to have moulded edges so...read more

Using Natural Earth and Mineral Pigments in the Home and Garden 

The Alchemy of Artists' Materials - whether painting a leaf motif or a window frame, it's  so much more fun than opening a tin of paint...read more



Hen House Chicken Coop Mark 2 - using pallet wood instead of store-bought tongue & groove.

We are building a new hen house to replace the oldest one of the three in our garden.  The design will be the same as that illustrated in my four blog posts. The first is: http://thegreenlever.blogspot.fr/2012/09/pallet-wood-hen-house-and-prototype-for.html and with two accompanying Youtube films. The old one (below) was built from recycled floorboards, thrown out by a neighbour as storm-damage in the 1999 hurricane but they did a great job as a wall covering. 


It has a Japanese theme and the roof was built by my father-in-law from bamboo he split down, again something a neighbour was throwing out. It was also partly a green roof as the bamboo was ideal for rooting sedums. Now however, after taking a pounding in the heavy snows and rain last year, the floor has finally given up on us and the flock has expanded and needs new accommodation.

This is the last of our hen houses to be updated and it has a charm, which has only increased with age but now is the moment and I have a new source of untreated wooden pallets. These pallets are non-standard in size and the planks are much thinner than normal. I have decided to use them in the construction of the roof panels instead of purchasing tongue & groove panelling.
In the past, I have used tongue & groove as a roof covering, prior to the final waterproof layer because it makes a homogeneous, light-weight roof panel. I also had several packs of this material left-over from renovating the house and had been given a few damaged packs by a DIY shop, who deemed them unsaleable. I would now need to purchase them and am not happy with the present quality on offer. Although I can use lower grade tongue & groove in such jobs, recently I have seen much more damage or missing tongues within the packs. Although by careful planning and cutting, I can lessen the waste, I still resent the additional time and moreover paying for what often ends up as expensive kindling! So, with my new source of lighter pallet planks and still needing to minimise the weight of the completed roof panel, this is what I came up with.



The problem and its solution 


The design of this hen house was conceived to cover the various needs, both of ourselves, hence the height and pitch of the roof and those of the flock. This in particular because of the inordinate amount of rain here in Normandie throughout the Winter months and conversely the high temperatures in Summer, due to the fact of it being situated within a walled garden.



In this job, where the wooden roof panel is to be protected from the rain, the lateral tongue & groove is no longer critical. However, what is necessary, is that the end of the individual planks should be joined. This because the pallet wood planking is not long enough for the panel and needs to be joined, so as to give the roof enough overhang. This latter was factored into the design, both to protect the walls from rain, to give our hens enough dry space for Winter dust bathing and to provide shade and keep the interior cool for laying or brooding in Summer.


Butt joints vs tongue & groove


Tongue & groove has both lateral and end jointing and as we explained above, only this latter is important in the construction of our roof panel. A butt joint is an old fashioned and simple way of joining two planks either end-to-end or side-by-side, using nails, screws, wooden pegs, biscuits or metal fasteners to reinforce the joint.


Making the butt joint work 


Conventionally the butt joint is used when two pieces of wood are to be joined at a right angle rather than here, where the joint is end to end. In our butt joint a 50mm nail is driven half-way into the end of the shorter plank, the nail head is then cut off with wire cutters and the plank is positioned and hammered into place, thus joining the two planks with a single nail (see below). The shorter plank can then be nailed to the cross-brace.

 



Cross-braces


As you can see in the above photo the panel design incorporates an additional cross brace to support the extra planks. You may therefore, be wondering why we didn't just use additional cross-braces to support each of the plank ends, instead of the nailed butt joints. The answer is, that a single cross-brace would not suffice, we would have been nailing too close to the end of each plank. In addition, each cross-brace is secured with two screws to the side of the panel and an additional cross brace would be wasting wood and more importantly screws, which are considerably more expensive than the nails used in the butt joints. The nail usage would also have doubled.

Below is a photo of the finished panel.



 
Now if you'd like to, sit back and watch the film:



Thanks for dropping by and please feel free to share this article, comment, ask questions and if you'd like to be assured of getting the next post, then sign up to follow this blog.

All the best, Andy

© Andy Colley 2014

 

Home-made tools - How to save time when cutting pallet wood. The Plankmaker's Holdfast.

This is my take on an ancient device used for making rake handles. It's called a Rakemaker's Holdfast and I saw it demonstrated at an ecomuseum a few years ago.


The Rakemaker's Holdfast comprised two wooden pegs secured into a vertical post, the one peg approximately 200mm higher and around 75mm behind the vertical plane of the other. By laying the rake handle on top of the lower peg and underneath the upper peg, the Rakemaker could ensure the stuff was held securely whilst using his drawknife. The more pressure used by the craftsman, the more securely the handle was held. To release the handle from the holdfast and thus progress with shaping, it was simply a matter of releasing the pressure and rotating it.






As I was about to start building a new hen house and had 30 pallet planks I needed to cut lengthwise, I decided that I could use the above concept to speed things along. The most time-consuming part of sawing long planks is in securing them with a G clamp, which must then be released for the plank to be turned and then reclamped. 











All I did was take an old saw horse, I'd made some years ago from scrap wood and add a couple of concrete blocks to stabilise it, otherwise the horse would tip.









I can now 'thread' my plank over the nearer rung of the horse and underneath the further one.






The weight of the plank holds it in place and is further secured by the additional weight of the circular saw. 

Once the first half has been cut, the plank can simply be turned over lengthways to continue the job.


It may not be as fast as using a table saw but it's a darned sight cheaper!

If you don't have a saw horse, you could clamp two flat pieces of timber to the top of a workbench, such that 200mm projects over the edge of the bench top and use this as the Holdfast.

Now if you'd like to, sit back and watch the film. 


Thanks for dropping by and please feel free to share this article, comment, ask questions and if you'd like to be assured of getting the next post, then sign up to follow this blog.

All the best, Andy

© Andy Colley 2014

 

DIY Pallet Wood Hen House Chicken Coop Part 4 - Assembly contnued and Finishings

Natural Finish - A piece of buddleia branch trimmed to make way for the Hen House is used to fashion its doorknob.

It's day three of the Assembly of the new Hen House. The chicks have spent their first night in their new home. It's bigger and roomier than their old one, never again will I design or make a hen house which doesn't have space for us to stand upright! I also found that putting a door in both back and front makes for ease of cleaning and is a good way of removing perches and keeping the house aired in hot weather. The house is sited on the far side of the garden and is in the angle of the back wall of a neighbouring longère and the North bocage (raised hedge). In the Winter it receives the sun quite early in the morning, when the rest of the garden is in the shadow of the house, which runs the entire length of the garden, some 50 metres (164 feet). It's  a regular suntrap in the Summer, which is why the fig tree does so well there and the hens, sybarites through and through, love it.





 



Breakfast in front of the New Hen House.  






Raising the Roof










We start the day by putting the gable ends in place. These are temporarily held in position with diagonal supports to the walls, which will be removed once the ridge purlin is in place.










 

Using a straight edge ensures that the wall and gable end are in line so that the ridge purlin brace may be fitted.






The House is now beginning to take shape with both the gable ends in place. We are now ready to fit the ridge purlin.   









The ridge purlin is measured and cut to length once the gable ends are in place.  










The ridge purlin is screwed to the inside face of the gable end apex. Screw holes are drilled through the gable end frame prior to fitting the purlin in place.




Once the purlin is in place, the braces can be fitted to each end of the Hen House. These braces are designed to take the roof load off the screws securing the purlin to the gable end. The roof load is thus borne by the side walls and floor. 





Once the ridge purlin and brace have been screwed together, the temporary diagonal supports may be removed.








 


Furring strips are now fitted to the ridge purlin. 









The roof is now ready for the panels to be fitted.





The panels are screwed to the walls and gable ends from the inside and from the outside to attach the ridge purlin.
  









The most expensive part of the Hen House, a good quality tarpaulin, can now  be fitted.










The surplus material is trimmed off and battens cut from pallet wood are used to fix the tarpaulin to the underside of the roof panels.









The open sides of the pallet base are sealed with planking, nailed to the wooden blocks.










The decoration with découpage is made from paper napkins.







The building inspector calls to assess the job. He's a white-laced buff crested and bearded Polish, one of three brothers who are joint heads of this house.







If you want to see our Polish chickens in action:


There is another post here, which shows how I used butt joints to construct the roof panels of pallet wood too. This makes the house even cheaper for those of you who don't have left-over or recuperated tongue & groove cladding.

Thanks for dropping by and please feel free to share this article, comment, ask questions and if you'd like to be assured of getting the next post, then sign up to follow this blog.

All the best, Andy

© Andy Colley 2014