Lifehack logo

How To Build A Chicken House Mostly Out Of Scrap And Salvage

Part 1 - The Build

By Tom BradPublished 3 years ago Updated 3 years ago 7 min read
21
Author's own photo and beer belly

This is the step by step guide of how I built my chicken house.

Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral.

Frank Lloyd Wright (The Great American Architect)

Now we love our backyard chickens and want to truly house them in the grandeur we think they deserve. I live on a large property in the French Countryside and like to make things out of scrap and salvage. When you build out of salvage it is like building out of Lego. You see what you have and make it work.

This is about the process and how you solve your problems as you go.

Now this might annoy the real DIY purist with his plans, tape measure and super sharpened pencil, because we used no designs and kind of made it up as we went along but it was a lot of fun.

First I wanted some box pallets, quite hard to get hold of, but a local potato farmer gave me these rubbish ones falling apart. They were in his firewood store and he delivered them to me for about £25. I tried to buy 2 new ones off him, he had 300 on site ready for the harvest through the summer, he just looked at me and laughed. So this is what I started with.

I took the two strongest and took the weakest wall down on each of them. I then sprayed both of them with a powerful wood treatment that should stop any rot. Obviously if they are really rotten, just don't bother. Keep looking for the perfect piece to use as the body of your house.

I wanted to choose pallet wood because it is insanely strong and robust.

I took them out to where I wanted my chicken shed to be, I used a small car trailer. Turned then upside down and using some treated pine (this was not salvage I purchased it), to make the strength of the structure. This has to be treated wood or the legs will not last, I nailed some support strips and placed 6 legs alongside them. The triangles are off cuts of a staircase I built for my property, the other month, but something like this is needed to increase stability otherwise your house will rock.

We set our house up on hard ground with some trees to shelter it next door. They are apple trees so will provide some good food for the chickens. Hard ground is important, but I will get to that later in Part 2.

Now grab some friends and flip it over. It is insanely heavy at this point.

If you don't have any friends...

BUILD A SMALLER CHICKEN HOUSE.

We whacked a solid rectangle on the roof and a simple roof lean, we used mostly the brought treated timber but any odd bits and off cuts that could do the job we added, that purple bit of wood you would recognise if you had ever been inside my house.

Remove this plank out of one end.

The structure is pretty solid here so not that easy to remove.

We used a chainsaw, just watch out for nails and pay attention. Cut the plank down the middle and then the pallet can easily be bent back from the frame and pulled off with little damage.

You are going to need an egg box, a place where chickens lay eggs, so make another hole, yes we used a chainsaw again. then strengthened the opening with some wooden off cuts.

Take the whole end off for a service door for humans, chainsaw again down the middle of the planks then work the nails out with a claw hammer.

Take a little section out for the chickens to go in and out, yep chainsaw, then strengthened with scrap wood.

Right this is where you need your friends again you need to lift the chicken house up and put the legs on blocks.

This helps prevent later rot and will make it last longer.

If you have no friends...

BUILD A SMALLER CHICKEN HOUSE, honestly it's okay the chickens can be your new friends.

I actually could find no friends at this point, they must have been washing their hair or something so I used a cut log on a car jack and lifted it up that way.

Inside replace any bad or weak planks with stronger planks you might have ripped off. Then protect the lot. I had half a tin of exterior wood treatment left from a project last year. I cut it with some turpentine and put it through a cheap paint sprayer and gave the inside and underneath a spray and a complete coating.

Chickens need ventilation.

So at the end of the roof we put in 2 windows. There is a mesh covering so nothing can get in or out.

If you think, my poor chickens, they will be cold in winter I am going to put in proper windows and keep them warm. Your chickens will die. Chickens can live comfortably at -20.

Ventilation is important. We then used some old scrap to just finish it off... pallet wood we had cut off earlier!!!

Chickens need ventilation but hate draughts. Pallets are very draughty. I brought some cheap tongue and groove earlier in the year for a job and hated it. It was about £9 for 10 long strips. It took about a pack and half to clad the whole house. I edged it with some thin strips of pine to hide my bad cuts and make it all look neat and tidy.

Now you might think crikey I am cooking with gas lets get the roof on. Don't the thing is strong enough to stand in and you still have things to do on the inside and outside so you will appreciate the extra head room.

Knock together a skeleton for your egg box. Use any sensible strong wood you have.

Make a door. We used spare pallet wood. That makes it ridiculously heavy so you will need that third hinge. If I did this again I would make a lighter door. The cross is completely unnecessary and is just me faffing, it is only decorative and provides no support.

Make a little hinged flap for that plank you took out the other side. This flap's purpose is to only make cleaning the house easier.

Finish your egg box, make sure you don't just do the sides and lid.

Put a floor in!

We used an old cut down window shutter for the lid.

The chickens need a plank.

We used an old scaffold board that was not doing much and just added some cheap pine strips for the steps. These planks can get slippy and icy in the winter and the chickens will need these steps.

Now put your roof on. We painted it first and made it out of five planks and a sheet of Perspex we had lying around.

But before you put the roof on add some perches and give all your untreated wood a slap of protection.

I forget to do this before I put the roof on. So found this bit a little uncomfortable!!! But doesn't that Perspex make it all light and airy.

Stop have a beer and enjoy your hard work.

Have a think about what colour you are going to paint it.

Now this is only the basic build before you go get your chickens you still have a lot of finishing touches to do. So I am going to add a follow up part below to take you down that final stretch.

Part 2 - https://vocal.media/lifehack/how-to-build-a-chicken-house-mostly-out-of-scrap-and-salvage-k17jtd0qsr

I will explain costings, some problems I encountered and everything I would of or could have done differently.

That's not a chicken!!!

Anyway, thank you for reading the first part of my article. Make sure you check out the second part.

I publish my stuff independently for no other reason that I would rather these strange ideas that rattle around my head from time to time have a place to go. Hey, better out than in.

My reach is decided by you so if you enjoyed this and think it could reach a little further I would love for you to share it.

If not that is also cool.

I have more strange musings here, Enjoy.

If you are also interested in publishing your own ideas here on Vocal and getting paid for it, I can get you a cheaper introductory rate by clicking here. This gets me a small affiliate payment from the platform.

how to
21

About the Creator

Tom Brad

Raised in the UK by an Irish mother and Scouse father.

Now confined in France raising sheep.

Those who tell the stories rule society.

If a story I write makes you smile, laugh or cry I would be honoured if you shared it and passed it on..

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments (1)

Sign in to comment
  • Babs Iverson6 months ago

    Tom, this is the third time that I have read your story!!! Oh, you are missed and was looking forward to more chicken stories. 💕♥️♥️

Find us on social media

Miscellaneous links

  • Explore
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Support

© 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.