Score!

There is nothing like finding useable materials for chicken coops for free.  I have been worried about my roosters that are just in the fenced pens with tarps over the top since we have been having so much rain.  It is starting to get cold too, ok...cold for Texas.  It is suppose to start getting down in the 30's and with the ground being so wet, my roosters need up off the ground and a way to keep out of the north wind.

I was able to get materials for another cattle panel coop, but after finding a source for free pallets I decided to make a bigger coop that could be divided into sections and use the cattle panels for the top.  I found a source for pallets recently, some have boards really close together and make good walls.  I have created a decent sized start of a coop so far, it is about 8'x12' and it will have a pallet floor in it to get chickens up off of the ground.  I need solid walls to keep rain and wind out...the north and south walls are made with the more solid wood pallets, the East and West walls are the more open panels that will have to be covered with wire and some kind of waterproof materials.  I have been using some of the feed bags to cover coop windows, I will probably do the same thing for the walls on this new one and a tarp over the top for now.

The coop that I am working on held up in some high winds we had with yet another storm system.  The rooster pens are rather wet and I did get a couple of pallets in the worst of them.  I need to get some more out there, this weekend is suppose to get down close to freezing.  I stopped by the place I picked up the first two batches of pallets and picked up about 20 more.  These are not big pallets, they are only about two feet wide and four to almost five feet long.  They are not exactly the same sizes either, some are close to the same size, but not square, I am not sure what they were made to hold either.  Some of the pallets have large spaces between the boards and others are close together, some are light in weight and others are very heavy.  I loaded up as many as I could, then took some out and changed things around so I could get more into my truck.  I had to make sure everything was strapped in well and would not shift.  I did not want to loose my free pallets!  I also found a place that I can get pallets for three dollars each...so if I am not able to get enough pallets of the free variety to do what I need to do, maybe I can get cheap pallets to finish up the job.

I will say that I have had to make quite a few repairs to the pallets I am using, most of them have loose boards, or missing boards, or the runners are cracked, broken or parts missing.  A lot of them are made of what looks like dog eared fencing or they actually have tree bark on them...kinda log cabin looking.  This coop is going to look very rustic, not going to be very square or level.  But if it can keep my poultry realatively warm and dry...I can live with that.

I am starting to imagine what else I can use pallets for...I have seen a lot of great ideas and inspiration enough to wonder about making all kinds of things.