First off
You can find anything you need to know here!
I bought our plans from :
http://www.mobilechickens.com/top.asp
and we built it ourselves. It wasn't easy but it wasn't that hard either. I helps that my husband is very handy and has lots of tools.
Take a look at the design. I works vvery well for grown chickens. Little chicks can walk right out. I specifies 1x1 inch welded wire - use that instead of anything else - it will keep raccon hands at bay. Do lock those doors too.
We also have bumpy ground which allowed the possibility of critters getting in underneath it. We remedied this problem by screwing boards on th the outside, just thin 1/4" garbage wood. This sealed it up for us for te summer and fall. I moved it 2 times a day. The entire unit is about 100 lbs. I have broken shoulders and I could stil move it easily with rarely any help needed ( just when I hit a rut)
For the winter, I knew I didn't want to be hauling water out there through the winter and free ranging through the winter was a no no because of the vast amounts of coyote we have.
So I took that coop, put it besides the house inbetween the garage doors in a sunny spot. I bought a very large heavy weight tarp and put the tarp under it, wrapping it up the walls and tying the tarp the to coop. No digging under - good! The water dish is heated 3 gallon so I only had to do it 1 time every 2 days. The food was 2 times per day - but that's not heavy and the chickens enjoyed my company in the cold. I did not heat the coop. I belive it made them feather out more and made healthier birds. I did put tarps on the windward side to block the wind. I was comfy in there for me while wearing a jacket and they have better coats than I do. We had a blizzard, with warning come through late winter - early spring. We went out and tarped the other side and boarded up the front for that weather. The birds were fine but they didn't care for the lack of sunshine.
All through the winter, i had hay and straw down in the outside part of the coop. The hay (grass alphalfa mix) worked better. I would clean out the coop every 2 weeks, when weather permitted, and regularly throw more hay down so they never were wlaking with cold wet or soild feet. The inside of the coop was bedded in shredded newspaper, changed often. I did not add newspaper to the coop, just changed it. The newspaper was finely shredded through an office shredder. Both areas had at least 5 " of bedding at any one time.
This summer, I purchased electric net fencing. The birds are happily running arounnd their 1+ acre enclosure, with their coop in there, moving every few days now. The coyotes have tried the fence and decided they don't like it at all. Ha ha .
I over wintered 27 standard sized chickens in that coop. There was enough roosting for everyone ( we had added more than the design) and there was enogh heat generated by them to keep them cozy. I have cold tolerant birds with small peacombs. This I am sure helped me have such a successful winter with them.
