In 2012 I spent three months working at a small farm in Ecuador. Because I had carpentry experience, the owners asked me to build a chicken coop (“gallinero”) that would keep out predators but also be well-ventilated.

My solution was to use readily-available eucalyptus “pingos” (long wooden poles) for the main frame and build the siding with inexpensive milled wood. A local man showed me how they do concrete floors with a base of stone and with concrete mixed on-site from sand, cement, and gravel. Roofing is corrugated fiber cement board. Unfortunately I do not have photographs of the front of the coop.

Eucalyptus is not rot resistant, so I elevated the entire structure off the slab with threaded rod, washers, and bolts. Joints were shaped with a chainsaw and bolted together. I set some fencing into the concrete to close off the gap.

This was a fun project. It felt good to use the eucalyptus poles because they were a locally available material that was very fast growing. The method of mixing concrete on site is one that I would like to repeat for other small projects here in the US.