![]() It’s sized to fit on a raised garden bed so the chickens can till up the soil with their scratching. Undaunted, Long next designed an ultra-sturdy coop, MOTHER’s Mighty Chicken-Mobile, in 2011’s Build an Affordable, Portable and Predator-Proof Chicken Coop. Unfortunately, the run’s unframed wire mesh walls are not strong enough to prevent large dogs from smashing them down and killing the chickens, as Long sadly learned. This super-lightweight, low-cost option works fine if you can place it inside a fenced yard or garden. “It’s intended for three or four hens, costs only about $100 in materials and can be assembled in a few hours from standard welded wire fencing.” This portable chicken coop plan includes an inexpensive plastic doghouse, slightly modified, to shelter the chickens. “I set out to create a coop design that would be low-cost, easy to build, light enough to move easily and scaled to fit well even in small backyards,” Long wrote. In 2007, Long presented another coop idea in Portable Chicken Mini-Coop Plan. However, the coop requires a fair amount of carpentry skills to build, and the cost of the materials and the required tools are beyond some folks’ budgets. Created after Maxwell and Long conferred with poultry experts, the coop is a gorgeous piece of work (read more about it in MOTHER’s Mini-Coop) meant to last for years. One early version, designed in 2003 by MOTHER EARTH NEWS contributing editor Steve Maxwell and Editor-in-Chief Cheryl Long, was a wooden A-frame affair with wheels on one end to help make it easy for one person to move. The perfect coop should be lightweight and easy to build - even for a child or an older person - yet it must be sturdy enough to keep predators away from the birds, and it shouldn’t cost too much money. Over the years, MOTHER EARTH NEWS has offered several DIY chicken coop plans, particularly designs for portable chicken coops. Hens are great converters of kitchen waste into valuable manure for the garden, and every chicken owner we know takes a lot of pleasure in just watching the chickens noodle around in the yard.īut free-range birds are often taken by foxes, bobcats, hawks, dogs or other predators, so unless you have guardian dogs that can keep predators away, your best option is probably a portable chicken coop that gives the chickens access to fresh grass and dirt every day while also keeping them protected. Birds kept in a portable chicken coop on pasture provide delicious, inexpensive eggs, and eggs from birds that get plenty of grass, bugs and seeds to eat are better for you than store-bought eggs (read the results of our egg nutrition testing in The Good Egg). Having a few laying hens in the backyard has almost become the icon of today’s self-sufficiency movement. ![]() This portable predator proof chicken coop DIY is low-cost and easy to make for just about anyone. We’ve got one of the best predator proof chicken coop plans. Home Organization News, Blog, & Articles.Energy Efficiency News, Blog, & Articles.Nest boxes should be at least 2 feet off the ground. If you want to use recycled materials, nest boxes might be constructed from plastic tubs or old wooden crates attached to the coop frame with screws.Īim for one nest box, or 1-square-foot of community nest space, for every four or five hens. Position the boxes in the desired locations, securing them to the roost bars and collar ties with deck screws.Add 4-inch to 6-inch high sides of plywood to the boxes attached with deck screws.Staple metal hardware cloth across the bottom of the box frame.Add a 2-by-2-inch board as the floor "joist" across the middle of the box for stability, again attaching it with deck screws.Build a simple box out of 2-by-2-inch boards, securing the joints with deck screws.The nest box construction looks like this: ![]() The sizes of the boxes will vary depending on the available space. These can be very simple boxes lined with a metal hardware cloth on the bottom and attached to the frame of the coop. ![]() If you keep laying hens, you'll need nest boxes where the birds can lay eggs. The Spruce Home Improvement Review Board.
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