How to Build a Predator-Proof, Portable Chicken Coop for Your Backyard?

Having a few laying hens in the backyard is the common hobby of most of the people and this has almost become the icon trend of today’s world. Taking care of them and looking after is the most pleasure-giving thing for their lovers. When hens are kept free in the garden they not only mess it up but also it is insecure for them too.

To keep your chickens save and secure we should come up with a house for them in the backyard where the chickens can spend their all day long with no worries of weather and predators, keeping them protected in every possible way.

Looking at the early models of these coops, in 2007, Mr. Long presented coop idea in Portable Chicken Mini-Coop Plan. It was made for around three to four hens, costing about $100 only in materials that can be assembled in a few hours after standard welded wire fencing. That chicken coop plan was an inexpensive one having plastic doghouse, slightly modified, to shelter the chickens.

After this, Mr. Long designed another coop in the year 2011 that was affordable, portable and predator-proof. This coop is sized in such a way to fit on a raised garden bed so the chickens can till up the soil with their scratching and digging. This portable coop comes with a welded iron frame which is solid and predator-proof indeed, and it will last forever, but the steel frame makes it too heavy for people to move easily.

Now we have new and improved incarnation of the portable chicken coop with multiple choices of shapes, colors, designs along with the runner area for chicks to spend their all day long. 

Joe Ramey of Circo Innovations gave us designs that easy-to-build coops that anyone from any age group can easily assemble using no special tools. He specially priced kits with all of the fittings and pipes cut into different size, as well as kits that are just the needed fittings easily. And obviously, when it comes to design and create your own he has made it easier for you to watch detailed diagrams on his website. 

The pieces of the coop frames are glue together strongly and permanently. The exteriors are clad in welded wire mesh, and you’ll need easy-to-use J-clip pliers to join the welded wire sections. To cinch the mesh to the plastic framing, we used 17-gauge smooth galvanized wire, which is easy to bend yet durable. Both coops have handles for easy moving.

There are two kinds of designs;

1) Rounded Design

We designed the first moveable chicken coop we have used green pipes to make it look as much attractive as we can.

Reproducing the shape of the old classic hoop house or high tunnel. The shape of this coop is much of inexpensive as the welded wire mesh because it uses a little less than the rectangular coop. Taking pre-bent plastic hoops, which are easier to assemble even faster.

It weighs less than 50 pounds with all of the mesh and fittings included in. At 39 1/2 inches wide and just under 9 feet long, it’s roomy for up to four birds, giving you as a confined shelter. It can be perfectly placed on a 4-by-10-foot garden bed, with a little room to spare so the chickens won’t throw all the dirt out of the bed.

2) Rectangular Design

This design less expensive as we use white plastic pipe, but it requires slightly more welded wire mesh. It also sit on a 4-by-10-foot raised garden bed.

Both of these coops uses the long lasting corrugated plastic to provide shelter for the chicks. This material is durable, strong and flexible, it is easily cut with an X-Acto or utility knife. Having the translucent version allows some solar gain to warm the chickens in winter.