VERY nifty design! MOVABLE COOP!

[BoldogKennel]

I've been throwing pen idea around (portable) and saw this pen today for sale at a local feed store. It has a couple design problems (like having the bird sleep OVER the laying bucket) but it also had some pretty cool features I thought I would share... Hope these pics turned out, a friend took them with the phone.

The green is astroturf or whatever they call it these days. The thngs hanging down are PVC pipe one a feeder one with a drip water system.

Looking down at the top, which is a board. The cross pieces are perches, but they lead up to over the bucket used for nest box. Not crazy about that.

How you collect the eggs out of the back. There's a little opening in the wire, with a little string that pulls up the green pad when you open it!

 

[huntinwidow]

Wow, pretty cool design. If I could just talk DH into one more project.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

Would make a great brooder or isolation set up.

 

[BoldogKennel]

I'll probably be using it (when I build one!!) for youngsters or on a slightly smaller version for individual pairs I'm growing out. I liked the hard plastic on the bottom: make it easier to move...

 

[elmo]

Hmm. There's no wire apron, so that means a digging predator can get into the run and get to the chicken (I say chicken, singular, because it looks too small for more than one or two). There's no way to lock off the tiny little "coop" part, so a predator in the run means death. There's not much in the way of wind or rain protection from the semi-enclosed part, either. You could use it as a day tractor, though, if you have a fenced yard and don't have roaming dogs or other diggers to worry about in the daytime.

I wouldn't want to be the one to get chicken droppings out of astroturf, personally. And you know that the little ramp sort of thing is going to be pooped on in short order.

I like the idea of using a plastic bucket for a nest box, but the one they picked looks awfully tiny. I wonder if my little bantams could even fit in there.

It does look like it is light. Did you pick up one end to see how easy it would be to move?

 

[blefky]

It looks to me like a semi good idea, one that could probably pretty easily be replicated with some improvements (as others have pointed out). Wouldn't consider it for full time use, but perhaps as a "playground" for growing chicks, etc. The thing that made me laugh was the cut-out-carpet looking pad that is the nestbox door. I'm not sure I could find anything that couldn't get past that!

 

[Chihuahuamom444]

I love it

 

[GeneJordan]

Very coop (I mean cool)

 

[scovy123]

if it is just a rug protecting the backside of the nest, you'll need something more solid like a wooden door.

 

[Moonblossom]

I saw this when I bought my chicks the other day It seemed expensive and small