Due to a peculiar series of circumstances starting with me attending a "Chickens 101" class at the local food co-op last Monday and ending with me realizing that the person I was emailing was someone who I already knew from the YMCA, we ended up in the backyard of yet another person's house today, looking at their portable chicken coop. 3 women got together about a year ago and decided to have a chicken share: they built the coop and the pen next to it and designed both of them to be easily moved. The pen breaks down into pieces that will fit into the back of a truck and the coop...rolls. Down the street. Preferably at night when the chickens are asleep and don't know that anything's going on.
Each person gets the coop for a few months at a time and the others come over for eggs and to throw vegetable scraps to the birds. They even have a smaller pen so that neighbors can borrow a chicken or two for garden or yard maintenance now and then. There are 5 regular hens and a game hen that was found running through the neighborhood a few months ago.
The ramp at the left side goes up into the coop.
Nesting boxes are at the bottom front and the panel on the side comes off to make it easy to clean everything out. Sadly, we are about a mile away from this arrangement or I'd be petitioning to let us in on the deal. It's just too far (and across 2 busy streets) to wheel this thing. But...what a great solution!
