Slowly but surely, it's getting there...

Thought I'd share the progress thus far of my trailer to coop conversion.

Picked this up for a song off of Craigslist (though, at this point, Hubby thinks the guy should've paid me to haul it off). Before:





Removed the front board (new board has been tacked up, however need to cut the opening for the window that will be going here):



New wood on the sides added:



Hubby has done a great job on the doors at the back. Each door will have a large window cut out and the top board will have vents cut out. Excuse the mess (we're storing a lot of the supplies we're using in the trailer). Hope to have the windows cut out and trimmed by weekend's end, however, it's been hotter than the hinges of Hades here and we're old folk that move pretty slow on a good day









Still have much to do but progress is good, right?

You are doing a GREAT JOB of re purposing items. I have suggested on other threads,, of peeps trying to get a coop on a budget to do same as you. I suggested a travel camper which is a little larger than what you have here. Best is to do with what you have...
Keep us posted wit pix on your progress.

Cool Beans!!
Does it roll?
What are you going to do for ventilation?

It rolls. There will be 1 large window cut-out on each door; vent cut-outs above the doors and the front will pretty much be one big opening.

Got the window holes cut out; also added some trim:





The auto chicken door will eventually go on this side:

Looking really good! This will make a really cool coop. Any thoughts on the wheels? I am assuming once a log of weight starts getting placed on them, they may not hold air for too long (plus dry-rot, etc)

Looking great so far!!

Was sidelined with a virus for much of the weekend but, I was able to do a little more work on "Cluck Wagon." Got all the windows trimmed out (the front window was a real bear). Also did a little more work on the inside bringing me ever closer to the "fun" parts of this project (the sanding, the caulking, the painting, etc.) Didn't realize until they were up that I had purchased 2 different style vents; one will be exchanged so I have a matching set.

Eggsoteric said:

Was sidelined with a virus for much of the weekend but, I was able to do a little more work on "Cluck Wagon." Got all the windows trimmed out (the front window was a real bear). Also did a little more work on the inside bringing me ever closer to the "fun" parts of this project (the sanding, the caulking, the painting, etc.)

Didn't realize until they were up that I had purchased 2 different style vents; one will be exchanged so I have a matching set.

Click to expand...

Get a third....do you have these on the other end too?
You'll want lots of ventilation in winter too, when the windows are closed.

Bit by bit:

Chicken pop door cut out:



Installed the "floating roosts." Roosts up for cleaning:



Roosts down:



The ramp on this trailer is very heavy and, even though (for the most part) it'll stay in the down position, when we go to move it, it'll have to come up. We kicked around possibly removing half of the ramp but decided against it as it does add some rigidity when the trailer is in motion. So, as a solution, we added a hand winch which hubby rigged so that we can hook up a drill to raise and lower as needed:



Next weekend I'll spend my time on getting the inside finished up, putting the mats in, caulking, painting and the nesting boxes and feed bin hung. I can then concentrate on all the sanding, caulking, priming and painting the outside. I can now see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and, it's looking not to be a train!

Oh, I almost forgot. In other chicken-related news, the pullets from the flock that will eventually be going into this tractor have started laying. They're mostly buckeyes with a few partridge rocks and easter eggers thrown in. Well, as it turns out, one of my easter eggers is an olive egger! Never been so excited to see that green egg.