Ham-N-Eggs, my goofy coop

[Tina D]

LOVE it!

 

[storeman]

Thought I seen it all. What. A lot of thought and work. Great job
.

 

[Wise Woman]

This is really a clever coop. I wanted my husband to make me a gypsy wagon coop and he said NO!. He is just no fun. Your wife is a lucky lady to have you build her something so different and unique.

 

[gertiie]

I am in awe ! Very creative, I am jealous . Cant wait to see pics of the hens in there ! Keep us posted !

 

[elmo]

Very creative, and wonderful craftsmanship!

But there are some serious practical design problems for you to consider. First of all, chicken wire is pretty much useless for keeping out predators. It will keep out hawks, but not much else. Welded wire is stronger and works much better.

Wire on the floor is hard on a chicken's feet. Scratches and abrasions can become infected and turn into bumblefoot. And a full grown chicken's poo is pretty large and doesn't really fall through openings in wire that well. What you end up with is a lot of poo crusted on a wire floor. There's also the problem of "reach through" predation, where a predator like a raccoon grabs through the openings in wire and pulls a chicken through bit by bit. Finally, a wire bottom floor poses the potential for chickens to have their toes and feet bitten off by a predator underneath.

In order to work best, a coop's ventilation should be up high. In the summer, you want the coop to stay as cool as possible, because chickens really can't handle heat very well (it's all that down insulation they come with). Without high vents, heat will build up inside your coop. In the winter, you still want high vents, too, because that lets the air with the most moisture in it (the warmer air) exit, and humid air is what contributes to frostbite.

You have some pretty quick and easy fixes for these problems. Switch to a solid floor, and add some awning style vents up at the top of your coop and you'll be good to go.

 

[jcf3202]

All I can say is Wow!

 

[CupOJoe42]

Very Clever! I would have painted it as a giant pink flying pig. That's what it reminded me of.

 

[cuntryuppiechick]

We're tear jerkers. We are on our second home made camper. The current is a mock Shasta. We named it the Flying Toaster because of the shape and my dh is a geekster. It references the old toaster screen savers at the advent of home computers. The first rotted off enough that we pulled the body off the trailer. It may become a modified coop!

 

[Flyingham]

I am currently adding more ventilation! Picked up some hardware screen today. I am going to cut out the side "painted on" windows to make this thing like a piece of swiss cheese. Will post some pics tomorrow.

 

[BlueBetween]

Quote:
Are you going to add a cool "canopy" over the "windows"? You can have too much fun with this thing!