Chicken Mamas: Mobile coop or stationary?

[Orionsmama]

DH and I just bought a house with a fair amount of land and are planning out our chicken coop. We have researched the mobile coops on wheels that can easily be transported around the property for shade, more bugs to munch on, and easier cleanup. Most of the coops in our town are all stationary and seem to work fine but I have read so much about the mobile ones that I am wondering what would be best. Any of you chicken keeping mamas have any experience with the mobile ones as oppossed to the stationary?

[rayyy]

I had a perminent10x10 chicken coop with a 10x10 outdoor pen but you are right,moveable is the way to go.I'm gonna build a mobile coop with an extended outdoor pen so they can always have access to fresh grass and clover and bugs all while being protected from the preditors.The only thing I haven't figured out yet is how to keep their water from freezing up in the winter .(don't have electric.)Any ideas?

[mattemma04]

I have my chickens in a 8x6 metal coop. I put up fencing around it.The grass is gone now. I expanded the fencing,but flies were an issue.Now I have the chickens in my far back yard,and the area is big.I am putting a coop in the back. I would opt for a set coop and just move fencing around.I use plastic fencing,bamboo poles,and zip ties.Cheap and easy to move around.

[SweetSilver]

I like my ladies to have a bit more space to run and be chickens.  I started with a stationary coop and I see how they pass the day compared to my friends' mobile coop.  Work might be more for me, but I love their personalities!  They get to run, something that rarely happens with "tractors".

[FarmerBeth]

We went with a stationary coop because it was big enough to allow room for getting more chickens (and we did, so I'm glad my husband thought of this) and winters can be cold here, and we were more eaily able to cold proof and wire the stationary set up.  Also, as the PP said, it's so nice having the chickens have the run of the property.  I love watching the chickens forage and explore.

[amnesiac]

I guess mine's technically stationary. No wheels or anything. Its a bit cumbersome but if I really wanted it moved then my boys could pick it up & move it.

[hildare]

we set our coop up to be mobile, it's built on a boat trailer.  however, we have ended up not moving it at all yet, because they pretty much free range very successfully and return to the coop area and get closed up at night.  if we found that they were getting nabbed by predators during their roams, we'd probably do it differently, and it's nice to have the option but it hasn't been necessary for us to move it, they still return to the coop to lay in the nestboxes (though their was a brief period where we found a nice little nest they'd built under a bush, but that was due to some broody hens taking up space.) 

eta: we also have a big dog kennel set up next to the mobile coop, which is pretty permanant, and that's got a coop in it too.  we introduce the new biddies that way, where they can be seen and smelled by the big chickens but not pecked to death.  we can put broody mamas that we want to hatch out from in there on a nest box too.  they're protected and still visible and close by. 

[annethcz]

I realize that this is a really old thread, but for anyone else who is reading... a chicken tractor (moveable pen) has worked well for us, but only in the following situations:

-In warmer weather (it freezes to the ground in the winter, and is impossible to pull through deep snow)

-for many chicks/poults/ducklings

-for only a few (no more than 6) adult hens, maybe 3-4 adult turkey

-and new from this year:  only with (at the minimum) hardware cloth covering the frame... I've had raccoons rip through chicken wire and other metal fencing to get at the poultry.

I should specify that our tractors are about 4' x 8', perhaps you could keep more animals in a larger tractor.  But even with moving the tractor everyday, I had lots of problems keeping more than 3-6 hens in a space that large.  A few years ago I had a 2 dominant hens literally peck the most submissive hen to death... I think there were only 4 hens in the tractor at the time.  I haven't had that problem since, but it was truly horrible and really makes me leery of keeping animals in such a small area.