Homesteading Skills Coop & Run Built From Recycled Materials
You don’t have to spend a lot of money on your flock to build wonderful facilities for them. With resourcefulness and planning you can make the best of materials that are available to you to construct a coop and run your flock will love. I’m going to talk about the techniques and strategies my family used to build our chicken facilities as well as what materials had to be purchased new in order to complete the project.
If you’re looking for exact technical plans on how to build a coop and run, check out the beginner guidebooks mentioned below. *I’m not affiliated with the authors, publishers, or books in any way. These are just great beginner resources which include coop plans as well as a lot of other essential information for backyard chicken beginners.
Salvaging reclaimed lumber and discarded pallets. Our coop is a pallet palace constructed from discarded oak pallets and plywood that were salvaged with permission. Work sites, businesses, and even neighbors doing construction are potential sources for recycled lumber. Additional lumber that was used to frame and structurally reinforce our chicken run was reclaimed unwanted wood from a neighbor’s construction site who was redoing their deck. Reach out to individuals within your network who may have access to these materials and inquire with store managers and neighbors about pallets or wood you see not being utilized. Be sure to receive the appropriate permission to salvage any materials especially from someone else’s or a business property.
The inner framing of the coop was done with 2×4 lumber. This had to be purchased new for structural integrity. Additionally the wood for the coop roosts was also salvaged.
The roof for our run is a recycled billboard. Did you know you can purchase unwanted advertisement billboards? Rather than these large sheets of plastic ending up in a landfill, our family purchased one from a website and repurposed it as the roof of our chicken run. It is significantly more durable, larger, and less expensive than locally available box store tarps.
Our chicken run is two discounted chicken runs merged together with a recycled wood frame. Animal housing meant for other animals can be repurposed and modified to be safe for chickens. Keep in mind if you’re using housing not originally intended for chickens it will need to be changed in order to be safe for your flock. To make a run large enough for our growing flock my family merged two runs using a wood frame constructed from discarded wood from a neighbors decks project. The original flimsy chicken wire was reinforced with additional chicken wire and also hardware cloth along the bottom for additional protection from predators.
The roof of the chicken coop is a metal roofing salvaged from a construction site with permission. This material was brought to us by a friend with permission as it was excess from a project elsewhere and was otherwise not being used.
The hardware, chicken wire, and hardware cloth were purchased new. For structural integrity and safety these materials were purchased new from the local hardware store and online.
The nesting boxes were assembled from reclaimed wood on our property. The wood used to create the nesting boxes was reclaimed scrap from our projects here on the homestead. Each nesting box is 12×12 inches square. I have used dried chemical-free grass from the property, hay, straw, and nesting pads as nesting box liners.
Grow your chicken area as your flock grows. The accepted measurements for standard size chickens is 4 square feet of coop space per standard size chicken and 8-10 feet of run space per standard size chicken in their run or outdoor exercise area. Bantams require approximately half of that. Heavier, larger breeds need more space. Err on the side of providing your flock with more space than needed as you’re likely to want to grow your flock in the future. Additionally, overcrowding is the exacerbating factor and cause of many unwanted chicken behaviors, disease, ailments, and pests.
Repurpose and modify unconventional items to create chicken structures and additional protected areas for your flock to enjoy. Items like snow fencing, moveable livestock fencing, hoop houses, greenhouse kits, and cattle panels can all also be adapted to form additional space and structures for your flock. *Keep in mind when using kits not intended as animal housing these structures will need to modified to be predator-proofed and safe for your flock. Things like a discarded child’s playhouse or an unused dog house can be modified to be safe housing for your flock.
If you’re wondering what makes a coop appealing to your flock, what kind of things help prevent predators from preying on your backyard flock, or what exactly backyard chickens need from their nesting boxes, I have dedicated videos about those subjects on my YouTube channel linked below.
I hope you have enjoyed this post and you’ve gotten new inspiration for expanding your backyard chicken facilities using unconventional, repurposed, and recycled materials. For more information that’s great for backyard chicken beginners and new homesteaders check out Chuck’s other social media linked below.
Two of my personal favorite beginner chicken care guide books are listed below. I’m not affiliated with these books, authors, or publishers in any way. I consider them wonderful beginner poultry care books. These include detailed technical coop and run plans and lots of other great information.
Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens, 4th Edition: Breed Selection, Facilities, Feeding, Health Care, Managing Layers & Meat Birds Hardcover, December 27, 2017, by Gail Damerow (Author)
The Beginner’s Guide to Raising Chickens: How to Raise a Happy Backyard Flock (Raising Chickens Guide), Jun 4, 2019, by Anne Kuo (Author)
Chuck and the Chicks 