DIY Chicken Coop from pallets and scrapes

This is truly a from trash to treasure story. From a used and discarded pile of pallets to an adorable chica coop. I will show you how me and my Mr. threw together our chicken coop (built for half a dozen chicks) with just scrapes and salvaged pallets. 

We started with a mountain of pallets (or more accurately two extra large truck loads). Separating all the pallet boards can be a little tricky. 

You need an assistant. This is absolutly a two person job...thankfully I had my Mr. but for all photo purposes Bella will be my assistant today... It doesn't hurt that she is just the cutest thing ever. 

If you have ever heard the saying "you're only as good as your tools" this would be 100% true for this project. You absolutely have to have a saw with a good blade on it for cutting metal. Your only real option is to cut through the nails. You will never get the nails out, it's like the pallet builders have a contest to see who can build them the fastest and at the same time trying to boost the economy with their nail usage. Another tid bit of advice is to pre-drill. The boards from the pallets are nearly rock hard, I'm not joking either they are seriously like half petrified or something. 

This is Red, she isn't shy when it comes time to lay her egg. 

We live in the south with crazy hot days and flares of humidity. To help our chicas we left two slots open for a breeze way. Every opening, including these "windows", got a covering of raccoon/predator proof screening. Ours was scrape from previous predator proofing project, whoa that's kind of a mouthful. 

This is the back. The chica coop banner is a previous DIY post. 

Behind the banner are the hatch doors. Using some scrape hinges and a spare pallet piece as a "latch" of sorts. I'm not trying to keep humans out just those strong little raccoon hands. They may have strength but they don't have intelligence. 

This is the closed/locked position.

A slight turn to the side and it's "unlocked".

I prop it open with a piece of tent pole we had laying around.

There you have it, there it is.

Here's Red again...that must mean she's done doing her job.

She lays greenish blu eggs. The warmer the weather the bluer the egg and the cooler winter season brings more of a Greenish hue to the egg. 

This is the same latch concept as the backdoors. We built the door all the way to the top of the coop so when it is open, all day long, the door becomes a ramp that the chickens can walk up. This is closed.

Turn to open.

Here's our newest members of the flock. They were hatched May 27th and look at the feathers they have already grown. They really do grow up to fast :) 

Hope you enjoyed. As always, sharing is caring and stay classy.