Building the Pallet Coop has begun!

Well construction is finally underway! We've been blessed with some gorgeous weather finally, and we have been busy. We started this weekend on our new coop. It is being constructed using recycled pallets primarily. It's actually 2 coops in one as it is very long and will be divided in two, one end for our bantams and one end for our new laying hens. This is our third coop in all. Our original coop houses our older laying hens. We have a small coop which houses our Japanese Bantams currently, as they are my oldest DD's 4-H project. We currently have two batches of chicks that will be moving into the new coop as soon as it's ready, (13) 9 week old chicks, and (5) 2 week old bantams.

Here's the photo's so far. The first photo just shows the base of the coop. We built it raised, so the chickens can go underneath as part of their run, for protection from the sun and/or rain. To the left is the Japanese Bantams coop. Over this base we laid a plywood floor:


The next photo shows the side where the pop doors will be, the doors the chickens come out of to access their outdoor run area. You can see one of the pop doors framed out on the right, and some of the ladies in the foreground:


This is a close up of one end of the coop, showing my lovely DH hard at work! This also shows the three built in nesting boxes with space below to place the waterer and feeder. There will be doors on the end for egg retrieval and a larger door below for accessing the food and water. On the other side of the pop door beyond, will be the roosting area. The two coops in the one building will be built as mirror opposites of each other, so the same set up will also be at the far end for the bantams:


Last, this photo shows the back side of the coop, showing the "man" doors framed out. These doors are for access if we need to get in the coop, but primarily they will be used for mucking out the coop. We will park a wheel barrow below the open door and rake out the soiled bedding. You can also see the roof taking shape here as we begin to put the pallets up there:


And that's where we are today! I will post more photo's when we get the roof on and the wall sheathing and doors up. Hope you will check back soon!