Wheeled Chicken Coop

Wheeled Chicken Coop LIVESTOCK Poultry 33-4-33 "It's easy to move around and was cheap to build," says Dave Greise, Rockwood, Tenn., who recently sent FARM SHOW photos of an 8-ft. sq. chicken coop that he fitted with four wheels off a pair of lawn mowers. The coop's front wheels are the plastic rear wheels off a push mower, and the taller and wider rear wheels are off a riding mower. A screw-type jack is attached to each wheel, allowing Greise to use a cordless drill to lower the coop's wheels for transport. "Jacking the wheels down raises the coop about 4 in. off the ground. It eliminates the need to block up the wheels," says Greise, who raises chickens free-range style and moves the coop about 8 ft. every day. Each wheel is attached to a screw-type jack that's mounted upside down. The jack's base plate, now on top, is lag bolted to a pair of 4 by 4 landscape timbers that Greise screwed onto both sides of the coop. He used a sawzall to cut a pin off the top part of the jack and then bolted on the wheel's original bracket and axle. "The coop is made from heavy gauge wire and can't be supported by four plastic wheels, which is why I mounted the riding mower wheels on back. I used heavy gauge wire because I was able to get it free from a neighbor. If I had used lighter gauge wire I could've used plastic wheels all the way around," says Greise. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dave Greise, 540 Shenandoah Drive, Rockwood, Tenn. 37854 (ph 865 354-4109; greised@bww.com).

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