Custom Pallet Chicken Coop for Novella Carpenter is Open for Occupancy

The predicted rains this week held off so yesterday Matt and I put the finishing touches on Novella Carpenter's custom Pallet Chicken Coop at Ghost Town Farm. Made almost entirely out of de-constructed shipping pallets and found materials, this hen house is a fine addition to Novella's impressive urban oasis.

Note the handsome chalkboard for tallying egg production, which doubles as a giant door to clean out the roosting area. The space underneath the cantilever is for dry storage for food, straw, etc. The big door we found at a scrap yard--we stripped the paint to expose beautiful old redwood!

With only a few hours left on the job, Novella really stepped up the snack service to an obscene level: housemade rabbit pate, delectable creamy cheese drizzled with honey, warm crusty bread, almonds, pickled green beans & radishes, and dried mangos and pineapple rings. Matt and I love snacks!

She lives well, that Novella, and hopefully her chickens will live well too in their new custom hen house. On to the next one!

A Radical Chicken Coop for Ghost Town Farm

We here at Just Fine Design/Build have been busy preparing a new chicken coop for Novella Carpenter's Ghost Town Farm in West Oakland. We scrounged a bunch of tired shipping pallets, de-constructed them, planed the slats to a nice sheen, and are now using the bones to construct a massive (8' x 12') chicken palace.

Here's the coop in her infancy. The cantilevered section on the right will house the chickens' sleeping and laying quarters. An egg door will feature a chalkboard-painted surface so Novella can easily keep track of her hens' production.

In the spirit of Novella, we are scavenging what lumber and materials we can. We still need a bunch of rubble and some old corrugated metal roofing material. Anybody out there demolishing a foundation or tearing down a barn?

Novella heard through the JustFineVine how much we love snacks, so she has been keeping us well fed with rabbit sausage, goat milk and yogurt, and greens from her spacious garden. Come to Novella's Open House (Open Farm?) on February 27th, 11am-2pm, where you can try some of these delicious snacks for yourself and gaze upon our new coop (may be only partially finished if this rain doesn't let up!)

In other news, Just Fine Design/Build is taking the Twitter challenge, become our friend or buddy or whatever @JustFineDesign

Modern Log Cabin Chicken Coop Now For Sale at BioFuel Oasis, Berkeley CA

Hello faithful readers! Please stop by to see our friends at the BioFuel Oasis in Berkeley. Along with their usual selection of bio-diesel, chicken feeds, bee-keeping supplies, and canning supplies, they are now featuring our latest chicken coop design, the Modern Log Cabin.

We hope to sell other chicken coop designs at the Oasis in the coming months. Word has it they will also be selling local newborn chicks in the Spring! We are lucky to have such a fine worker-owned business here in the Bay Area. Check out their over-flowing class schedule (bee-keeping, cheese-making, goats, fruit trees, gardening....)

Matt and I are embarking on our next coop, which we are building for Novella Carpenter's Ghost Town Farm in West Oakland. We are tossing around some design ideas but we know it will be a giant coop and we are trying to elegantly build the structure from used shipping pallets. Stay tuned..