How To Build A Chicken House Cheap, Day 1

The boy's Poppy  strapped on the old tool belt and started to work building a chicken house today. The weather was perfect, work is slow at the shop, so outdoors we headed. I'm the camera person.

Not everyone can build a chicken house as cheap as we can here on the homestead because we have our own on-site sawmill and all kinds of spare and scrap stuff to work with.




First, out comes the noisy saw, as you can see by the kids reaction. I think the chicken house is to be a 8' x 8' square.  Poppy had previously sawed up some lumber and what better purpose could it go for? He made "skidders" so the building could be pulled around by the tractor. How nifty will that be?



And of course everything has to be perfectly square. That's because Poppy  has done a lot of carpentry work and wants it "done right." We had lots of help with the measuring tape too.

Then, he screwed those giant screws into the base.

Reminded of that scary movie, you know the one!!
The kids were convinced those screws looked evil!!
But Mark was willing to help by holding the drill, though with much trepidation.

As you can tell, he's Poppy's right-hand man!

Then the base for the floor was added. Kids thought it made a good "dance floor."

It was hot today and Poppy was doing a lot of sweating, so Koda's job was water boy.

Poppy explained he is making an "X" to help brace the sides. Notice the opening at the bottom next to Poppy. That will be a trap door so we can reach a rake in and rake out the straw when the chicken house needs cleaned.

It's suppose to storm tonight so Poppy needed to pull the chicken house out so he could put the tractor in the barn. So he attached a chain from the tractor to the little house and pulled it right out. He built it so it would be moveable and when the chickens need fresh grass, wala, out comes the tractor and easily moves it.

The boys kept begging to let them sleep out here tonight in the "little House". They forget it's suppose to storm. I had a little playhouse about this size when I was a little girl. Maybe that will be one of Poppy's projects this summer. A little house to play in!

And so that ends Day 1. The only expense we have in the chicken house so far is nails. Of course, it helps to have every tool known to man and your own sawmill to start with. Our goal is to build it for under $100.00.

We plan on having a couple small windows to let in light, a door on the side so as to enter when needed and nesting boxes attached to the sides so I can reach inside and get the eggs from the outside of the house. Now that's a chicken house of my dreams.

I'll have to paint a little sign and put over the door of my chicken house. Now what shall I put on this sign???