Turning the camper into a coop

Okay, we are full speed ahead with this winter project. We are going to start this week on gutting the inside of a 15x7 pull behind camper trailer. This will be my second coop. I am so excited to have a walk in coop. I am already dreaming up how it will look. But honestly until it is gutted I am not making any firm plans of how to lay it out. I do know that we will probably keep the bathroom area walled in and keep that little door on there so we can use it to store things. I am hoping to not spend a lot of money on it and try to re-use things we already have or can get from other people. I will post some pictures soon and keep a thread going of the progress. I am really excited and am hoping to have it all done by next spring so it can be the brooder coop for the new additions.

So any suggestions you might have or any lessons learned from when you built a coop would be greatly appreciated.

good luck with your project!

Well I thought the plan was to work on this slowly over the winter months and have it ready to go next spring. This morning my husband informed me that he wants to get it done ASAP and move our girls into it before winter really gets here. So guess what we are doing today...

We have already gutted out about 80% of it, so we are off to find some vinyl flooring and other materials to get started today.

Can't wait to see what you do with it! I had suggested to a friend with a goat housing problem that a trailer would be the perfect goat house. Hadn't even thought about it as a chicken coop - and now I wonder why it never occurred to me...hmmmm...
Good luck!

We need pictures, this will be a fun challenge. What a great idea.

Okay, here are some pictures that I took today. We have already removed the kitchen, the dinette, the bed and the carpeting. We also removed some cabinets that were part of the kitchen area. Today we put down a new subfloor. We are also going to have to put on new roofing and replace most of the ceiling. It has some water damage. I am going to cover the floor and at least 2 feet up the walls and behind the roosts with the vinyl floor tiles. So tomorrow I am hoping to start painting the interior. I am thinking a light lavender and a sunny yellow. Not that the girls will care, but I want it to be calm and soothing for me.


This is the view from the front of the camper looking towards the back. The kitchen used to be to the left. On the right is a small closet, a space where the fridge used to be, this will become a space for the nesting boxes. We are leaving the closet to use for storage. We are also going to leave the bathroom as it is. It is very small little room with a toilet. We decided it will be a great little broom, shovel, rake closet.



This picture is from the back looking forward. We plan to have roosts with poop boards underneath. A lot of roosts!



This is a closer shot of the area where the nesting boxes will go.

There is already a small door that was used for storage that we are going to use for a pophole door.


A lot of work left to do, but it is doable and we plan to have it done over the next two weekends.

Edited to add that today we spent $95 on the subfloor, flooring and some of the stuff for a new roof. I also want to add that my original thought was that we would work on this slowly over the winter trying to find things from thrift stores, garage sales, CL etc. But since my husband declared he wanted it done before winter sets in...we are going to put some money into it. It will still be cheaper than building one that size from the ground up, especially since the camper was free.

Wow! This is great! What a terrific idea! Make sure you put something up there so they can get up and look out the windows. Mine love to look outside when they are in the house.

brilliant idea! can't wait to see how it turns out.
Does it have those little whirly-gig fans on top that some caravans have? that would be awesome for ventilation!

I think I may have to steal this idea for when I move and make a bigger coop!

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Yes, it does have one of the ceiling fans, however, a previous owner cut into the roof to add in a skylight right next to that fan/vent. Sadly, it was a very poor job and has only lead to years of water damage. It is because of that area that we are having to put in a new ceiling and a new roof. So we decided that we are going to have to cover that whole mess up, and not have that little fan in the ceiling. But it does have 10 large windows and 2 tiny ones that are all screened in and able to be opened to allow ventilation.

So late last night we drove into town and I purchased paint for their interior. I am going to get that done this morning after the son and husband leave for school and work. I have decided that since we already have the Coop de Ville that this little camper will be our Cluckingham Palace. So since all of my girls are princess' and queens the color scheme inside is going to be pinks, yellows and lavenders. I did for a small moment almost change my mind when I saw a wall paper border that roosters on it...I mentioned the "eye candy" wall paper border to my husband and his words to me were "Really, wallpaper border in the chicken coop, can't you just stick with pain?" This was followed up with a comment about how it was my original idea to not sink a bunch of money into it. So pastels it will be...no rooster border for the girls. I will post more pictures after I paint.