2@1@ make a coop out of anything thread competion.

I guess mine is a little different from most you would see, it's made out of angle iron and expanded metal, and a little plywood. My husband made it at work. I use it for chicks during the day, and nothing has gotten in there yet. Plus it's a little heavy, but I can drag it around the yard when I need to. I love it.

ETA: the bulk of it was cut off a utility trailer.
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First attempt, Occasional escapees... hence the horseblanket blocker... no shade ( hence the tarp) used 8 boards and a 1/2 roll of poultry netting. really difficult enterance.


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Attempt 2, Better ground woodwork, no escapees, small perch, shade both am and pm and better entry. 6 smaller, lighter boards and 1/4 roll of netting of two different sizes.


we have two more built, each slightly different and I'll add pics tomorrow.
 
Here's mine - it's still needs some work before the chickens go in and I will get finalized pics up in a month or two. We summer at a fly-in fishing resort and decided to build a coop out of the midsection of an old cedar strip boat ....

first off - this isn't the exact boat we cut the section out of, but it is the same model

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and here is the mid section after sanding and varnishing

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and this is after an old, wooden framed, window was put in one end

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and now putting it on it's posts at the edge of the garden

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and a better view on the posts

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view of garden area and coop at rear

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we still have to enclose underneath the coop yet. I think I will actually turn it into a wooden enclosure. We then will build a run of some sort though I am hoping to mainly free range the chickens. The entire coop lifts via two huge hinges on the one side and then can be propped up for easy cleaning. I think for a first time job it will work out just fine. We did the building during summer of 2009 in preparation for chicks in May 2010. The roof does need a little bit of water proofing yet prior to moving the chicks in.

I'm a new chicken owner, just received my chicks on Tuesday and though I am in my city home right now, can't wait to transport all the chickies to their cool summer home in the remote Canadian wilderness
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Can't wait to come back to post pics of the chickens in this coop ....
 
Mine started out as a 4x8 utility trailer that the wood sides had rotted off on. I framed in a coop on the trailer bed. Built nestboxes, roost, insulated and put a steel roof on it.


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Here it is framed in.

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Finished product. Can actually be towed down the road. I towed it over to neighbor's about a mile away to show him. You can see one end vent, hinged window behind my shoulder and in the door roost bar with droppings board.


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Here is the shot of my hens checking out the nestboxes that I had just uncovered, so they could start using them. They love the coop and lay like champs. We get cold weather in Michigan, and the coop has 2 inch thick insulation, with lots of vents up high and a good roof. It worked well. Also I hitched on to it this spring and moved it to another spot. Built a run that can also be moved.

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I've enjoyed seeing everyone's creativity--trailers, toppers & boats! So ok,I'll play! We already have 3 storage buildings (1 for garden stuff, 1 for boat stuff & 1 for lawnmower type stuff), a garden, a playscape & an area for my husband's BBQ pit so there wasn't room for a coop in our backyard. Or wasn't there?!?! My daughter no longer uses the sandbox portion of her playscape but she still enjoys the swings & the slide. So when we talked about getting chickens for eggs she agreed to give up the sandbox to the chickens. I wish we could have had the playhouse area (leads to the slide) and it would have been a much easier build & bigger coop....but we can always build up later!

Here's a "before" picture:
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Here's a "during" picture as we took off the sides of the playhouse area in order to build a coop roof & floor:
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Here's our helper staining the walls:
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Here's the "after" and how it looks completed:
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Here's the external nestboxes & our girls in the run:
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Here's the run/pop door/people door side:
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Here's a look at the inside with the movable poop board/roost:
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Here's the run made from a dog kennel & covered with hardware cloth (has apron about 2 feet out under gravel):
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We're glad it's done & the girls enjoy their coop/run. We let them out for an hour or so each day in the backyard &
they have a ball eating grass, bugs & worms. For now we're waiting til mid-June for eggs!
 

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