The Mini Cooper (Doghouse into Chicken Coop)

So this weekend I renovated a doghouse I had into the new small temporary coop (dubbed, of course, the “Mini Cooper”) for Audrey and Bianca to use until they can be integrated w/ the Big Girls (after our first attempt at an intro was a huge failure!). It was already stained but probably won’t hold up well outside long-term, so I painted the roof, as well as the new door I installed. I also put in a roosting bar and a removable ramp.

They are so spoiled now that they expect to be fetched and carried inside when it gets dark—so they don’t go into their Cooper but instead stand around the gate screaming for me! <sigh> So I put them in their Cooper and hope that if I do that every night eventually they’ll learn to put themselves to bed! They will . . . right??? I don’t think they’re going in there on their own during the day, so today I left their treats inside the Cooper in the hopes that they would go in and learn that it’s an OK thing to do b/f it rains again!

Clarice (my Big, Mean, Boss Hen) seems to have settled down somewhat—she is no longer patrolling the common fence with blood in her eye. I guess that’s an improvement. It may be a while, though, before I risk a re-introduction!

Cooper w/ door closed:



And with door open and ramp in place:



From side w/ top open for cleaning:



The top is held open by a cable that clips to the fence:



Roosting bar:



And the Cooper inside it's own pen next to the original pen (and hopefully someday SOON to have the door between open and the denizens all interacting!):

Looks awesome! I probably need to try that as my two Brown Leghorns are still roosting in trees...ugh. I hope I can break them of it.

Hey there! What did you use for nesting boxes? This is awesome, by the way. I am totally stealing your idea. We found a dog house for free from one of our family members. I do have another question though. What did you do about the perimeter so that critters can't get in? I am so afraid of putting my babies out there and having a raccoon dig a hole to get to them. It keeps me up at night thinking about it.