Three new girls recently moved into my place and it was a case of getting some additional space inside or build them their very own residence. I think they are quite independent ladies so I opted for the self-contained apartment option. Problem was I had to get it done quickly and on no budget, so have a look at what I came up with.

Everything was recycled, we didn’t cut a thing, and it was all put together using a cordless drill, some screws, a hammer and a little bit of imagination in the space of one hour from the time all the materials were set out on the ground in front of us.

My mate Yianni and I whipped it up in an hour. I plan to put a video up on the site shortly so you can see what we did. Everything you need is either in your garage or storage shed, or if not there, it is on the street at the next council clean up.

Check out this functional masterpiece. Oh, and by the way the girls love it…

Materials:

1 old desk
1 old chest of drawers
5 off-cut pieces of plywood, timber and masonite or equivalent
2 off-cut rolls of garden wire fencing mesh
4 star pickets
Some tie wire
Some straw for lining the nesting box (drawers of chest of drawers)
Pellet food mix and some shell grit
Water container
2 hinges for the door
Double dose of imagination
A friend to share the fun with
Some time to put the jigsaw together, construction time was 1 hour, time to deliver materials to location and get organised, say 1 hour.

Construction:

First of all we used the upside down desk as our base. Being upside down the legs were the perfect upright post for securing our wall panels.

The wall panels consisted of off-cut pieces of ply and formboard that were simply screwed into the legs and frame of the desk.

A smaller piece of ply was perfect size for a door which we hung using two screw mounted hinges.

The chest of drawers was easily modified to become a nesting box. One drawer was removed and the hole was covered with a piece of masonite. This meant the two remaining drawers were large enough but cosy enough for the chickens to use as a laying/nesting box.

By placing the drawers to the edge of the desk along a boundary, the drawers can be opened from the side of the coup enclosure eliminating the need to go into the coop to retrieve the eggs. Simple but effective.

A piece of off-cut timber was screwed between the chest of drawers and the internal edge of the coop midway up the drawers to act as a perch which the girls can sleep on at night. The roof we just put over the top like a lid and screwed it onto the wall pieces.

This whole process took approximately half an hour.

We then set up the actual playground run for the girls using four star pickets and some left over wire. The wire was attached to the star pickets with some tie wire so that a small gate was created for easy access. An old paling was tie wired to the chicken wire for easy handling of the gate.

An old hanging basket was hung from the frame of the compost tumbler for their food and a bucket set above the ground for their water.

I actually used a vacuum cleaner box to transport the three girls from their former home to their new home and this worked perfectly.

With the help of my friend Yianni, we put the whole thing together in an hour.

Have a look at the photos below. It was lots of fun and believe me anybody could build this. It’s all about the fun and the chicken coop tolerances. Don’t sweat it, just build it and let your imagination and ingenuity run wild. You’ll be surprised at what you can come up with.






Photo 1: The New Residence in all its glory … weather proof, windproof and criticism proof when working with chicken coop tolerances. How good is this!



Photo 2: The girls out and about enjoying their new home. Note the lighter coloured hinged doorway entrance, the overhanging veranda for wet weather conditions and the way in which the materials blend seamlessly into the natural mulched garden environment. Star picket in for ground holding green mesh with tie wire … very basic construction technology, but highly effective.



Photo 3: Close-up view illustrating the upturned desk design detail, the stylish overhanging veranda and the green wire that blends into the natural landscape providing unhindered views for the girls from their garden side apartment.



Photo 4: Illustrates the use of the chest of drawers as outward opening and easily accessible nesting boxes. Slide open, retrieve eggs and slide closed. Cutting edge technology.



Photo 5: Nothing is more official than the release of the chickens. It's always a great moment to see the girls settle in to their new home. They are loving it and already are stamping their personality on the family routine, which is great. Its even an opportunity for me to share their responsibility with my friends children when I go away, giving them the opportunity to stop in and check on them, feed them water them and be a part of another cycle outside of their own. Now that’s something I really like!

In Conclusion:

Have another look over the photos and see exactly how easy it was to build something like this coop. Already I have some design faults that I want to rectify, this alone is a great thing as I can share these experiences, too.

The bottom line is that the girls are already having a mighty impact on our kitchen scraps and I can hear the worms screaming from here that they are missing out on some of the tastier stuff that used to go to them. In fact last night was rubbish night and I didn’t even have to put the bin out. It’s still empty.

Between the worms, the compost tumbler, the compost bin and the green waste bin, there is very little waste going into our red bin at all. And as ecologist Pete Rutherford says, if you want to know where to start to make a difference, have a look in your rubbish bin.

Photo 6: Three happy girls doing their thing!