The Chicken Coop

I knew when I had my own house that I wanted Chickens. As soon as I was married, and had some time to figure it all out I started pestering Mark to get one built. We managed to wrangle pretty much everything up from things that we had gathered, and build the coop for a very low cost.

We got the slab poured and the framing up for the lower walls. We used recycled plywood and purchased cement.

We wanted the lower walls to be made of rocks so we used rocks from the back yard, I cleaned every one by hand. Ugh...it took a long time!

Mark building up the wall, stacking one stone at a time. It took a few days to get all the stones in place, and we stayed up late into the evening when it had cooled off to get it done.

All of the stones are up, and the walls are being prepped with more forms to pour the walls.

Mark mixing the cement late one night. We mixed all the cement by hand, on the ground. It reminded me of making dough right on the counter!

Forms come off, revealing our fancy rock work. Mark and his Dad get things ready to put of the wall framing.


Up goes the framing for the walls and roof. The lumber was all scrap left over from other jobs. Mark and his Dad have a big bucket of random nails pulled out from old wood, so we used those.

On goes the metal roof and in goes the insulation, and vapor barrier. The metal roofing was salvaged from an old school, and the insulation was bits and pieces from old jobs as well. Most chicken coops don't have fancy insulation and a vapor barriers, but I figured the warmer I could keep them in the winter the better, that way I wouldn't need to use the heat lamp all the time!

More Insulation


The outside is done. The siding is from a used machinery pallet that we took apart. The inside walls are actually old salvaged chalk boards! We just coated them with an extra glossy white paint so they would be easy to clean.

The framework for the netting, all made with scrap metal poles.

Gate details made just for me!

We bought fishing net to make sure that the birds would be well protected from predators.

All finished!



First birds move in!

We have had many residents in the coop, and I love having them in the backyard. We pretty much made this coop for around $200 (netting and concrete, and stain for the outside) Good thing Mark and his Dad keep everything!