The Bunk House

When I set out to build a 'chicken tractor' for little to no expense, and began rifling through our pile of scrap materials stored off to the side of the shed, I had to forego my vision of a lovely little chicken coop, the likes of which are oft advertised in bird-dom.  We just didn't have that type of lovely scrap materials lying around.  We *did* have, I discovered, the frame of a long-used bunk bed, complete with it's hardware.  Bingo!  It took a few days for the idea to fully meld in my mind, as to how, exactly, I could employ it successfully for this purpose, but once it did?  I knew it would work!

So, herein lie the photos of the making of The Bunk House for my new girls.  The lovely Buff Orphingtons, The beautiful and stately Rhode Island Reds, and the somewhat quirky and unusual Black Sex Links, chosen by my teenaged son.  They've already visited their new digs during the construction phase, and I can attest:  they like it already!  :)

So, without further ado, I bring you a photographic essay on the making of The Bunk House.  Please feast your eyes upon this monstrosity, and wonder.

Humble beginnings 

"The wheels on the coop go round and round . . ." er, wait a minute!  lol  I don't know how long the zip ties will hold, but they will have to do.  There are nails, but I didn't have washers for the outer spacings, thus, zip ties it was!   

Found some flooring tiles, new, still in the box, so . . . they will come in handy, on top of this:   

The pallet-turned-chicken-coop-floor.  Wired the underneath to keep out varmin.  :) 

 An old futon frame became further reinforcement of the run.

and, another layer of wire reinforcement to keep out varmin.  This sits just below the beginning of the coop. 

A piece of particle board, became the chicken coop door, the opening to the run!

The coop floor, being attached to the run. 

Israel's strength was a big help when it came to attaching the coop to the run - and he's pretty handy with power tools, too!  :) 

 A perspective of the entire tractor.

And another . . . 

Now for those floor tiles!   

A couple of crates will serve as laying boxes.  I'll be attaching a ledge across both of them, as well as a partition in each box, to make four laying boxes total. 

A perfect fit, really!  :) 

The side walls go up on the coop!

 . . . and the beginning of the roof.  In reality, Israel got ahead of me at this juncture, so the roof is missing some supporting frame.  The roof is coming off, and being re-fortified to withstand use and to weatherproof the hinged opening.  That particular day, it was just such a relief to be at a stopping point, neither one of us was ready to undo.  lol

A glimpse inside!  :)  The door will have a "walkway" gangplank to the ground. 

And a finished product picture of sorts.  The top wire will be further stretched and secured; a security bar will be put around the perimeter of the run at the ground, and "handles" - simply a 2x16 bar - will be attached along the sides to bear the weight of the entire unit when it is moved.

The grand total of materials used for this particular coop is under $20.  The 2x16's, some hardware, and the chicken wire (we got it at a mega sale, and I did not use an entire roll, thus . . .) were the only purchased items.  All the other materials we had laying around, just waiting to be put to use.  When the unit is complete, I'll post those pics, but it is in a finished enough state, I knew you'd love to see how it all came together!  The hens will begin spending their days out of doors this week.  A heat lamp will still be provided for a couple more weeks, but they are feathering out nicely.

No doubt, they are ready to get some grub!  :D