The Pros and Cons of a Mobile Chicken Coop: What is the Best Choice?

by Edgar Roger on March 31, 2011

Mobile or stationary? This is probably a debate that lots of chicken farmers mull on. The answer is actually dependent on what you find practical and useful in your situation. With the hundreds of designs for chicken coops, we can say that a practical design for one might not work for another. Here, we will try to see the advantages and disadvantages of having a mobile chicken coop. At the end of the day, the decision lies in what you think is best for your business and how it can make your chicken farming easier.

The Pros and Cons of a Mobile Chicken Coop: What is the Best Choice?

A typcial mobile coop

The Advantages

Flexibility

A mobile chicken coop gives you the ability to move it about. During the rainy season, you can move the entire coop in an indoor garage. This is important because chickens cannot be exposed in low temperatures. They easily get sick and could catch flu. During the hot season, you can take the coop to a shaded area, perhaps under the tree.

Maintenance

Having chickens also require cleanliness and this entails a daily maintenance. Depending on the size or number of chickens you have, you might need to do a clean-up daily. The wonderful thing about a chicken coop that you can easily move about is that you can totally move the coop out and then clean the area underneath. You can also move the coop to a location close to drainage so the smell does not stay in the spot where the coop is usually positioned.

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Visibility

One great benefit of a mobile chicken coop is you can position it to an area that you can easily see. At night, you can move it to a location visible from your bedroom window. In the morning, you can move it to a place where you can see it while washing your car or something. This is highly applicable if you have a huge land area where there are bushes where predators can hide.

The Pros and Cons of a Mobile Chicken Coop: What is the Best Choice?

The flexible coop

The Disadvantages

Size Limitation

One disadvantage of a mobile chicken coop is size. If you have a lot of chickens, this means you need a larger coop. Larger coops are not mobile because they would be so heavy to move. They are usually built on a permanent spot. Usually, mobile coops are small in size, just large enough to contain five to ten chickens. If you plan to keep more than that, it is recommended that you maintain small coops with each one having small chicken coop nesting boxes for the hens to lay eggs into.

Design

Usually, chicken coops that you can move about are limited in design. This is in relation to being practical because if a mobile coop should not be heavy and this means you cannot add a lot of features into it. Most of the times, you are also limited to A-frame or box-type chicken coop plans. This can be a potential problem if you are adding security features like mesh wires to your coop. it is quite easy to put add-ons but the weight added can also affect the mobility of the coop.

The Pros and Cons of a Mobile Chicken Coop: What is the Best Choice?

The coops very limited space

Cost

Since this kind of chicken coop has the mobility feature, many sellers would peg this at a higher price. In many cases, the materials used for this type of coop are also of higher quality because the coop has to be strong enough and yet light enough to be pushed around for movement. Some manufacturers or builders use lightweight metal alloy and this can be more expensive than the normal materials for the frame such as wood and steel.

The Pros and Cons of a Mobile Chicken Coop: What is the Best Choice?About

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