Portable chick coop

[Pollito Pelon]

Planning on selling young chicks locally

I want to build chicken cage or coop that is portable and can hold about 50 chicks about 3 week old to 6 weeks old

Has anybody done something similar?

 

[JedJackson]

At those ages you will need an indoor brooder with a heat source.

 

[Pollito Pelon]

Fixed statement

 

[3KillerBs]

Welcome to BYC.

Since chicks of 6 weeks old will need about 1 square feet each in their brooder it is likely to be difficult -- though not impossible -- to make it portable while not making it too heavy to move.

The most likely way to get wheels under it would probably be to build the brooder on a trailer, which would need to be fair-sized and would have to be moved by towing it with a vehicle. Our small, 2-wheeled trailer is 5x8 but you'd need something more like 5x10 or 6x8.

If I were trying to raise that many chicks at once I'd want to build a good-sized shed that could readily be divided into separate pens rather than try to put them all together in one space.

This is my Outdoor Brooder -- which is 4x8 and thus suited to bringing up to 32 chicks up to the age you're talking about. I'm hoping to put wheels on it to use it as a tractor but I know from doing research on tractors that it's pushing the size and weight for easy movement.

Is there a particular reason you want your brooder to be portable? How would you handle the need for power to run multiple heat lamps simultaneously while still allowing it to move?

 

[Pollito Pelon]

My chickens all free range so these guys would also be free ranging but when I sell them or transport them I would put them all together for short periods of time.

Currently where I live is pretty warm and sunny and I've raised a batch of chicks without any heat lamps successfully and going for a second batch right now and they are doing fine.

I have a brooder to warm chicks 1-3 weeks or until they do not need the brooder anymore.

I will be probably looking for some wheels. Saw a man in town with a modified hot dog stand and wire and he was selling about 40, one month old chicks.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Norther Tool has a folding, 4x8, aluminum trailer kit. It will run you about $800, and take a day to assemble. Aluminum doesn't rust, its suitable for leaving outdoors. It also weighs a fair bit less than steel.

Now, the folding hinge design is pretty crappy. You are NEVER going to want to fold it up. Also, it has no bed - so first thing you are going to do is throw away half the bolts, replace them with beefier bolts and nuts with nylon inserts, plus drop the cash on a piece of 1/2" or 3/4" exterior grade plywood. Not the grade 2 stuff. Drill that, set your bolts thru it and into the frame. Now the frame is straight, true, and stiff.

It has stake pockets on the sides, that's how you will frame out the rest of your build. Also, the ground wires for the trailer lights are pretty crappy - aluminum doesn't carry current well, once it begins to oxidize. Consider running a ground wire from the trailer harness, rather than grounding from the frame. Finally, the trailer light brackets themselves are crap - you will get a season out of them, maybe two. A $20 investment in better light brackets is in the future.

Its light enough I can move it empty, one-handed, at 50 years of age up and down "hills". Even with a bunch of 2x4 framing and 4' wire sides, I can move it one handed with a little effort up and down hills, and I'm not particularly strong. Finished weight on mine is probably in the 300# range, it was 200# shipped.

Drag it next to the house, run an extension cord to your heat source for brooding, and you are done. Clean it out with a push broom. Oh 1 3/4" trailer ball. Having something heavy to attach it to when not in use is a WISE plan.

They have a non folding, 5x8 design too. Only a little more expensive. You will, of course, need more lumber for the floor, and it weighs a bit more (plus the extra lumber). Looking back, because I use mine to haul small lots of construction materials, that's the one I should have bought - but I tow mine with a Buick sedan - not much tow capacity, weight was a premium consideration.

 

[3KillerBs]

Norther Tool has a folding, 4x8, aluminum trailer kit. It will run you about $800, and take a day to assemble. Aluminum doesn't rust, its suitable for leaving outdoors. It also weighs a fair bit less than steel.

Now, the folding hinge design is pretty crappy. You are NEVER going to want to fold it up. Also, it has no bed - so first thing you are going to do is throw away half the bolts, replace them with beefier bolts and nuts with nylon inserts, plus drop the cash on a piece of 1/2" or 3/4" exterior grade plywood. Not the grade 2 stuff. Drill that, set your bolts thru it and into the frame. Now the frame is straight, true, and stiff.

It has stake pockets on the sides, that's how you will frame out the rest of your build. Also, the ground wires for the trailer lights are pretty crappy - aluminum doesn't carry current well, once it begins to oxidize. Consider running a ground wire from the trailer harness, rather than grounding from the frame. Finally, the trailer light brackets themselves are crap - you will get a season out of them, maybe two. A $20 investment in better light brackets is in the future.

Its light enough I can move it empty, one-handed, at 50 years of age up and down "hills". Even with a bunch of 2x4 framing and 4' wire sides, I can move it one handed with a little effort up and down hills, and I'm not particularly strong. Finished weight on mine is probably in the 300# range, it was 200# shipped.

Drag it next to the house, run an extension cord to your heat source for brooding, and you are done. Clean it out with a push broom. Oh 1 3/4" trailer ball. Having something heavy to attach it to when not in use is a WISE plan.

They have a non folding, 5x8 design too. Only a little more expensive. You will, of course, need more lumber for the floor, and it weighs a bit more (plus the extra lumber). Looking back, because I use mine to haul small lots of construction materials, that's the one I should have bought - but I tow mine with a Buick sedan - not much tow capacity, weight was a premium consideration.

That's fabulous information.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

That's fabulous information.

Its been a good little trailer to me. I shouldn't complain, but every time I dent the edge of a piece of drywall, or chip a 4x8 sheet of something when it strikes the hinge in the middle edge of the trailer, of course I still do.

 

[aart]

Norther Tool has a folding, 4x8, aluminum trailer kit

Link?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Link?

Sorry, lazy of me.

This is what I bought and modified. I paid $650 for mine, Christmas before last.

This is what I should have bought.

and this is a picture of the flimsy tail light holder/protector - as you can see, its even bent in the advertisement. That's not the first point of failure though. That thin back bar in the back of the taillight protector? Your tail light is bolted to it. Its "spot welded" on either side, and if you know anything about welding, you know welding aluminum is a B!+c#. So you've got this tail light, attached to a wafer thin piece of aluminum, with holes in it, spot welded to either side of an aluminum box that bends like a soda can, bouncing down the road... OF COURSE THE WELD IS GOING TO CRACK. Duh! Oh, and you hang the license plate off it, too...

and this is the problematic folding hinge design. The back of the bolt gets closer than I'm comfortable with to the tire sidewall, the front of the bolt and associated nut intrude into your 4' width (and its JUST 4'), making this a huge problem for 4x8 sheets of anything, and the way its secured to keep it from folding in use involves another bolt - between the tire and frame - that is very inconvenient to access.