My last attempt at integrating new birds into my flock did not go well. This time I have a temporary enclosure for the new birds within sight vision of the main enclosure.

The design goals were:
Use up as much scrap material in the junk pile.
Easy to disassemble for storage when not in use.

I went with 4' x 4' x 3'. 4x4 would allow me to use a half sheet of plywood for the top. This is the largest size that will fit in my car. 3' height to use 36" wide hardware cloth.

Initial design sketches:
quar_coop_Iso_plan.jpg

quar_coop_plan.jpg


I framed using 2 x 3 pine studs.

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For siding I used a combo of some redwood planks and plastic lawn edging strip that I had in the junk pile.

The lid is a half sheet of 1/4" plywood on a 2x3 frame.

quar_coop.jpg


There are 8 lug bolts that hold the whole thing together. It disassembles into 4 side panels, lid, and roost crossbar.

I live in a fairly temperate climate, so this semi-open enclosure is fine for spring, summer, & fall. In a pinch it will be ok for full grown birds in winter.

All access is through the top. With a healthy local hawk population, my birds are not free range. I'll be testing this out with 3 young pullets next month. At 16 square feet, it will be a bit crowded, but fine until I'm ready to put the younger pullets in with the main flock.

Update after getting some use out of this enclosure.
I put 3 5.5 week old chicks in here, and they seemed lost having so much room. I bought them from someone who was using an Omlet Eggloo with extended run for a lot of babies, so they were used to a more compact arrangement. I put in a box which gave them a tight corner for the 3 of them to snuggle together. They didn't climb up on the roost bar for a couple of weeks.
At 6 weeks:
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My only complaint is that it was a little too tall for me to easily reach inside from the top.

At 9 weeks:
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The chicks are now 9.5 weeks old and today I did a swap-out. These 3 youngsters went into the main coop, and one of my older birds went into the quarantine. She started to get lethargic a couple of days ago, and I want to keep her separated.

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