We wanted to create a home on wheels for our chickens so we could move them around our property if needed. If you are considering getting chickens, and want to learn the advantages of a mobile coop and how to make one, read on! You’ll be at the top of the pecking order with a functional rustic-style mobile chicken coop!
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When our girls were very little, we decided to get some chickens. We eat A LOT of eggs in our family and it’s very important to us that they be organic, so we thought we might as well try raising some of our own! It was an exciting day when we visited our local Tractor Supply and picked out everything we would need. From picking out our baby chicks, to bringing them home and raising them under a heat lamp in our house– the whole experience is so rewarding and wonderful for kids to learn important lessons like responsibility, an understanding of food, self-sufficiency and hard work!
What Are The Advantages of Having A Mobile Chicken Coop?
There are many advantages of having a mobile chicken coop, especially for beginners. The first and best reason is the improved health and well-being of your chickens, and an easier accessibility to fresh land.
The next most important thing to know is that it will be easier and more convenient for you to clean! When you have an easier-to-maintain coop, it makes managing your chickens much less time-consuming without compromising cleanliness! Cleanliness with chickens is of utmost importance! A mobile coop design has you in mind – making regular upkeep far less stressful.
When a coop is built on wheels, it can be moved quickly and easily from place to place – so that your chickens can find new ground regularly. When your coop isn’t stuck in only one location, it allows for healthy air circulation, keeping away issues like build-up of ammonia- overall creating a much healthier environment for your birds. This is especially important especially if you have a large amount of chickens.
How to Build A Functional Rustic-Style Mobile Chicken Coop – Everything built for easy Clean Up.
In Jesse’s words: For the chicken coop, I found an old 1970’s pop-up trailer that had good wheels, frame and axle on Craigslist. I purchase this for around $200 since it is not usable for camping anymore. I remove most of the guts and the lights and rewire them to bring the chicken coop on the road and to move around the property. Th floor of the pop-up trailer was already linoleum, which is perfect and easy to clean up the bedding and already waterproof. I design and custom-frame the coop with ample airflow and build the door where the camper door is for easy clean out. I make sure to build nesting boxes and ramps, as well as a couple perch arms. The perch arms are hinged to move out of the way to clean.
I use an all-natural finish on the exterior (made of minerals and metal compounds) which ages the wood without being toxic for birds if they peck at it. Two of the divided light windows are reclaimed and give the chickens sunlight in the coop, since sunlight is one of the things that they need to produce eggs. The other windows are intended for airflow. I add half-inch square galvanized mesh to all the windows when they’re open, so no predators can come in. Everything wants to eat your chickens, especially if you’re in a rural area. We’ve even had a mink try to come in! Your structure cannot have ANY little holes whatsoever!
Next to the coop I add a covered run where the birds can dig around and roll in the dirt which they’ll need to do to get the insects off of them. In the covered run is where we give them scraps to eat and vegetation that they turn to compost. I add gutters on the ends of the roof to collect water that lead into a rain barrel which I then use to clean out their waterer so I’m not schlepping water down from the house since we don’t have a well near the coop.
Links to some of our favorite chicken-raising essentials:
Non-GMO Dried Mealworms for Chickens
SAFETY: WASH YOUR HANDS!
It is of utmost importance that you, or anyone else that comes into contact with your chickens – especially children – wash their hands immediately and frequently after handling chickens or collecting their eggs. It’s very important so that you don’t get sick! Human contact with poultry can be a source of Salmonella infections. Salmonella germs can cause mild to severe illness. Even if the chickens appear to be healthy and clean, these germs are shed into their droppings and contaminate their bodies and where the birds live and roam.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT EGGS
It’s interesting to know that if you collect your chicken’s eggs and don’t wash them right away, they can last unrefrigerated on your counter for about 2 weeks if they are collected fresh and still have their protective coating called “bloom”. Bloom protects the egg from bacteria. However, for optimal safety you may want to refrigerate them even if unwashed to prevent spoilage.
One way I’ve learned to test and make sure that the egg is still good, is by filling up a large bowl of cold water and gently putting the egg in it. If the egg floats, no good. If it stays at the bottom of the bowl, safe!
Depending on which types of chickens you have, they can lay a variety of colored eggs. For a comprehensive list of the different types of chickens and their eggs colors, click here!
What will chickens need to survive winter months?
In order to keep your chickens happy throughout the frigid winter months, you will need to provide a few extra things to their coop. They will need their fresh water with a water heater underneath so their water doesn’t freeze, and a heat lamp. Please don’t forget about them if the coop is not right by your house! One of my friends told me that she gives her little flock an oatmeal breakfast on Christmas morning! How adorable is that?!!
I hope this was helpful and I’d love to hear if you try to build anything similar to this! Keeping chickens is fun and rewarding -I hope you’ll give them a try! Let me know about some of your “chicken experiences” in the comments. As always, you can find more Fern Design Inspiration here.
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