Idaho Man Builds UFO Chicken Coop In His Backyard
on Jun 08, 2022
Back in October 2017, a man from Idaho shared an incredible video on YouTube showcasing a chicken coop that he build with his own hands and it looked just like a UFO flying saucer landed in his backyard.
What makes the video even cooler…is he put a link to his website, Backyard Chickens, where he has the instructions on how he built it.
“When we expanded our flock this Summer, we knew a larger coop would be necessary. As an artistic couple, I knew it couldn’t be just any coop….. and as UFO nerds, we had the perfect plan!” the man wrote on Backyard Chickens website.
The pet owner said he very quickly thought of a process to make a classic UFO shape for his chicken and got to work. The first decision was to use an old satellite dish for the foundation of the build and so he went and found two 10-foot dishes on Craigslist to start the project.
“We knew it would need to be completed in time for a harsh Idaho winter,” he wrote. “When we got them home and stacked, the shape was very inspiring…. planning began immediately!”
Once they had the perfect skeleton laid out to work with, they drew up some plans for waterproofing, windows, and ventilation, flooring, cleaning, and egg-accessing.
They ended up cutting holes for the windows and screwed in 6″ acrylic surveillance camera covers they found on eBay and said it worked perfectly.
“With the 10 foot diameter of the satellite dishes, we settled on dropping the floor down and cut an 8 foot circular floor. We covered this floor with counter-top laminate fo easy cleaning. This floor has handles to lift out easily,” the man wrote on Backyard Chickens website.
The next thing they worked on was insulation and they purchased 1″ Styrofoam insulation and cut each piece to fit in nice and snug. The insulation had just enough “give” to bend to the shape of the satellite dish into the perfect form.
“We made a huge mess in the yard….. but once the insulation was complete, the UFO really started feeling like a coop. The door was framed out and a hatch was built in the back. The hatch provides easy access to hen boxes, food and also cleaning as well as generating a nice draft for air flow,” he wrote.
