How to Build Chicken Coops From Trailers

Chicken coops are often large, bulky structures that are hard to move around as many are built to remain in a permanent location. According to "experienced pastured-poultry producer Robert Plamondon, chickens quickly destroy the turf adjacent to their houses, and over time, this will extend for some distance in all directions, leading to a yard that is alternately muddy and dusty. The concentration of manure in this area also leads to a build-up of manure-borne pathogens, such as coccidiosis and roundworms." Building a chicken coop out of a trailer is a way to avoid these problems, because the coop can be moved when an area needs to recover.

Things You'll Need

  • An old used horse trailer
  • Chicken wire
  • Steel wire
  • Boards, 2 feet by 4 feet
  • Chicken waterer
  • Chicken feeder
  • Fine toothed circular saw
  • Straw
  • Cinder block
Show More

Instructions

    • 1

      Cover all openings with chicken wire using steel wire to fasten it to the trailer.

    • 2

      Run a few 2-by-4 boards across the width of the trailer so the boards rest in the ventilation windows of the horse trailer on both sides. Wire the boards to the vertical bars of the trailer's windows. Use these boards as roosts for the chickens.

    • 3

      Place water and a feeder inside the horse trailer to feed and water the chickens. If the horse trailer has a sliding door, open this door to allow the chickens in and out of the trailer. Place a cinder block just outside the door to make entry easier for the chickens. Cut a 1-by-1-foot door out of the back of the horse trailer door if there isn't a sliding door. Cut the door out using a fine-toothed circular saw for cutting metal.

    • 4

      Lay straw down in the front of the horse trailer where the horse tack and hay would normally go, to give the hens an area to lay their eggs. Retrieve these eggs using the small access doors on the front sides of the horse trailer.