Turning a wedding dress into a chicken coop (Tacoma, Washington)

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Brandi emailed me photos of her Tacoma, Washington chicken coop and I love her story – she sold her wedding dress and bought a chicken coop on Craigslist that they ended up remodeling to work for them! Way to be resourceful, Brandi!

Here’s Brandi’s chicken coop story:

We got married in July 2012 and I was able to sell my wedding dress on Craigslist for $200. I then found a coop on Craigslist for $150. We went out to Puyallup (WA) to pick it up from a very nice man who is apparently a contractor. This was a great deal for us because this coop has a fifty year roof thanks to his handy work! It is SUPER heavy and six adults to unload in our yard! The great thing about Craigslist is that, like my story, you can kind of trade something of yours for something else you need. In this case I traded a wedding dress for a chicken coop!

We bought three chicks in September 2012 from Gardensphere (Tacoma nursery) – we bought an Americauna (Gertrude), a Rhode Island Red (Margene) and a Barred Rock (Adelaide). We kept them inside in a fish tank with a heating light for at least the first 8 weeks or so.

Since we live within the Tacoma city limits and have two dogs, we wanted our coop to be enclosed – so that meant a coop remodel from the original coop obtained off of Craigslist. We added a run so our girls would have a little more space. We used gift cards that had generously been gifted to us as wedding presents to pay for the materials we needed (mostly treated lumber – you want treated if it will be sitting directly on the ground so it won’t rot out too quickly. Unfortunately treated lumber is MUCH more pricey).

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We dug down six inches and out six inches and put in mesh wiring to keep out predators. Luckily my husband’s mom had some extra wire hanging around so we didn’t have to purchase that (would have been the most expensive part of the project). We heard that this mesh wire is better than chicken wire. We weren’t taking any risks.We made a roosting pole out of an old tree branch that came from a tree we cut down out of our own yard. We attached closet dowel rod holders inside the coop to hold up the roosting pole. We still need to add a nesting box, which can either be inside of the preexisting structure or an add-on.

While it would have been nice to build our own so that we could have all the amenities we wanted, it was the right decision to find one on Craigslist and to salvage materials we already had. My advice to future coop builders would be to check your local library for books that include blueprints: I know for a fact that the Tacoma Public Library has “Building Chicken Coops for Dummies” and other great chicken books. Also, check around with friends and family to see what materials or skills they might be willing to donate. While our coop technically ended up costing us nothing out of pocket due to wedding gifts and Craigslist, it should have easily cost $300 with all of the materials used.

Great job Brandi! That is a fantastic story of being resourceful. I love that you took your wedding dress and turned it into a chicken coop that you’ll enjoy for years to come. We also dug deep into the ground to bury the mesh wire we used to make it predator proof – so far we haven’t had any issues and we used pre-treated wood.

I’d love it if you’d follow my chicken coop board over on Pinterest! I hope to add a bunch more photos and resources to it this year.

Chicken Coop board on Pinterest

Do you have a chicken coop? If so, send me a photo! If I feature your coop you’ll get a $10 Amazon.com gift card! Here are all the details for sending in your coop.

See last week’s chicken coop – a Colorful Predator-Proof Chicken Coop in Olympia, Washington

Chicken resources: