Hey yall we built our own chicken coop a few years back but i wanted to get Ideas for making it better. we use PVC tubes with an elbow at the bottom for feed and an hanging water container. what are some DIY thing you have done to your coop to make them better. Also we are looking into a coop we can mover easier. we use 4 trailer jacks with wheels so we can move it from spot to spot when the girls a stuck inside. the problem is the little black wheels are a little skinny and dig in if the ground is soft. any one make a movable coop you really like and dont mind posting pictures?
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We have one move able one and no pictures. We took an old trampoline frame and used it with 2x4 wire inside left the trampoline tarp on top for shade and put a small dog house in it for about 5 to 7 chickens. Moves easily. We had to fold the wire in over the springs. The birds lay in the dog house.
We cut one brace and built a frame for a door. Pita for adults, but our daughter is assigned coop duty when collecting eggs and such. We used pvc with elbows for feeder and a pvc pipe with nipple and a cross bar for water attached to the frame of the trampoline.
In a way, it is a pain, but it was free and it works. Easier to drag with two people. Be nice if we had a 4wheeler to drag with.
Oh, dog house is attached opposite to wheels so it lifts with frame.
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For those who want a movable coop, there are lots of plans on the web for "chicken tractors". Here is my version of one of those plans. This one is too heavy to move by hand, but with a front loader on a tractor, I can put it wherever I want it.
The feed and water setups in mine can be used in any coop, and they assure that the chickens will have fresh water and food. My objection to the regular feeders and waterers is that the chickens invariably will find a way to poop in their food and water, and they'll scratch the food out onto the ground and waste a lot of it.
The water system is gravity-fed from a 48-quart ice chest mounted on the rear wall. The drain from the chest is plumbed into the coop with a press-fit PEX fitting and PEX tubing. Once inside, the PEX is adapted to a 3/4" PVC pipe pre-drilled to accept poultry nipples. The nipples snap onto the pipe, which is capped at the far end, and the chickens jiggle a little metal gizmo on the bottom of the nipples to get their water. I have had no trouble with them learning to use the nipples. I insulated the PEX and PVC pipes with pipe insulation tubes, then discovered the chickens will peck the insulation off where they can get to it. That caused me to split a piece of 2" PVC pipe and drill holes to fit the nipples, then use it to armor plate the insulation in the house. The two halves are held together with zip ties. I also added a pipe heater strip under the armor to keep the pipe from freezing. It comes on automatically at 38 degrees F.
The feeder is very simple. Just a 25-pound dog feeder box with a slot at the bottom where they can access the feed. It has plenty of room to get their heads into the slot, but not enough room for them to scratch feed out and waste it.
The nest boxes are on both sides and accessible from the outside. That's overkill for my flock, as they all end up using the same box. But then I only have 8 hens. A larger flock might benefit from more boxes. I put sliding plastic windows on both sides to give them air flow in the summer, and they can be closed easily for winter. The roosts are in line with the windows, so they get a good cross draft in the summer.
Here's the chicken tractor.
Chicken Tractor.JPG
These inside views show the feeder, back door and water wall.
Tractor Interior.JPG
Water Pipe.JPG
This is a close-up of a nipple and the armor plate.
Water Nipple.JPG
Here's the front door and ramp.
Door.JPG
This is the "retractable landing gear". It's the wheels off an old Johnson shredder that I converted to 3-point hitch. The lifting arm requires a piece of pipe that slips over it and gives the leverage to rotate the axle and raise the rear of the coop for transport. The tractor loader bucket is handy for lifting that pipe so I can chain it to the rear wall during the move.
Landing Gear.JPG
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Pretty ingenious set-up there, I see a PBR and an RIR what all chickens are you raising?[I][B]Oderint dum metuant[/B][/I]
[I]"Stay with me; do not fear. For he who seeks my life seeks your life, but with me you shall be safe.”[/I] 1 Samuel 22:23
[I]“Everybody is a patriot...Until it's time to do patriot shit[/I]
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I had to end my American rooster this week, he had gotten aggressive to the wife and strangers, he's been fathering our meat flock for a couple of years now. We are currently in he process of swapping over to an all Barred Rock flock, for us, they have been consistently to best dual purpose birds.
I still have a couple of RIRs and Americanas from my original flock, they're production has dropped off the last few years but I can be a little sentimental sometimes.[I][B]Oderint dum metuant[/B][/I]
[I]"Stay with me; do not fear. For he who seeks my life seeks your life, but with me you shall be safe.”[/I] 1 Samuel 22:23
[I]“Everybody is a patriot...Until it's time to do patriot shit[/I]
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[I][B]Oderint dum metuant[/B][/I]
[I]"Stay with me; do not fear. For he who seeks my life seeks your life, but with me you shall be safe.”[/I] 1 Samuel 22:23
[I]“Everybody is a patriot...Until it's time to do patriot shit[/I]
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Yep, your Americana looks a lot like our rooster. He's not aggressive to me, but he keeps the hens subdued. We used to have a pair of bantam roosters that would attack me every time I walked out the door, but they'd do a mating dance around my wife. She thought it was cute until I told her what it meant.
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He was a fine rooster as far as keeping the flock together and and being protective of them but when his "services" were no longer required I didn't see the need to put up with an aggressive bird.[I][B]Oderint dum metuant[/B][/I]
[I]"Stay with me; do not fear. For he who seeks my life seeks your life, but with me you shall be safe.”[/I] 1 Samuel 22:23
[I]“Everybody is a patriot...Until it's time to do patriot shit[/I]
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Mid spring was really dry here and the tomatoes were really slow to ripen, just as they got close we started getting a lot of rain and they ripened so quickly they were splitting[I][B]Oderint dum metuant[/B][/I]
[I]"Stay with me; do not fear. For he who seeks my life seeks your life, but with me you shall be safe.”[/I] 1 Samuel 22:23
[I]“Everybody is a patriot...Until it's time to do patriot shit[/I]
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