The ultimate portable coop... with the right help?

[Killlakilljoys]

Howdy folks! I have a but of a unique (or maybe not) problem... I need the sectional couch of chicken coops- and i have no idea how to do it! For some context, i live in central Indiana so its godda be wind proof! its godda be cold proof! its godda be... portable? yeah it does.
my main deal is that while i know im gonna live where i do for a couple years or more, i cant stand the thought of spending my waitress wage dollars on something i cant either put in a storage shed or park in a storage spot... and it needs to house two flocks.
before you get all animal justice on me, i DO have friends and family who could take said chickens off my hands in the event of a move.. or i could sell em at auction. ill be having Ayam Cemali's after all. Im just against leaving behind my labor of feather love!
that being said... is there such thing as a modular coop, and if so, what is the best way i can do such a thing? i was thinking screwing separate pieces together to form a whole, and able to pack the walls and fencing down flat-ish (similar to a pre-fab). then it just comes down to the roof, if i dont use a flat garden bed type one! maybe stack the bachelor pad over the hen house? who knows... definitely not me right now.

 

[paintedChix]

gotta say it!

CP hoop houses! Built as tractors or semi-permanent. Easy to take down and move with you - I've moved built tractors and I've taken them apart to move in sections. Can use tarps, green house panels or other roofing. You can winterize it. They do stand up to lots of wind. 2 CP make a coop about 8x8' that you can stand up in. You can add hooped panels covered in wire for a run. I've found that in emergency weather situations, as many as 20 have been shoved in that size BUT really only works well with less than 10 when have to be locked into coop alone for more than a few days - simply not enough room.

Lots of designs here on BYC.

Heres' several styles I've done (some are sheds for storage, not the chickens but could be used for the chickens, too).

Temp quarters for the ponies while moving - lease pasture & put up our fencing panels/gates, built this shed to store buckets, feed & small squares. Most paddocks got round bales for the number of ponies we had here from Oct 2014 - Jan 2015.




Next 2 sets show "temporary sheds" built to house feed/hay and halters/leads for the ponies. The mini in pic below is a boarder. These are simply tied together with haystring. Built in 2015 - still tied and holding with haystring!! Plan to make it bigger than it is currently & Also picking it up off ground onto cement blocks for footers.



This one is bigger than one above. Same purpose. Panels on left side came loose during the hurricane Florence in Sept 2018. Have yet to fully secure it, but the wind doens't bother it, so... a project that will be done eventually. When do that, it will be expanded to 16wx12d size from the 12wx8d size it currently is. Also planned on picking it up off ground onto cement blocks for footers.



How the 3 tractors look - all built in fall 2014 & moved down the road a total of 30 miles in 2 separate trips/time frames. They are now in place and will not be moved again. The wood bases are now rotting out - though they were built out of pressure treated lumber. The chicken wire has rusted and the chickens and ponies have dealt it all harsh blows. Will have to fence the coops off from the ponies and will also have to replace all chicken wire with HC or combo of 2x4" wire and HC.



These 2 are only 4x8 - 1 CP. The one sitting directly on the ground will be raised up to allow for DLM. I totally forgot and had put it all together and had chickens in it and was like ... scratching my head..."what happened, why doesn't it look right?"... LOL


These are permanent as well. When done - there will be 4 of them almost back to back with the squared pens behind this. Leaving the wood posts in the ground that had a grape trellis on it threw the dimensions off some. Oh well. I didn't want to dig them out. I used the cut off portions to build bases of next coops. My next one will be built with old tires as the base. They will be filled with the compost from pens #2 & #3. Hoping to figure out how to saw the tires in 1/2 so can use them for the front as well - where the gate will be. Hoping to use NO WOOD at all - we'll see if it works.





** edited to add - I am a 50's something woman and have put most of these together by myself! If I can do it, so can anyone else.

 

[Killlakilljoys]

Hey there interesting dilemma how many birds in each coop assuming the numbers are reasonable

Hey! I'm srarting with 12 fertile eggs so lets assume after some breeding, no more than 12 to a coop. that on its own is a lot for me, and accounts for somehow hatching all of them... And to one gender!

 

[Cryss]

gotta say it!

CP hoop houses! Built as tractors or semi-permanent. Easy to take down and move with you - I've moved built tractors and I've taken them apart to move in sections. Can use tarps, green house panels or other roofing. You can winterize it. They do stand up to lots of wind. 2 CP make a coop about 8x8' that you can stand up in. You can add hooped panels covered in wire for a run. I've found that in emergency weather situations, as many as 20 have been shoved in that size BUT really only works well with less than 10 when have to be locked into coop alone for more than a few days - simply not enough room.

Lots of designs here on BYC.

Heres' several styles I've done (some are sheds for storage, not the chickens but could be used for the chickens, too).

Temp quarters for the ponies while moving - lease pasture & put up our fencing panels/gates, built this shed to store buckets, feed & small squares. Most paddocks got round bales for the number of ponies we had here from Oct 2014 - Jan 2015.


View attachment 1686422 View attachment 1686427

Next 2 sets show "temporary sheds" built to house feed/hay and halters/leads for the ponies. The mini in pic below is a boarder. These are simply tied together with haystring. Built in 2015 - still tied and holding with haystring!! Plan to make it bigger than it is currently & Also picking it up off ground onto cement blocks for footers.

View attachment 1686426 View attachment 1686423

This one is bigger than one above. Same purpose. Panels on left side came loose during the hurricane Florence in Sept 2018. Have yet to fully secure it, but the wind doens't bother it, so... a project that will be done eventually. When do that, it will be expanded to 16wx12d size from the 12wx8d size it currently is. Also planned on picking it up off ground onto cement blocks for footers.

View attachment 1686424 View attachment 1686425

How the 3 tractors look - all built in fall 2014 & moved down the road a total of 30 miles in 2 separate trips/time frames. They are now in place and will not be moved again. The wood bases are now rotting out - though they were built out of pressure treated lumber. The chicken wire has rusted and the chickens and ponies have dealt it all harsh blows. Will have to fence the coops off from the ponies and will also have to replace all chicken wire with HC or combo of 2x4" wire and HC.

View attachment 1686406 View attachment 1686421

These 2 are only 4x8 - 1 CP. The one sitting directly on the ground will be raised up to allow for DLM. I totally forgot and had put it all together and had chickens in it and was like ... scratching my head..."what happened, why doesn't it look right?"... LOL

View attachment 1686408 View attachment 1686409 View attachment 1686410 View attachment 1686411
These are permanent as well. When done - there will be 4 of them almost back to back with the squared pens behind this. Leaving the wood posts in the ground that had a grape trellis on it threw the dimensions off some. Oh well. I didn't want to dig them out. I used the cut off portions to build bases of next coops. My next one will be built with old tires as the base. They will be filled with the compost from pens #2 & #3. Hoping to figure out how to saw the tires in 1/2 so can use them for the front as well - where the gate will be. Hoping to use NO WOOD at all - we'll see if it works.

View attachment 1686413 View attachment 1686412 View attachment 1686420

View attachment 1686433 View attachment 1686434 View attachment 1686435

** edited to add - I am a 50's something woman and have put most of these together by myself! If I can do it, so can anyone else.

I love your pallet/CP combos! I have questions but don't want to hijack this thread. Do you have a thread that would be more appropriate or should I start one?

OP if you can disassemble your present coops you might not need to build new. If roofing is a problem for that then the cattle panel idea could be incorporated. If you really need to make new coops I think @paintedChix has a good idea.

 

[pennyJo1960]

2 of my coops are made of shipping crates Free so very close to prefab
I do not use floors but bury hardwire cloth 12 inches into the ground so nothing can dig in

 

[Aunt Angus]

This is interesting. I am interested in seeing what folx suggest. I'll have to think on it a bit...

 

[pennyJo1960]

@Cryss your not hijacking but adding to knowledge jmho

 

[paintedChix]

***See if this works.

WELL! OK!
I'm in NJ. Ice storms, wind, and deep snow nor'easters happen. Open pallets are not a good choice so I'll be enclosing mine. Now I'm thinking about attaching CPs as the roof to a single height pallet box rather than double height with a solid slant roof. Concerns are:
-Allowing ventilation up high without exposing the CP which would allow rain and snow inside.
- If you go to Blooie's coop page, the description of how she built her run in WY would quite probably work for you. Not positive as I have a feeling your snow MAY be wetter/heavier than snow in WY.

-tarps as roof covering could leak or blow off.

- IF you invest in the heavier PVC tarps, then you should NOT have a problem with leaking. I think the only reason I've had as many issues with leaking as I do, w/ the "cheapy" tarps, is this -



At our previous property & at "temporary quarters" at friends' property, the cats were not on top of the tarped shelters/sheds/coops.

-how to attach CPs to pallets.

You can use farm fence staples. I don't have a close up pic, but if you search the coop section on hoop coops, you will find at least one and think several examples. There is also at least one example of a different attachment in (Aartt's?). You could also secure a board over/thru the panel with bolts. Or with the metal strips from hardware section that have holes in them (have no idea what they are called?).

-can the 16 foot long CP be cut easily?

- Yes, bolt cutters. If you don't want to purchase them, see if someone has one you can rent or borrow. Not inexpensive, but then if you have a lot of panels or livestock who can get legs or heads/necks thru and stuck - you invest in them. I've had two ponies get hung up in them - we had to cut them loose. I had a small arabian mare flip herself over backwards over one... this is that result... We were able to use a 55 gallon barrel full of water rolled over it to mostly flatten out the part we didn't cut. completely replaced that panel on the pony paddock, and used the somewhat straightened out one somewhere else. The mare that flipped backwards over the panel is up at the front of the paddock in the 2nd picture. Amazingly, she was not injured - silly horse.



-would a 16 foot CP have enough bend and strength if stretched over the top of the 12 foot length?

- that one, I do not know. I'm sorry. The one I'm planning on doing 12' wide - we haven't tried it yet. Might work here - might not with a snow load - possibly not enough arch. BUT you could use part of another panel and attach it. If using more than 1 panel for depth, do not put the attached section on same side, but alternate sides (if that makes sense).

-I'm worried about the CP roof losing any warmth, not very insulating. No, I don't heat my coop.

- again - check out Blooie's page(s). There are others who have also done hooped coops in the NE or in Canada? I remember snow, a screen/storm door, cutting the tarp to put vents in it and pics in the snow... And another article again in a NE state with straw & hay bales at the foot/base of the arches and a heavy duty white tarp used to cover - not a problem in the snow or cold. It wasn't posted on here but was in an on-line article. Maybe Rural Heritage? Or Chickens? Again, not sure....

Edited to add - 1 way to retain warmth would be to get a larger/heavier tarp and have it extend further down on all sides. Then like the other person described above (has a red fox in avatar i think), cut it to insert vents & use....ah...."stuff" (drawing a complete blank) to seal around the vents.

Army tents are heavy canvas type tarps. When I was on a training mission in Korea (1987), the tents weren't bad at all for warmth even w/o the stoves (when it got wet, too, us humans DID appreciate the stoves, LOL). Larry also did a lot of training and slept in them when he was in 82nd Airborne (1982-1986). He trained all over Germany and Alaska. Not the most comfortable, but do-able. Sure think the chickens can do fine, too.

I'm sure I'll have more questions.

 

[paintedChix]

Here are some other CP hooped coops - will take me a bit to list the ones that have pics. I just did a search and it came up with 10 pages of links to threads of CP hoop coop.

This one is permanent and VERY nice - https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/permanent-hoop-coop-guide.47818/

I would not be able to move this one, but super nice, heavy duty build and different roofing options. very different layout on interior, too. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/the-flying-fortress-chicken-tractor.1213066/#post-19331440

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/winter-in-my-crazy-run-build.1283384/#post-20723413

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...n-have-a-few-questions.1074479/#post-16412642

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/it-has-begun-chicken-math.1250244/page-2

A different type build - https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/new-half-hoop-coop-build.1180885/#post-18617753

Different ways to attach CP - https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...le-panel-to-door-frame.1016699/#post-15758354

Another build - https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/hoop-house-coop.1097622/page-3

1 in IL - https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/hi-from-northern-il.1075547/#post-16438162

A new link for tarps - https://billboardtarps.com/all-products/

Another one that I wouldn't be able to move (no actual tractor, deep sand) but great design & roof!! https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/ms-biddys-cattle-panel-hoop-coop.73755/

Shows the tarp all the way to the ground - https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/pyxis-hoop-coop.66037/

Dutch Hollow's portable coop - https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/dutch-hollow-hoop-coop.65223/

Another permanent style w/ metal roofing - https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-biddie-bordello-a-hoop-coop-run-combo.72189/

I am only on page 17 of 80 in the Medium Coops. Most of these are more permanent style, but they show some different roofing options and such. I haven't found the one I was referring to above in previous post with vent holes cut. The "stuff" used was a black sealant of some kind (looked like what was used with tar paper many years ago). I will do some more searching - headed to breakfast out w/ Larry and shopping at Lowe's ...

 

[pennyJo1960]

Hey there interesting dilemma how many birds in each coop assuming the numbers are reasonable