Pallet Chicken Coop

This is the 17th coop featured in this cool coop series: an exploration of the creative ways that folks build homes to shelter their flocks. I’ve featured log cabins, a hobbit house, playhouse and shed conversions and several more conventional builds. I’ve been hoping to present one made of pallets, those utilitarian platforms found on construction sites and building supply stores. They are well constructed, often from hardwoods, and sometimes used just once before being relegated to the scrapyard. I love the idea of taking something destined for a short lifespan and repurposing it as a coop.

When we first had chickens we tried using a mobile coop and run based on Justin Rhodes’ design. Most of our flock died due to disease and predation. We learned a lot and made improvements after that: namely that chicken wire doesn’t stop predators and chicken wire doesn’t allow chicken poop to drop through.

We also had a 4’ tall run, which was not ideal because we had to duck any time we went in there.

We now have 12 hens: a mix of a bunch of different breeds – white Leghorn, Brahma, Olive Egger and Easter Egger.

I had built another coop before this one and have built multiple other structures. I saw people building sheds out of pallets on YouTube and from that I came up with the plans based on the dimensions of the pallets. I built the coop and run from scratch which took about three weeks, working around my full time job. I also started building when there was snow in the ground.

Budget

I blew the budget and probably spent $1500 because I opted to overbuild and used steel siding and roofing and covered the run with steel as well.

Features Of The Coop & Run

coop is 8’x14’ with 8’ side walls
run is 8’x25’
the coop is made from pallets with 2”x4”s between them
roof rafters are reclaimed oak from my parents barn
wall cladding is old fence pickets I got free
the ladder to get into coop is made from tree limbs I screwed together
hardware cloth all around the run with a buried 2’ hardware cloth apron
raised floor of the coop to create storage underneath the coop (chicken area is closed off with chicken wire)
feed storage inside the coop
nesting boxes that we can check from inside the coop
roost bars made from tree branches
vent close to the roof
reclaimed window and door
door/window so I can clean the coop from the outside (shovel the shavings out that door)
window air conditioner we use for the hottest months (we get over 100 degrees in Iowa)
space heater in the coldest months (we can get down to -20 degrees for brief periods)