As someone who grew up in the suburbs, I always imagined that my animal-owning options would be limited to more traditional pets like a cat, dog, or goldfish.
However, some animal-lovers have found ways to create homes for all kinds of creatures — like this New Yorker who shares an apartment with a 16-pound tortoise.
And when I saw how one DIY dad was able to turn his backyard into an incredible home for chickens, I knew I had to take a closer look.
I found this project on Instructables from user flodato, who didn't just build an ordinary chicken coop, he came up with one of the most creative designs I've seen in quite some time. This clever DIY-er took his family's old backyard play set and repurposed it into the perfect chicken house.
Now his family can have farm-fresh eggs just by stepping out of their back door, and they will have some brand-new animal friends to boot!
Scroll through below for a look at this brilliant play set transformation. Would you want a chicken coop like this in your backyard? Let us know in the comments!
When it comes to DIY projects, this family has a great philosophy: "We believe in repurposing whatever God gives us. If it can be used for something else, don't throw it out."
And while this DIY dad was looking for his next project, he found inspiration in his very own backyard. Spotting his children's old play set through the living room window, he had a realization: "That's the new chicken coop!"
He immediately got to work on plans to transform the play set into an incredible home for chickens.
He decided that his new coop would have both doors for the chickens and humans, nesting boxes, and a homemade feeder.
He removed the top portion of the play set to form the main structure of the coop. He used wooden posts from his backyard swing set to raise the house up about 18 extra inches.
He writes on Instructables, "I removed the railing and found it made a perfect chicken ladder/ramp to get the girls into the coop."
He installed external nest boxes and a large side door for easy access to the coop.
This DIY-er created three nest boxes in total, making sure that they were water-resistant. He writes, "The coop is airy because of the slatted walls, but my goal was to keep the nest boxes as dry as possible."
For flooring, he laid down thick plywood and covered it with "peel-and-stick vinyl tiles from Home Depot."
He writes that he then added a "3-inch-deep sand floor in the coop so I never have a need to clean the floor bottom."
He even created his own DIY chicken feeder made from large PVC, complete with a meter to tell him when it was time to refill the food.
He writes: "I made a weight to sit on top of the food. The weight would be tied to another object, which would dangle on the outside of the coop. As the chickens eat the feed and the amount of food decreases, the weight goes down, and the object on the outside would then go up, indicating that my girls were running on 'E.'"
With a little bit of hard work and a whole lot of imagination, this DIY dad turned an unused play set into the perfect backyard chicken coop.
For more of his one-of-a-kind projects, visit his blog Eighth Rising.
What do you think of this play set transformation? Would you want a DIY chicken coop in your yard? Let us know in the comments.
Please SHARE this incredible project with DIY fans everywhere!
