Old fashion Chicken coop

July 13, 2020 Adrienne Brown 0 Comments

Walk-in recycled chicken coop

We’re getting chickens again! Our family decided that this is the year to get chickens again. Because life has changed so drastically for us, we need more outside activities. So, we decided that building a chicken coop and caring for chickens is fun and 2 interesting projects that would cure our kid’s boredom!

But, we quickly realized that we would need a new place for the chickens to live. Because our other old fashioned chicken coop was rotting, broken down and falling apart!

The back story

You see we had chickens before, about three years ago. We built an old fashioned kind of chicken coop then, too. That chicken coop was a walk-in coop, that was inexpensive and simple to build on our own, with no plans. It also had easy access and was a cinch to shovel out. This is how it looked back then.

The children loved getting the eggs and seeing the chickens run around the yard. As a homeschooling family, it was like a hands-on backyard science laboratory too!

They got to watch the baby chicks peck their way into the world from inside the eggshell. Then the kids discovered that the mama hen hid her chicks under her wings, instantly reminding us of God's protection! (Psalm 91:4, Luke 13:34), the whole scene was so cute and cuddly.

Our old fashioned chicken coop, allowed us to walk straight inside it. It provided an easy and convenient way to collect eggs Oh, how we loved collecting the free-range eggs. This kind of walk-in chicken coop also allowed us to easily shovel out the free compost that the chickens made with their poo and hay, of course!

But eventually, we lost all of the chickens. Some to old age, but most to predators. After they all were gone we had no purpose for our walk-in chicken coop anymore. So it just sat there and fell apart, and I was certain that I would never get chickens again.

Breaking their boredom

That is until I noticed that the kids were becoming restless when they were outside. They looked bored and didn’t seem to have enough outside responsibilities. For years there was always some animal outside that the older siblings had to care for. These responsibilities gave them meaning and purpose and a sense of pride.

My younger children were missing that element of home life and there was a stark difference in their outside time verse the older kids.

But, Not to worry, my husband and I thought. Let’s get these kids busy! They can build another walk-in chicken coop. We’ll fill it with new baby chicks, buy some chick feed, providing them with an instant environment to learn and develop responsibility.

Getting the wood

So, after estimating how many 2×4’s, plywood and screws we would need, my husband was off to Lowes! He ended up purchasing about 20 2×4’s, 10 sheets of plywood and a box of 3inch screws. (which were too long by the way!)

We managed to recycle a lot of wood from our old walk-in!!!! Now we could start building our new old fashioned walk-in chicken coop.

Tearing it down

First, we had to take down all of the old planks that were no longer good from the frame. After taking those off, the kids measured and cut the new boards to size. With the help of my husband and our 21-year-old, the teenagers learned to put their math skills to use when measuring the boards for the walls. Then they had to cut the boards the right size. They also learned how to use the circular saw and the level.

I was really glad that we could keep the corner post and some of the skeletal framing work of the old chicken coop. Because that meant we didn’t have to bang anything into the ground. Yet, all of the plywood had to go, because it had all dry rotted.

Getting up the walls

Now it was time to put on the plywood walls. Our new walk-in chicken coop was going to be a warm cozy one for the chickens. My oldest son helping that day was pretty skilled at getting the planks placed just right so that we could nail up the walls.

Then my husband and daughter measured the places were the windows would go and they put up the door along with its hardware.

We placed a double piece of chicken wire over the windows because we don’t want any predators getting into our chicken coop this time.

How to build a chicken coop you ask?

Well, Remember we are building this new old fashioned walk-in chicken coop with no plans. That’s right no written plans at all. Therefore it is not pretty and fancy, but just like our old walk-in, it serves our purposes!

But the materials we used to build our walk-in chicken coop, we mentioned earlier. We purchased about 20- 2×4’s, 10- sheets of plywood and a box of 3-inch screws. We already had the 4 corner post still in the ground, hinges, chicken wire and a door latch. Oh yes, we just used our old fencing to create a yard for the chickens.

But you don’t really need a fenced-in yard if you want free-range eggs. Which that is what I love the most and we do let them out every day. It’s just that we also have a tasty garden that old chickens kept eyeballing so the fence helps to keep them out.

Painting the chicken coop

Now, we were ready to paint our new walk-in chicken coop. Everyone just put on their painting clothes and we finished paining this beautiful chicken coop in 1 hour! We really did paint it that fast!

So, this is our simple, walk-in chicken coop, that will be a very nice home for our chickens to come. Oh, I know that it isn’t aesthetically appealing nor is it exactly square. But you know what, I don’t care! I was not looking for perfection. I was not trying to win any sort of contest, and I thank God that we don’t have a strict HOA.

But, building this walk-in chicken coop did meet our original expectations and it gave us the very things we were looking for when we started it in the first place.

Our kids were happy, looking pretty proud and loving seeing there creation appear right before their eyes. This was a project that we planed together as a family from start to finish and we completed it together.

Our children were not walking around aimlessly looking for something to do. They had a reason and purpose to draw them outside.

We actually built our walk-in chicken coop from our imagination and saw it come to realization! God is so good!