Bill Grabill refurbished an old Travel trailer into a chicken coop, setting it up for easy exterior access to the nest boxes, cleaning door, food and waterers.

I'd like to share my adventures that culminated in the ultimate recycling and operational efficiencies of my chicken coop creation. About a year ago I came across an old 18-foot, one-door travel trailer and over the course of a few months renovated it into a chicken coop with a fenced yard and opening to pasture for my then, 16 hens. By using a trailer it's so easy to relocate it every two weeks so that the hens still have new grass frequently when not out pasturing.

I love engineering projects and though this "coop" accomplished my initial attempt in providing roosting, laying boxes, an outdoor yard, and the convenience of releasing my hens to open pasture every day, I remained unsettled in that I hadn't quite accomplished creating the ultimate in nearly labor-free maintenance and care of my hens—I needed to take another shot at it and I needed a larger coop, as soon I had another 20 hens coming from my daughter Karen!

My thoughts known among my friends, a buddy Kevin said he had an old 28-foot, two-door travel trailer down at his place he'd give me. We pulled it out of the woods and boy did I have my work cut out for me! My cousin Franklin and son Moose helped me gut the trailer. We put in a new floor, built the roost, laying boxes, and got the A/C going. I hand painted the exterior—well, let's just say we just fluffed it up real good.

Then the self-acquired engineer in me kicked in and there was no stopping me! I designed all of the food, watering, egg gathering, and nest and manure cleaning features of the coop for exterior access convenience­—with no need to go inside except for major needs. I mounted the feeders and water container on the doors. I cut accesses and installed hinged doors on the end for cleaning and replacing the floor's straw and also on the side for gathering eggs from the nests. My granddaughter Ella loves to gather the eggs.

I constructed the yard from PVC pipe, wire fencing, and topped it with netting. I used the trailer's former cabinet doors for the yards' manual doors. I then constructed a dustbathing house for my girls using old ties, pallets, and a piece of corrugated metal for the roof, then filled it with a mixture of sifted top soil, wood stove ashes, and sand. My hens love the shade of the bath house and run to it first thing when I let them out around 3:00 p.m. to pasture until they return to the coop on their own at dusk.

My hens are now permanent residents of "Coop DeVilla" and I've wondered how it can get any better than this. Well, perhaps one more improvement—I'm just waiting for the price of those electronic doors to come down a little.

Constructing the run from PVC pipe makes it easy to move the entire set-up around, offering fresh grass for the birds when they begin to wear down the old.

Once the coop project was completed, Bill built a dustbath, which he says is the hens' favorite spot when let out to range. He used old railroad ties, pallets, and corrugated metal for the roof, offering a nice shaded spot for the birds. The bathing materials are a mixture of sifted top soil, wood stove ashes, and sand.

The back side of the coop shows the nest box access. Below: Large eyehooks were added to hold the nest box doors up while gathering eggs, making it easy for Bill’s granddaughter, Ella, to gather the eggs.

By placing the roosts above the cleaning door, Bill is able to do basic cleaning from the outside, only having to enter the coop for major cleaning tasks.

An interior view of the nest boxes.

Free-choice oyster shells are offered to the hens via this "baby pig feeder."

The chicken door leading to the run.

The trailer doors hold a waterer and feeder, again giving Bill easy access to complete the tasks from outside.