Building a Backyard Chicken Coop? You’ll Want These Things First

Raising backyard chickens is a popular project for urbanites and homesteaders alike. The word has gotten out that once you’ve had their eggs, it’s hard to go back to the grocery store brands. Plus, chickens are exceedingly self-sufficient little creatures. Virtually all they need is access to food, water, shelter, and space to wander. With those comforts they will happily produce fresh eggs for you year after year.

The food and water are pretty easy to come by. It’s the shelter that can be tricky. Premade chicken coops and enclosures can be spendy, so the DIY route is becoming the go-to option for many would-be chicken owners. If that’s you, the following will hopefully provide a broad outline of what you’ll need to get started on a backyard chicken brood.

Lots of Chicken Wire

Chicken wire is an appropriately-named type of wire meshing as it’s perfect for chicken coops and enclosures. Depending on the design, you may want to get as much as your hand cart will carry. It can be wound around virtually any frame for an effective chicken enclosure. If you live in an area where birds of prey are common, you’ll want a lot of extra chicken wire. Create a complete enclosure outside their coop: Protect them from above with chicken wire so that they can get out into the sun without being exposed to predators.

Binding Tools for Chicken Wire and Enclosures

Securing the chicken wire to the frame is best accomplished with a heavier-duty, wood-compliant staple gun and a lot of staples. Get long zip ties for temporary or permanent binding, and wood screws and nails for permanent fastening of lumber. If you plan to have a shingled roof on your coop, don’t forget roofing nails. A wire snip will likely get a lot of use, as well as a cordless drill with drill bits and screw heads.

Moving Equipment for Materials

Lumber, pallets, tarps, shingles, bails of chicken wire, and the other components for the chicken coop are often heavy. Have a wheelbarrow and a hand truck around for the heavier lifting. It’s good to have one of each, as there are moving jobs for which hand trucks excel and those that call for a wheelbarrow.

Pallets and Tarps

The pallet-and-tarp chicken enclosure/coop is an excellent option for those with a modest budget. You can often find pallets for free and, depending on the size, one or two tarps for a covering is often sufficient. A pallet-and-tarp enclosure involves securing pallets together to form the outer frame, wrapping it in chicken wire, and covering it with a tarp. It might not be the fanciest option, but it’s low-cost and the chickens will happily roost on the pallets’ slats.

Lumber and Roofing

What you’ll need for lumber and roofing depends entirely on the style of coop you’re considering building. Sometimes free pallets are all the lumber you’ll need. A more involved coop, on the other hand, can require a considerable collection of boards, beams, planks, posts, and plywood. Using boards for the structure of the coop and plywood for the roof (and sometimes walls) is a popular strategy. It also never hurts to get a little extra of all the materials you’ll need, so that you have room to make mistakes (and improvements).

About Magline

Magline is easily one of the best-known and most trusted names in the material handling industry. The name is such a byword for trusted and valued material handling equipment that any hand truck, no matter its original brand, is often referred to as a “Magliner.” Unfortunately for those brands, being called a Magliner is no substitute for the real thing. Magline has been engineering and producing the sturdiest, the most reliable, and the easiest-to-use material handling equipment in the industry for over 70 years. Along with their renowned classic hand trucks, they offer a wide selection of more specialized options, including an electric hand cart line, a stair climbing cart selection, a convertible/collapsible hand truck series, and a whole lot more.

For any project you’re facing, make sure you have the best Magliner for the job, at Magliner.com

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