Trailer Coop on the Cheep

[MadGardener]

This made me laugh. I suffer from the same condition. I have bouts of insomnia and manage to work out the details of the project while starring at the clock at 2:30 in the morning.

I used to be in middle management and commute 40 min each way. I'd be presented with problems to solve and get my bright ideas driving home. I'd leave myself voicemails so I would remember the next day.

Removing the clock has helped my insomnia slightly.

 

[3KillerBs]

Your Little Monitor Coop article has been so helpful getting this planned out. Thank you for taking the time to put it together!

I'm so glad you found it helpful. I tried to take as many pictures of structural elements as possible to show how DH had built things.

 

[MadGardener]

Phew, the hot weather is back today! Luckily humidity is lower than our last hot spell and my laundry dried.

Next steps are preparing to paint. We have a lot of carpenter bee damage to unfinished wood around the property and don't want to take any chances, especially under the floor where we can't see. Hubs and I were real nervous about removing the framing and flipping it over. Don't get me wrong, this thing is heavy. But nowhere near as heavy as we expected. I just reminded myself I used to pay $10/month to lift heavy things. This was free!

So I laid out all of my pieces and pressure washed both sides of the plywood and the framing. I shouldn't have worn my good working shoes because they were quite sloshy by the time I was done.

The plywood has seen better days. We're reusing the piece that came with the trailer, and Hubs pieced together a few more. Unfortunately several pieces are kind of peeley. Hubs suggested liquid nails and staples, so I set to work.

Seemed to do a fairly good job. Then I ran out of staples. Then I ran out of liquid nails. *sigh*

Hubs is caulking the seams in the framing. He is concerned that heavy rain may splash water which could work its way into places we can't see any problems. I'll be cleaning liquid nails off the stapler...

 

[avjudge]

The Plan

I am planning a 6x8 coop with a monitor roof. I will be adding poop boards down both 8’ side underneath roosts of the same length. . . . a 24” “alley” up the middle of the trailer and will be 60” tall. I could stand between joists if I was careful. I plan to use deep bedding and will crawl in for yearly clean outs. . .

I may be misunderstanding the plan, but my understanding is that poop boards are used in conjunction with frequent (daily) cleaning. Deep bedding allows infrequent clean-out as you plan.

If you need to “crawl in“ to do a clean out, do you have alternative (easier) access to the poop boards?

 

[MadGardener]

I may be misunderstanding the plan, but my understanding is that poop boards are used in conjunction with frequent (daily) cleaning. Deep bedding allows infrequent clean-out as you plan.

If you need to “crawl in“ to do a clean out, do you have alternative (easier) access to the poop boards?

I am hoping using both methods will help keep the bedding from needing a complete change as often. My climate is fairly wet year round. Poop boards will also allow me to use more vertical space, allowing for a containment area for brooding. And a place to hang a feeder in wet weather. I'm definitely open to feedback, but would prefer at least some bedding so I won't have to scrape day poops off the floor.

I'm planning to have top hinged doors at poop board level to access every few days for scooping.

 

[MadGardener]

It's been a busy few days! Poor Hubby has been tackling a lot on his own. But we're moving along!

Hubs caulked up some seams and deep cracks in the oak framing. We hope this will help keep moisture from infiltrating the wood. Not only do we receive a lot of rain here, but 8 months of the year are frequently foggy. And occasionally so foggy it may as well be rain. Plus this year I'm finding earwigs everywhere and they creep me out way more than they really should.

I completed preventing more peeling on the plywood. The hardware store had only "heavy duty" liquid nails and this stuff will stick to skin more than the regular kind. I did opt for some disposable gloves because getting this off is pretty exfoliating.

We picked up a big ole bottle of cayenne pepper. This is something new for us to try for wood destroying insects. Hubby's former boss owned some property in the outer banks and swore by it. Not sure on the amounts, the whole bottle went into 5 gallons of barn paint while I was at the doctor's. We do have 1 gallon of white for trim, I'm curious if it will change the color.

One coat down. I do have to say, barn paint is really nice to work with and covered much better in one coat than the Valspar or Behr I've used in the past. Definitely a good choice for rough wood.

 

[3KillerBs]

I do have to say, barn paint is really nice to work with and covered much better in one coat than the Valspar or Behr I've used in the past. Definitely a good choice for rough wood.

I love barn paint. It's so easy to work with.

 

[avjudge]

I am hoping using both methods will help keep the bedding from needing a complete change as often. . .

I'm planning to have top hinged doors at poop board level to access every few days for scooping.

Sounds good to me. It just wasn’t clear from your description that the poop boards would have the kind of access they needed for daily upkeep, but it sounds like you are taking care of that!

I sort of did something similar, not with poop boards but since my winter coop is walk-in and in the barn where a manure fork is handy, I forked out manure from the bedding under the roost - but only on well-below-freezing nights (most nights here) when it froze into poop balls that were easy to scoop. Warmer nights I just let it mix in with the bedding. So there was maybe half of the 6 chickens‘ droppings in with the bedding. They were in there about 4 months, December to April; we had very little snow so the ground dried out early this spring and I was able to move them to their summer quarters. The winter coop sat empty a month or so and then I cleaned it out. The floor under the bedding was dry and clean. I could easily have kept the chickens in there longer without needing to clean if the weather had dictated that.

 

[MadGardener]

Sounds good to me. It just wasn’t clear from your description that the poop boards would have the kind of access they needed for daily upkeep, but it sounds like you are taking care of that!

I sort of did something similar, not with poop boards but since my winter coop is walk-in and in the barn where a manure fork is handy, I forked out manure from the bedding under the roost - but only on well-below-freezing nights (most nights here) when it froze into poop balls that were easy to scoop. Warmer nights I just let it mix in with the bedding. So there was maybe half of the 6 chickens‘ droppings in with the bedding. They were in there about 4 months, December to April; we had very little snow so the ground dried out early this spring and I was able to move them to their summer quarters. The winter coop sat empty a month or so and then I cleaned it out. The floor under the bedding was dry and clean. I could easily have kept the chickens in there longer without needing to clean if the weather had dictated that.

That's encouraging to hear! My area is so rainy and damp I'm really hoping deep bedding will last, and not become an earwig haven...ew. I do kind of miss frozen poo now that the hot weather has begun.

 

[MadGardener]

Rain and the threat of rain has made its way to us. The garden could use it. I'm glad I harvested some of my garlic early just in case. I wore gloves this time. They're never coming in the house again and my shed smells pretty strong right now!

Sadly my scanner is not behaving. So I had to try and shoot photos of my rough plans without shadowing them. Then cropped in Paint.

Please share any feedback you may have - the exterior door set up is not firm. Hubs is trying to figure out how to frame everything. I'm not set on double doors to the bottom portion, but really prefer top hinging access to the poop boards. I did not draw a proper roof pitch on the nest box - due to the exterior height it will have to be top opening and we'll go with a steep pitch so I don't push water into the nest box when I open it in wet weather.

The sketch below was drawn before Hubby suggested a rear human door for clean-outs. I also drew a pop door in the isolation area that I don't think we'll really need. I'm not set on the poop boards being the heights indicated, we will likely make them of equal height with a roost above - and I am thinking 8" may be a better height to scoop/rake. We'll place them 12" from the wall.

I am hoping this interior layout will make good use of the space. I'll end up with 16' of roost space, and plan to install a ramp for access. Searching the forums it seems poop boards 24" wide are pretty common. Anyone think 18" would be too narrow? I'm sure birds will jump down even with a ramp, and it's a tight squeeze.

I plan on lifting all doors 6" from the floor, or installing a removable sill to keep bedding in.

I'll also redo the plans (or Hubs will, he actually has an engineering background unlike me) to be more accurate and detail the framing. Thanks for checking it out!