Peggy Shares How Her Husband Turned an Old Garden Shed into a New Chicken Coop

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in their photographs and stories. I hope by sharing other people’s pictures and stories here on One Hundred Dollars a Month we can all find unique ways to save, show off our chickens and have a rock star gardens. Keep them coming!

Hi Mavis!

I am finally living my 10 year or so dreaming dream of raising my own chickens, and I had the crazy idea of transforming an old and literally falling apart garden shed that was haphazardly placed next to my garden and sat for years into a chicken coop.

My hubby surprised the begeezers out of me and went along with it, at first just to fix the floor and roof, but when he got in there and started to replace the floor, he said the whole thing needed rebuilt pretty much from the floor supports up, so that’s what we (he) did!

We were able to save the walls, but some of the 2×4 supports on them had to be replaced too. I have been an amazing helper, thinker, and laborer though, but he has done all of the building, most of the digging and now the decorative finish siding, of which is old barnwood from the barn that was on my family farm for years. It collapsed due to age, but some of the wood was salvaged, and is now coming back to life on my coop!

I hope you enjoy, this is a trash to treasure story truly, we are working on a shoestring budget, but have had a mindset of reusing what ever we can regardless of whether or not we had the money to buy. It helps the hubby is so handy with construction, but really, this is proof that something so awesome can be done with not a lot of money at all.

The first two pictures are what we started with after I started pulling some of the contents out of the old shed, ‘stuff’ accumulated over years, some we reused, some was really trash. Long story short, our family farm was neglected for a couple of decades through illnesses of my parents and some a few other things, but finally, I’m able to breathe some life back to the place I love so much.

​My husband also repaired the dog kennel fencing that was given to my younger brother for the chicken run. The end result is amazing! I’m already looking at an area above a row of pines above my garden to beg my hubby to construct a small two room cabin, and adjacent to that in a little patch of trees, I envision some goats to help with all of the brush we get around here.

​This little perch area in the run is an old fence post from a wooded area up the hill a bit that used to be a pasture. My family is only the fourth owners of the farm, so it’s nice to let all of the past owners still have a bit of input on what’s happening here now. Sentimental, I know 🙂

I also have a facebook hobby page called The Lettuce Project where I document my organic garden start to finish and the coop progress. I hope you enjoy these pictures and story just a smidge as I’ve enjoyed the process!

Thank you,

Peggy 🙂

Find More Mavis Mail Submissions HERE.

If you would like to have your garden, chicken coop, pantry or something you’ve made featured on One Hundred Dollars a Month, here’s what I’m looking for:

• Your Garden Pictures and Tips – I’d especially like to see your garden set ups, growing areas, and know if you are starting seeds indoors this year. If so, show me some picture of how you are going about it.
• Your Pantry Pics – Submit at least 5 HIGH QUALITY pictures of your pantry/fridge/cabinets, as well as a short blurb {at the very least} about you and your food habits.
• Your Chicken and Chicken Related Stories – Coops, Chicks, Hen’s, Roosters, Eggs, you name it. If it clucks, send us some pictures to share with the world.
• Cool Arts & Crafts – Made from your very own hands with detailed {and well photographed} pictures and instructions.
• Your pictures and stories about your pets. The more pictures and details the better.
• Garage Sale, Thrift Store and Dumpster Diving pictures and the stories behind the treasures you found including how much you paid for them.

You’ll need to send in a Minimum of 5 HIGH QUALITY pictures and the stories to go along with those pictures. Please do not send in a couple of grainy photos and a sentence about them. I can’t post that. It doesn’t make for an interesting or informative story.

If I feature your pictures and the stories behind them on One Hundred Dollars a Month, I will send you a $20.00 gift card to the greatest store in the world: Amazon.com. You can send your submissions to me at onehundreddollarsamonth @ gmail.com {spaces removed} and be sure and put Mavis Mail in the subject line. Thank you. I’m looking forward to your submissions.

Go HERE for the official rules.