+huggstaff13 , thanks for watching and for the feedback. One thing we have learned with certainty taking on animal husbandry is attempting to control the situation regarding livestock is a fool's errand. We do direct and manage their behaviors to our benefit and to improve the land, but we also enjoy their characteristics and expressions. It is part of what makes partnering with nature so rewarding for us. Blessings, Grant

+Leela O , thanks for the encouragement. The principle of applying self-regulation and accepting feedback, as well as having an attitude that mistakes are tools for learning allow for continual reflection and growth both personally and with all the elements and systems we interact with on a regular basis. Thanks for watching and engaging in the conversation!

Thanks Michael, glad you are finding some value in it!

Elijah, a chicken coop is a great project to build carpentry skills, there's nothing complicated...

John, if you can send forth your email address we can get you some rough pencil sketches with dims out to you. Please visit our website, and enter the info & note into our contact page... we will take it from there. Thanks and good luck! Tim

we think so too!

Amanda, Thanks for the inquiry. Our two coops are built directly on the old hay wagon, so the flooring is the deck of the hay wagon itself. We use pine 2x4 framed walls on all four side, and a simple weather hardy sheeting on the outside. We have no water systems built in, as we have infrastructure on farm to insure daily delivery without much effort. Same with feeders... we introduce grain directly on the pastures for bird to scratch and peck, while doing their job with manure spreading and insect control. We pull our coops with an ATV, thought our lighter Coop 2 model can be pulled by hand on level surfaces. I may have some sketches of the coop 2 design, so let me know an email and I can try to send over. What else can I put forth. Thanks.

amandajturney@gmail.com Thanks! Do you have video on youtube showing your water system?

No... we have typical water faucets and frost free lines that we access in and around the farm. We deliver bucketed water to various poultry waterers for filling daily.

Not that many, 30 tops, but it could be build on a larger wagon to accommodate that many birds.

roosts are about 12" off ground and 12" apart. We simply access the side man door, and lay in straw biscuits from a 50# square bale. I can email rough 'to scale plans' if desired.

@@abcacres6413 Thanks for the info. I appreciate it.

ABC acres please email me the rough plans. ant_cen@yahoo.com Also when do you open the nesting boxes for the chicken to enter? Don't they lay at night? Thank you New subscriber

Anders, thanks for the encouragement! Yes, we can still manage a flock of 50+ chickens in our coop 2.0 design. We didn't want to sacrifice potential flock size for reduced weight, so we made sure to keep that in mind during the design/build process.

Good question. We currently do not, as we set up relatively effective and convenient water access points throughout our farm. One could, however, quite easily set up a watering system within the mobile coop to great effect, and we encourage you to go for it! Thanks for watching!

We did consider having something like that for exactly why you describe, but we ultimately decided against it for a few reasons that were relevant to our context. 1)We tend to place our chickens out on the edge of the property at different points, and did not want increased risk of loss from predators trying to potentially grab at them through any openings. The stories around here about what predators have been able to do to get chickens at crazy! 2)We wanted to ensure greater warmth for the chickens through the winter months; it was probably not an absolute necessity to give them the solid wood floor, but we wanted to give more comfort and reduce caloric expenditure on keeping themselves warm. 3)We use our chickens different ways, and as such there are times where the coop is parked out in one location for long enough periods of time where there would be too much buildup of manure in one concentrated area. Additionally, we don't always spread the manure and bedding around where the coop was, we also will take it and use it in our compost piles. Thanks for watching, and for the good question!

Scott, the nesting boxes are half in and half out of the coop wall. We have also seen versions where the nesting boxes are all the way outside of the coop, and seem to work well. The dimensions are approximately 12" x 12" x 15". Thanks for watching!

Bobby, It has been a consideration of ours to make custom order chicken coops utilizing old hay wagons. The reality is that only relatively local destinations make financial sense. Where are you sitting? Shoot me a note with your email address, and I can send forth some rough plans we constructed the coop with. Thanks for the note!

Possibly not sure if we saved a cut list, also it'd be pretty dependent on the size of wagon you had.

ABC acres ah. But one could take plans and make trailer fit. ;-)