Coffee chaff is not only excellent chicken bedding but is also great mulch in vegetable beds. The burlap sacks that the coffee beans come in can be used as free mulch in the pathways.
Martha Stewart I’m not. You don’t have to be either. You don’t have to spend a lot of money and time creating a quality coop and hen habitat. In this chapter I’ll share suggestions on inexpensive materials and where to find them.
I’ve mentioned some of these earlier, but here’s a chance to go into more detail.
Coffee chaff is not only excellent chicken bedding but is also great mulch in vegetable beds. The burlap sacks that the coffee beans come in can be used as free mulch in the pathways.
A large garbage bag full of lightweight coffee chaff (see here) will cover the floor of a 5' × 5' coop about 5 inches deep. Since the chaff has been exposed to high heat, it won’t introduce any pests or diseases. Coffee chaff can also be used as bedding in worm bins (see here) and as the brown portion in compost bins (see here). It is also great as mulch in vegetable beds. Most large or midsize cities (and even some towns) have their own coffee roasters now, and these businesses generate lots of coffee chaff that they bag up and need to get rid of. Sometimes they pay a large-scale compost operation to take it off their hands, but often they pay to dump it in a landfill. It’s very likely that your local roaster will happily let chicken-keepers and gardeners pick it up for free.
As noted in chapter 4, wood chips make excellent mulch in the fenced area for chickens. Whenever arborists or landscape companies cut down trees, they often run the branches through a wood chipper that shoots the chips into a dump truck. This makes the branches more compact and easier to dispose of. They would like to avoid paying a fee to dump the wood chips at a landfill, so they are more than happy to dump the wood chips for free at your home. Do a web search of arborists in your area or speak to a crew when you see them working. Put a tarp down before they dump, though; it will make cleanup go a lot faster.
You’ll need rolls of welded wire fencing (see here) to build the pen and the gate, and to cover the vents in your coop to keep predators out. I found free vintage-style fencing to use in our pen at the site of a house remodeling. The workers had rolled up the old fencing and put it by the curb in preparation to take it to the dump. I saw it in the nick of time and asked if I could have it. The workers laughed as if I were some kind of fool for wanting their “trash.” But visitors to our Hentopia always enviously comment on the unusual pattern.
You can, of course, buy fence wire from your local hardware store or big-box home improvement store, but you can save a lot of money by buying leftover rolls of wire at your local metal recycling facility. Do a Web search to find these places. Then call to determine whether they set aside valuable things for sale to the public. Many of them do, as they can get a better price that way (yet you’ll still save half or more over retail). Be aware that it’s a catch-as-catch-can sort of thing. Swing by or call periodically to see if they have any fence wire on hand, as it may sell quickly. This may also be a good place to get usable metal roofing, hinges, tchotchkes, and other metal parts for your coop and your hen habitat.
Some vintage fencing has a V-shaped pattern rather than modern rectangles, squares, and hexagons.
Pallets are lightweight wooden platforms on which many products and appliances are stacked, strapped, and delivered all across the country. They’re shaped so that a forklift can pick them up and move them. The majority get tossed in a landfill after delivery, but they are still useful.
The most common pallets are made of pine and are 44 inches long, 40 inches wide, and about 5 inches high. They can be used whole to build the frame for a coop’s floor, walls, and roof. And you can break them down (see here) to use the individual planks for building nest boxes, doors, siding, and other parts of the coop.
Not every business that uses pallets will sell or give them to the public, but many do, and often they’re only a buck apiece. Companies that might give away pallets for free include garden centers, feed and seed stores, heating and air conditioning businesses, appliance stores, stone yards, grocery stores, big-box stores, hardware stores, and many kinds of industrial facilities. Drive through commercial and industrial parts of your town, and you will see stacks of pallets waiting to be disposed of.
A minority of pallets have been treated with insecticides such as methyl bromide. In most cases these pallets have been shipped from overseas and the chemicals are applied to keep insects from spreading to another country. Such a pallet will have the letters “MB” stamped on it. I would not recommend using such a pallet.
If a pallet has no such stamp on it, it is probably produced in the US for one-time use and not treated at all; thus, it is safe to use.
Other pallets may have the letters “HT” stamped on them, which stands for “heat treated,” another, safer way to stop insects; they are also safe.
A metal-cutting blade on a reciprocating saw will cut all the nails on a pallet in less than 15 minutes.
Although, as noted in chapter 3, no pressure-treated wood has been made with toxic arsenic and chromium since 2003, I still see recent books and websites by gardening and chicken-keeping experts who aren’t aware of this. They warn people not to use pressure-treated lumber because of fears about toxins.
Pressure-treated lumber is now saturated with two safer products: a liquid solution of copper, the same material that the modern water pipes for your house are made from; and quaternary ammonium, the chemical that is in Formula 409 spray cleaner, which is made to be safely used on kitchen countertops around food and kids. Both treatments keep fungus, termites, and other soil-borne critters from decomposing any wood that touches the ground.
For your coop, you only need pressure-treated wood for any parts that are touching the soil. In most cases, that means the posts that hold the coop up off the ground or the posts for the pen. The roof will keep the rest of the coop dry enough so that it won’t rot, just as with your house.
The parts of the pen that aren’t touching the soil — such as gates and stringers that hold the fencing over the top of the pen — will last at least 10 years even if they aren’t pressure-treated. But if you don’t want to be replacing those rain-exposed parts every decade or so, then do use pressure-treated wood. It will cost more than regular lumber, but you probably won’t have to replace it in your lifetime.
A 4" × 4" × 8' post of pressure-treated pine. The label says “Approved Use — Ground Contact,” which means that it will resist rotting for about 40 years.
Some people may still want to forgo pressure-treated wood, and that’s okay. There are some naturally rot-resistant species of wood: cedar, juniper, cypress, redwood, and black locust. Depending on soil types, rainfall, and quality of wood, they may last 10 to 20 years. Again, many experts recommend these woods without knowing that all parts of the tree are not rot-resistant. Under the bark of any tree you’ll find several inches of light-colored material, called sapwood. This part of the tree is not rot-resistant at all.
At the center of the tree you’ll find several inches of dark-colored material, called heartwood. That’s the part of these species that resists termites and fungus. If you’re buying posts, look at each end to make sure that all or most of the wood is the dark-colored heartwood. Same for planks: make sure most, if not all, of the plank is heartwood. Otherwise, the sapwood will rot as fast as the cheapest wood, but you’ll have paid a premium price.
This gate is made of eastern red cedar. The dark wood visible in the top part is the rot-resistant heartwood, while the light-colored outer layer is sapwood, which can rot quickly when exposed to damp soil.
We have not painted our coop. Chris likes to see the wood grain on the plywood exterior. With wide-enough eaves (ours are about 8 to 12 inches wide), you’ll rarely have rain striking the walls or doors. We don’t have to worry about the wood rotting or warping.
The ultraviolet (UV) radiation in sunshine can break down the fibers of wood. If you see a pressure-treated deck that looks shabby, it’s not because of rot. It’s because the UV radiation has damaged a lot of the wood fibers. Fortunately, our coop is on the north side of the garage, so it isn’t exposed to much direct sunlight.
All that is to let you know that covering the wooden walls and doors of your coop with a paint or stain may not be really necessary. If you do want to color it (or protect the wood on a sunny site from UV radiation damage), then I recommend going with stain rather than paint. Both products function as what’s called a “sacrifice layer” that the UV breaks down rather than the wood. As they break down, the paint will peel and look raggedy; the stain will only fade.
The other thing to know is that the only reliable way to differentiate the good, the bad, and the ugly among paints or stains is to check the price. The more expensive it is, the more pigment it has and the better coverage (and longer life) you’ll get. So, if you don’t want your time to be wasted, buy as expensive a stain as you can afford.
We live in a rich country and lots of people dispose of things that are still useful. Fortunately, there are many outlets for items that you can repurpose.
Architectural salvage stores are retail establishments that scour construction sites and remodeling jobs to scoop up reusable materials like bricks, lumber, doors, fencing, and windows. Many contractors also bring materials to these sites to avoid paying landfill fees. You can find very pretty supplies here at a very good price compared to buying new. Plus, anything you buy will probably come with a story and some vintage cachet.
If you want naturally rot-resistant lumber, search for a local lumberyard. These aren’t as common as they used to be, so you may have to drive some distance to get to one. To find a lumberyard, ask around at a hardware store or a locally owned building supply store, or contact local woodworkers. Then call the yard first to see if they have the posts, planks, or species that you’re looking for. Sometimes they can cut posts or planks to the dimensions you need. Not all of them deliver, so you may need to drive your pickup truck (or borrow one) to pick up your order.
I bought the cedar posts for our coop and pen from a lumberyard. They also had a big pile of cedar stumps at a very good price. I didn’t know what I was going to do with the stumps, but I had to buy them, bring them home, and pile them behind the garage. Chris immediately saw their best use: “Stack them upside down like a totem pole,” she said. I think I’ll get to that this year. Or next.
Not all scrapyards allow sales to the general public, so call around first. If you get turned down over the phone, it’s still worth a face-to-face visit. With a friendly chat and a mention of your chicken coop dreams, the owner may relent due to your charm and your amusing project. Laws shouldn’t be broken, but some rules can be bent.
At scrapyards that do allow sales, you can find items at a third or less of their retail cost: rolls of welded-wire fencing, chain-link gates, chain-link fencing, rolls of hardware cloth, roofing metal, latches, hinges, bolts, screws, hand tools, and all kinds of brass, aluminum, or steel tchotchkes and gewgaws for decorating your habitat.
We rescued Miss Piggy from a junk-tique shop for a few dollars. She watches over the chickens from atop the pen.
Our best luck has been at yard sales in the country or in middle-class neighborhoods. Prices are mostly negotiable, and many objects can be had for a tenth of their retail value or less. Be on the lookout for hand tools, power tools, power cords, plywood, planks, and so on.
A good thrift shop has castoffs in good condition. What we call a “junk-tique” store is a thrift shop with higher aspirations: it may have some actual antiques, and the prices will be higher. Flea markets can run the gamut from sad to sensational. Generally, prices at all three places are negotiable, especially if you’re interested in more than one object: “If I buy items A, B, and C, will you take x dollars?”
Keep your eye out for vintage chicken feeders, waterers, egg baskets, hand tools, vintage or reproduction chicken signs, books on raising poultry, and so forth.
If you see someone working on new construction or a renovation, you could ask for permission to scope out their piles of scrap before they haul them off. Sometimes there’s little to find, but you could also hit a jackpot of plywood, planks, rolls of fencing, metal flashing, or unused roofing shingles.
Some people will throw lightly used things in the trash, but others will put such objects out at the curb for others to scavenge. In these situations, I’ve snared rolls of fence wire, lumber, and metal dog crates (to quarantine broody hens).