hen house from old pallets?

4dogs · 7 January 2012 at 1:23PM

Hi
we can get our hands on some pallets, and would like a hen house...anyone ever made a one with them ? any tips or instructions would be very welcome!!

thanks....

ljonski · 7 January 2012 at 1:51PM

Frankly if you are doing this on the cheap , it would be better to use an old cupboard and saw a hole for the door. You need smooth sides as teh arch enemy of chicken keepers - red mite will hide in all teh crevices and eventually kill your chooks.
Come and visit us on the Heh let's keep Chickens thread for further advice.

HTH

Ilona · 7 January 2012 at 2:09PM

Hi 4dogs. i suggest you go to downthelane.net (Not sure if I am allowed to post the link, but you will find it).There is a busy chicken section there, also DIY section. There are members photo's of home made chicken coops, you will get lots of ideas. Worth a look.
Ilona

superskintmouse · 7 January 2012 at 9:08PM

we made ours out of discarded pallets but we had a 1m x 1m pallet box (wooden cube) as a start. it took us three weeks of evenings and weekends and was hell although the result was amazing and its still going strong 3 years later. i second down the lane very helpful and there are loads of members pictures on there of their homemade efforts for inspiration. good luck!

HelenYorkshire · 7 January 2012 at 9:48PM

Test one pallet to make sure it will come apart easily - I had some where the staples were stronger than the wood, so I couldn't get the "planks" off.

abwsco · 7 January 2012 at 11:21PM

If you do go the pallet route treat all of it with Creosote first before putting it together or if you can't get that use old oil as red mite don't like that either. BTW, red mite will only kill your chickens if the house is left untreated. You can use poultry shield, diatom powder and a host of other things but you have to be vigilent with any chicken housing even plastic.

4dogs · 8 January 2012 at 4:17PM

Hi everyone
thanks for your replies....might go down the route of using an old cupboard as the basis for the hen house and use the pallet wood to construct a run for them ....down the lane is fab, thanks for sharing, I've joined up there too ! bring on the chickens.....

many thanks again

Pink. · 8 January 2012 at 5:32PM

Hi 4dogs,

If you do decide to use pallets, this might give you some idea of how to go about it.

Pink

brindles01 · 8 January 2012 at 5:41PM

I built a pallet house about 5 years ago - it is still going strong and never lost a chicken with mites. My treatment is a liberal dusting and puffing of regular ant powder everytime I clean them out and never spotted a mite problem yet. Also I painted it with regular fence paint and still haven't had to repaint it yet:j

thriftwizard · 8 January 2012 at 11:10PM

I did it & I'd happily do it again. Mostly my girls live in a converted shed, but I made a smaller pallet house (about 4' x3') for the bantams (now in with the big girls) & it went off with a friend when she took on some rescued girls; it's still going strong after about 5 years & has never had a mite infestation. It wasn't hard - the hardest bit was ripping the pallets apart without damaging too much of the wood - and it allowed me to design it from scratch, with a removable front, perching area & nest boxes for easy cleaning. I'll second the fence paint; that's what I used too, and it's never rotted, not even the base of the legs. I also used bitumen roofing panels; we've never had mites in anything with a bitumen roof, only in the Forsham broody ark. Which the fox also got into, more than once - by digging underneath it & nosing the floor aside, last time. Anyway - if I can do it, anyone can!