I’m having feelings of inadequacy and guilt over the shoddy home I’ve made for my chickens. At the moment, it’s made up of a large pet barn-style dog house, a few pallets and a dog exercise yard. The chickens get to roam free as long as I’m at home, but I have to contemplate the fact that at some point, I will have to get a job and won’t be home during the days. Shocking, but true.

Today I decided to figure something out for them. I went to my main resource for chicken things, Backyard Chickens. I went to their coop pages. I got more depressed. I googled coops. I found lots – spendy things. I also found things like the Chicken Chapel. I got more depressed.

In the end, what I think I’ll do is this: I brought home a wooden frame that had originally shipped metal pipes in to the place I worked. At the time, I thought, “perfect potting bench!”. Which it was, for the remainder of the year. Then I got Oddball, and it turned into his temporary outside home. Of course, he outgrew it eventually and now it sits vacant. I potted what I needed to pot, it’s time to move on.

In order to turn this framework into a functional chicken house, here is what I intend to do:
Use chicken net to enclose the bottom half. Front will have a framed section, hinged to allow cleaning access. One side will be arranged in a way to allow the pet barn to be securely attached and remain the sleeping quarters.
Plywood over the back side of the top. Sides will be wire net. The diagonal will be made of that corrugated fiberglass roofing stuff, with hinges on top to allow for opening. The “attic” space there will then be the nesting area.
Permanently attach the wheels. Just seems like a good idea.

Shouldn’t be too hard, just a matter of getting the materials together. Some of it I already have, like the chicken wire and most of the attaching things (nails & staples, that sort of thing).

Materials list:
Framed door: 2x 40.5″, 2x 36″ 1×1 or similar
Main floor: 22″ x 47″ weldwire (small mesh)
Attic back: 17.5″ x 48″ plywood or similar
Attic front: 33″ x 48″ corrugated fiberglass panel
Attic floor: 22″ x 36″ plywood or similar
4 hinges
4 hook & eyes

Check back in a few weeks…see if I just had a wild hair that didn’t last.