The following are not the instructions for building a chicken coop, but a chicken coop like there are many around the world: so take them as a source of inspiration and, above all, feel free to customize your project!
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himThe following are not building instructions il chicken coop, but un chicken coop as there are many around the world: so take them as a source of inspiration and, above all, feel free to customize your project!
LIST OF MATERIALS USED:
- a dozen L-shaped plates with three holes on each side;
- many, many self-tapping screws;
- wooden clogs of various sizes;
- 1 toy wheel;
- 2 computer monitors;
- long narrow wooden planks (including a baseboard);
- wooden panels from an old wardrobe;
- raw chipboard for the roof;
- scraps of a camping towel;
- saw, hammer, screwdriver, drill, cutter, scissors, thumbtacks, allen keys
Well, let's get started. First you will need gods wood panels. I found them on the street, in a semi-deserted street where someone had uncivilely got rid of an old wardrobe. You could retrieve them in your garage, from a neighbor, at a railroad or, who knows, maybe on the street like me! Use one as a base, and to the sound of self-tapping screws e screwdriver, attack us four wooden clogs of the same length (be prepared to use a sega…
PHOTO 1 - complete base
I also added one wheel taken from a toy wheelbarrow, so you can move the structure - by yourself - once finished.
PHOTO 2 - wheelbarrow
Now start with the walls. Remember that one of the two short sides must remain raised by a few cm, in order to later allow you to insert and remove a metal plate / sheet / etc as a bottom ... the hens and roosters, you know, go down heavy with the excrements, and it will be easier for you to clean. As for the long sides, on the other hand, one must be without openings, in order to provide sufficient protection from wind, rain and frost during the winter.
PHOTO 3 - the two sides (long and short)
Having chosen a sloping roof to avoid accumulation of snow and water - free to do otherwise depending on the climate of your area -, for my chicken coop I have chosen a horizontal panel for the left long side, e two vertical panels for the long right one. This last side was then shaped (and saw it again ...) in order to make room for two old computer monitors, which will act as an "alcove" for any chicks.
PHOTO 4 - walls with computers
I also added a door with a couple of metal hinges (purchased from a hardware store), which, positioned above one of the two monitors, will act as an entrance door.
PHOTO 5 - door
Now is the time to furnish the interiors: on the one hand, I chose to create a "refreshment area", With a simple glass bottle upside down and one water bowl empty of the company ones (gift from a friend) to contain the birdseed.
PHOTO 6 - bottle + bowl
It should be noted that the dividing wall has a slot at three quarters of the height, in order to favor the circulation of air during the summer, while at the same time preventing the entry of animals-exterminating-hens such as foxes. The whole chicken coop, if done properly, should take these two aspects into account. Inside I then fixed with the usual self-tapping screws three wooden planks, two long parallel to each other at different heights and a shorter one perpendicular to the others. For the uninitiated, roosters and hens love to sleep raised off the ground, usually on branches or, in fact, on some support.
PHOTO 7 - total with axes
And now we come to the coverage. For the roof I could not help but buy in a DIY megastore two further panels tailor-made, partly because the overall weight was becoming too much, partly because the panels were starting to run out, and I would have had to opt for a long, unsightly and above all devastating cut and sew for me ...
PHOTO 8 - the two panels
Both panels are the same, both in size (130 cm x 85 cm) and in material (raw chipboard). As for the installation, after a bit of brain pressure I found a perhaps complex solution, but which respected two very specific parameters: stability and opening / closing. In other words, if on the one hand the roof must be able to be removed to allow access to the chicken coop tout court, on the other hand it is necessary to ensure that a too strong wind does not uncover everything, with tragicomic consequences.
PHOTO 9 - 10 - block system
So here is the chosen technique in the two photos above. After applying three blocks - those of the wooden pallets - to each panel, I applied the same number to the walls of the chicken coop itself, so that they matched each other at the time of closing (in total there are 5 and not 6 because the central one is used for both panels). I then drilled each block fixed to the chicken coop, and inserted an Ikea-style wooden cylinder into the hole (impossible not to have them at home ...)
PHOTO 11 - wooden cylinder
At this point the game is done and to open the panel on the left just push in the direction indicated by the arrow, same thing, but in the opposite direction, for the one on the right.
PHOTO 12 - block with arrow
And finally all that remains is to fix with a series of thumbtacks (either the one-pointed ones or even the three-pointed ones - I used both) a waterproof sheet, to extend the average life of the part most exposed to the elements, namely the roof. In the garage I recovered an old camping cloth, the kind you put under the tent, but something else can do.
PHOTOS 13 and 14 - cover sheets
Voila. All that remains is to go to some farm or to one of the many country fairs and buy - to begin with - a couple of hens. Take care that these animals, of whatever breed they are, have a bad habit of waking up at unreasonable times, so there is always a need for someone to get up and go to open the chicken coop. Incredible but true, there are those who have thought of this too… look at the video below.
Photos, idea and texts: Roberto Zambon
