Today, I would like to showcase my recycled DIY build with you all.
I had been toying with the idea of getting some chickens for my allotment for some time now, and an opportunity came when I saw that someone close wanted to rehome his chickens.
His advert read, Chickens £2.50 each, cheaper than ASDA they will lay eggs or eat them upto you.
After a little thinking, I decided to take the half-hour drive and collect the chickens, but I had a problem, I had nowhere to keep them.
My original plan was to acquire 6 chickens, but when I got there I found that there were 8, so I took them all.
I got them home and housed them in the rabbit run and cages, and even though this wasn't ideal the chickens made themselves at home.
I got them on Sunday, by Wednesday I had my first egg, and since then I have been getting 1 a day.
On Monday I decided that it was time to build my chicken coop and run, but I had another problem, I am broke, so everything I used was from a recycled sauce.
I started off with a pallet as the base for the coop, this one is 7 feet long and 4 feet wide, so I knew it would be perfect for the chickens to settle in.
I then used an old shed back as the back of the shed, this was on my allotment and needed some work on it to make it sturdy again, I also attached the base and the back to my shed to make it stronger.
I used 2 lengths of 2x2s that were 6 feet long, these I had to buy, they cost £3 each and came from a timber recycler, the roof is some old tin that was on the allotment when I took it on.
As you can see from the picture above, it was taking shape but looked like a mess.
I lined the floor with another tin sheet that was on the allotment and started to build up the sides, the inside of the coop is lined with an alloy which will make cleaning easier.
I have 8 chickens, I know it seems strange but I only built 3 chicken boxes in the coop, I have a friend who has 15 chickens and they all lay in one box and he has a box for each of his, knowing this, if they need more I will build them more, but I am just taking things slowly at the moment.
The hinges I bought from Wilcos they didn't cost a lot, and I built the coop door out of pallet wood, I also got given by another allotment holder some metal fencing which I think was perfect for keeping chickens in as a run.
Because of the current bird flu going around, chickens are on lockdown in the UK, which means that they have to be in a building or a place where no other birds can get to them, know this I had to buy some scaffolding netting, and I used it to cover the run so no other birds can get in.
I introduced my little ladies to their new homes earlier today and they seem to like the extra space, they are all covered over, and I have bungee cords that hold the door closed and zip ties that hold all the netting down.
I cut a hole in the door and added a mesh window as well as a coop door for them to take cover if they need to during the day. I am impressed with how it turned out.
Altogether I spent a massive £38 building this run and coop, it shows what a little bit of work and a lot of asking can get you. if I hadn't of bought the netting it would have cost £13 to build.
what do you all think?