Portable Chicken Mini-coop Plan

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If You Build It, They Will Cluck

Step 1: Bend the 1-by-2-inch mesh fencing to make the sides of the 3-by-10-foot pen.

Step 2: Cut an 11-foot length of the 2-by-4-inch mesh wire, fold 6 inches under on each end (to provide extra stiffness) so you have a section that is 10 feet long. Using the hog rings every 4 to 6 inches, attach the 2-by-4-inch wire section to form a top for the 3-by-10-foot wire rectangle. (I also made one test pen that was 4 feet wide, rather than 3 feet. To prevent the wider top section from sagging, I slipped two 1-by-2-inch wooden “beams” through the top slots in the side walls.)

Step 3: Make another 10-foot section as described above, flip the pen over and install the second section.

Step 4: To make the door openings — one at one end so you can gather the eggs from the henhouse and slide the house out for cleaning, and one at the other end to allow for tending the birds’ food and water containers — cut sections of wire out of each end of the pen to form openings tall and wide enough for the house to slide in and out easily. Bend back all the sharp wire ends.

Step 5: Make the doors — two 3-by-1 1/2-foot flaps of the 1-by-2-inch mesh fencing that hinge up from the bottom and down from the top (use the hog rings to make the “hinges”); the top and bottom flaps will overlap 6 inches in the middle. This door design lets you open only the top flap to reach in for eggs, or open both the top and bottom flaps if you need to slide the coop out. Use bungee cords or whatever fasteners you have on hand to secure the door flaps.

Step 6: To adapt the barn-style doghouse (sold in various sizes at most hardware, farm supply and home improvement stores) first file off the tabs that hold the roof section to the bottom (a wood rasp works well) so that you can easily lift off the roof section when you need to change the bedding. Then install a 1-by-2-inch board as a roost at the top edge of the bottom section, and attach a thin plywood “wall” to a second crosspiece toward the back of the coop (see illustration), with a hole cut in it so the hens can lay their eggs in the “back room” (they like a dark, cozy spot). Put the top section of the doghouse onto the bottom backwards, so you have a large opening in the front and a smaller, higher opening facing the back. This way, you can reach into the back opening to gather eggs.

If you want two coops, you could economize by buying just one doghouse and using both the bottom and top sections as the roofs for two houses, each set onto rectangles made of lightweight, rot-resistant cedar boards.

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