Moving our coop.... what did we do wrong.

[sattoritx]

Well guys we moved it, me and my 4 kids...... but the older 2 helped more (12 & 8)
I hope hubbie is happy with the positioning or else he'll have to move it on his own.

We used the slide method which made it pretty darn easy... When we move to our new house sometime this year we will do the BBQ idea and take apart part of our chain link fence to get it out of the backyard.

Thanks for all your wonderful ideas. Chicken lovers are such a great bunch of people.

 

[imthedude]

we built a 4x8 coop with the intention of being able to move it around. it's framed even sturdier than yours. it took 5 of us to move it on saturday morning. i plan to add wheels in the very near future.

 

[sattoritx]

Quote:
Yes wheels would be really nice do you have a particular kind in mind? of course they would have to be fairly big. Is there a type of wheel that would be perfect for a coop?

 

[imthedude]

Quote:
Yes wheels would be really nice do you have a particular kind in mind? of course they would have to be fairly big. Is there a type of wheel that would be perfect for a coop?

i found some good-sized (like 6" diameter) solid rubber casters at a local resale store last weekend. they swiveled, which was good, but i couldn't mount them because they had a funky mounting apparatus. i'd like to fabricate some kind of axle that would attach to the legs but still allow the wheels to swivel. something like those big casters is what i'm after.

 

[Dogfish]

My solution for you it to buy a pair of wheelbarrow wheels at Harbor Freight, Northern Tool, or similar store. Take off the bottom 2x4 off of one of the short ends, where the 4x4's touch the ground.

Take the wheels into Home Depot or Lowes and find steel bar stock of the correct length so that you can drill a hole through both 4x4's on the end you altered and make an axle. Looks like a 5' piece should do. Get 6 large fender/flat washers of the same inner diameter.

Jack up the altered end, put it on blocks. Drill your axle holes in the 4x4 post down low enough that with the end jacked up the wheelbarrow wheels are just off the ground. Fit the axle so you have 2" outside of the 4x4's on either end. Drill a hole thrugh the steel bar 1" from both ends that is just larger than a heeded nail. You'll need 6 nails total.

Thread the axle through one side (4x4), place a fender washer on the outside and place a nail in the hole you drilled, bend the nail in a circle. This keeps the end washer on place. Thread on in this order in between the two 4x4 posts, washer, wheel, washer, washer, wheel, washer, and thread the axle through the other hole in the other 4x4. Add the other end washer and bend the nail in a circle. Your axle is now captive.

Drill a hole in the steel bar 2" from the inboard side of each 4x4 post. Put a nail in the hole and bend in a circle, slide over the washer, the wheel, and one of the two center washers. Drill a hole 1/2" from the inner washer, place a nail in the hole and bend it. One wheel secure in place. Repeat on the other side. Two wheels secured. That 2x4 you removed in step 1, attach it as bracing between the two 4x4's a few inches above the top of the wheel.

Get 2 10' 2x6's, and attach to the sided pointing to the other end of the coop. 5' attached, and 5' as levers. Use at least 10 3" screws per side. More is better.

Insert a jack, raise the end, remove the blocks, lower the jack, grab the lever, move the coop. You may want to support the axle inboard of each wheel about 2" so the axle doesn't bend too much.

Just an idea I was contemplating should I need to move my coop.

 

[sattoritx]

WOW very in depth contemplation, thanks for sharing. Now I know why people build them on trailers, that and it helps get around needing a permit to build.
Hubbie had the great idea tonight to just sell it for more than we made it for to fund another coop. Figure the $200 we sank into it could be sold for double maybe triple for a coop this size.
There are some things he would like to change about the construction, our roof beams for one need to be a little closer the corrugated roof almost didnt overlap on the beam to be screwed down. The plus side is that when we move, the next one will be permanent.

 

[imthedude]

good idea on the axle. you might try all-thread rod with some lock washers and nuts and avoid all the nails, hole drilling, etc. just a thought. harbor freight does have some good prices on wheels, btw.

 

[DallasChickyMomma]

Quote:
When I was moving ours, I grabbed a piece of the siding and put it smooth bottom down and used that to slide it across the yard. It still took 2 adults and one 13 year old boy to move it. Luckily for us, we didn't have to move it TOO far.

 

[whattheheck]

If you only need to move it ocassionaly get a few pieces of pipe, pvc will work. Lift one end and place the pipe under the coop. Push the coop and add another piece under the front. As it rolls remove the pipe at the rear and add it to the front. We moved a 12x24 building about 100 yards and turned it using a few pieces of 4" pvc pipe and a small tractor to do the pushing.

 

[elmo]

Simple! What you've just built is a nice, stationary coop. Add a secure run to that and you've got your Fort Knox. Build another, light weight pen for daytime use. Eh, voila!

When I was building our closed coop, I started working on it in our garage. As I built it, I realized it was going to be too big to go where I was planning to put it, right next to our back door. So I decided I really wanted to put it in our back yard. Uh oh. Our back yard is fenced, and the gate to the back yard is only 36 inches wide. The coop was 48 inches wide.

Hmmm. We found one panel of our fence that could easily be unbolted and removed. Great! But then we realized that there was a big utility post right behind that panel. We measured it. Just barely 48 inches and only if we tilted the coop. So my husband and I picked up this heavy thing and squeezed it through the opening, barely.

Moral of story: think ahead.