A Mobile Coop Saved My Chickens

I’m not joking. Meet Luke Rogers, the owner of Mobile Chickens.

His portable chicken coops are literally the best thing that’s happened to chicken keepers. I inherited a set up where my chickens were living in a barn coop. Now the barn coop is great as it has plumbing and electricity. But wild birds nest in the top which caused a bird mite issue this summer that wasn’t fun to deal with at all. It’s also very dark when the weather is less than ideal. In general, it’s fine and it’s safe. As the outside area is enclosed with netting so predators cannot get in but it’s NOT great for the birds. The outside area is dirt and depressing.

This mobile coop always allows the ladies to have GRASS underneath them so they can remain active and watching them – it’s like night and day. They make happy noises all the time and look so much happier now that they’re in this new environment.

About mobile coops

We move the coop to fresh grass every day, which allows the chickens to always have fresh grass and bugs. As part of the mobile coop, the chickens have a house that they can go in to perch at night and lay their eggs in the nesting boxes during the day. There is a separate egg door so the eggs can be collected without the chickens escaping. When the chickens lay their eggs, the floor is sloped so the eggs roll toward the egg door. Each part of the design has been thoroughly thought through on these mobile coops.

I saw tons of blog posts and articles on chicken tractors and finally figured out that this is what we needed – so after taking care of chickens for six months, I realized this was the solution. Now I can keep adding these coops and shut down the barn all together in early 2019.

Features are amazing (see below)

Luke thought of everything. There is built-in ventilation, it’s super easy to move (see the Instagram video), there is a place built in for an electrical cord, LED lighting in the coop, it’s SUPER easy to clean out and a door for eggs so you don’t have to reach in and grab eggs – although that’s not a big deal typically with my guys. There is a place for them to perch outside and an area for a gravity water container.

How many chickens?

I have seven chickens in there and it would easily fit three more so the max is probably around ten birds.

Youtube video above shows them scratching and pecking!

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo7yiuqFfKF/

Features include…

Predator-proof:

This allows the chickens to stay safe as the hardwire cloth in the bottom keeps them locked in and predators out. They spend all their time outside. The door above that’s open is the “egg door” where the eggs rolls down for you to grab from the nesting boxes.

LED light inside:

I like to leave this light on for them during says when it’s super gray and dark outside. I don’t use the light to encourage laying but I do forget sometimes and it just stays on all day… It’s SO nice to have this feature for the winter months.

Electric outlet:

I can use this electric outlet for a white noise maker and also to heat their water container when the weather drops into freezing temps.

Roosting bars:

There is plenty of space for at least 8-10 birds to perch at night but they also sleep on top of the nesting box!

Natural light: 

I asked Luke to add this so the birds have natural light when they’re hanging out in the coop. It’s good for them to know when it’s getting light out in the a.m. Plus the idea of being in the pitch black dark all the time when in the coop seems cruel.

So as you can see, I moved seven birds to the mobile coop from the barn. How did I decide? I moved my best layers and then those I will keep until they pass. So this is basically a retirement center as well since the birds are going to turn three years old next year.

I’ll likely invest in a second mobile coop when my pullets from the barn get old enough to lay and then close down the barn. I’m still deciding what to do with the roo but I’ll probably take him to a Roo sanctuary in Washington as he remains fairly hard to navigate around and these smaller coops will not work given the small space – as I need to go in and out as I please!

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