The Budget Coop Scoop

Once you get caught up in the idea of having chickens, it’s easy to find yourself spending more on them and the coop then you ever thought you would. For many people, chickens are a hobby as well as pets with benefits: I’m thinking of my wife and myself. We spent so much of my time and her money on our pagoda-roofed coop that we won’t break even on eggs in our lifetimes. But for folks who don’t have that kind of budget, building a highly functional and attractive coop can still be affordable by using free pallets.

A few years back, at a feed and seed store, I met a young first-grade teacher named Katie Ford checking out the tubs filled with chicks. She told me she wanted to build a coop so she could keep birds, but couldn’t afford one on a teacher’s salary. When I told her I would help her build a coop made mostly from free, salvaged pallets, her eyes lit up.

Katie wanted to keep two types of chickens in the coop for breeding and selling chicks — Lavender Orpingtons and Copper Marans — so she would need to keep them separate. I joked that the coop would be like a duplex and christened it “Katie’s Kooplex.”

Pallet-able Poultry Palace

Free pallets can be found at any feed and seed store, garden center, HVAC supply store, or big box stores. I’m a