I built this modular coop, which comes apart into four pieces, this spring to serve many functions:
(1) As a stand-alone small coop to quarantine new or sick birds or as a jail for bullies:
(2) As a run extension that creates more covered, secure space when we have to keep the birds locked up or during bad weather:
(3) And, when the two roofed sections are apart, as separate covered perches within the chicken yard:
I wanted something that could move around our yard easily, so that we could put it far away from the coop during quarantine situations and then bring it back to the run area when all the birds were together. I also wanted it to be aesthetically pleasing and to roughly match the look of our larger coop.
I was surprised when I started thinking about this idea that there weren't many examples to go off of on backyardchickens. Some posted about temporary pullet coops that could come apart afterward, but I didn't see anything that came apart and could be functional during nonquarantine situations.
The coop is roughly 3.75 feet wide, 4 feet long, and 4 feet tall. It's an open air coop so the birds simply jump up to the roost to sleep and their poop falls into the run below. This works well in the warmer months and is much easier to build, but if I needed to use this in an emergency situation in the winter I'd need to do more winter proofing.
It comes apart into four pieces:
The first three pieces are held together with eye bolts:
The smallest panel is secured using a hasp and caribiner on either side. That panel is sized to match the width and depth at the end of our run, so when it is attached to the main coop and run we keep that panel off; it's only attached when the small, modular coop functions as a separate structure.
Both of the main, covered sections can have a perch in them that's roughly 2 feet high. When the sections are together I only put the perch on one side so they have space to jump up and down. Initially I only had the 2 foot high perch, but one of my pullets had trouble jumping up so I added another one to serve as a stepping stone (it was added after the other sections were built so I haven't stained it yet):
I chose to do one section with a flat roof and one section with a sloped roof because that's the best way I could think of to have them fit together and be reasonably weather resistent. There's a bit of an overhang on the higher one, which blocks rain from getting into the part where they fit together.
It's a bit hard to see in the photo below, but for the framing for the sloped section I cut the 2x4s that go vertical to be sloped at the top, and then screwed a horizontal 2x4 across the top of them. Another way to do it is to cut a "birdsmouth" joint into the 2x4 that the roof rests on, but I had a hard time doing that when we built our larger coop and I wanted an easier method for this smaller coop (I am not a woodworker in general).
Originally I didn't imagine having a nest box in the coop but it took me longer to integrate our pullets than I planned and one started laying before I was able to get them in the main coop. So I ended up building a nest box that could be added to the coop as well:
The nest box isn't ideal. It's not great that it is at the same level as the roost, but that's the only place I could think of to put it. I used the variable length pieces on the end to discourage perching on it, but that didn't entirely keep them off of it at night. So this wouldn't be a great situation for a full-time coop, but it worked as a temporary situation.
I used the same materials I used for our larger coop: 2x4 lumber, half inch hardware cloth, tongue and groove cedar siding, galvanized steel roofing, and Penofin verde wood stain (in cedar color).
I thought about putting plywood and roofing paper under the metal roofing panels, but I decided against it because of the weight it would add—I really wanted the sections to be fairly light so they could be moved easily. If I ever have to use the coop as an emergency quarantine in the winter I'd probably add material under the roof to make sure condensation wouldn't drip on the bird(s).
I did think about using 2x3 lumber to reduce weight, but I had a bunch of 2x4 lumber left over from another project and I could get additional 2x4 lumber in the 70% off bin at Home Depot. So I hardly paid anything for that.
I got the cedar siding for even more of a discount—75% off—because the pieces were a bit damaged and I asked if they would sell them to me for a discount. I was surprised how much of a discount they gave me, so this is a reminder that it's OK to ask!
For the roofing panels, I really didn't want to have to cut them so I ordered them to specific sizes through a local metal company.
Unlike what I did for my write up for our larger coop, I'm not providing step by step instructions and in-process building photos because the framing for this coop is visible in the final photos. The dimensions also aren't all that important—with this kind of design, you can tailor it to what you need.
I've now had this for a few months, and here are my pros (cons to follow):
Some cons:
I hope this post gives you some ideas if you are looking to build something similar!
(1) As a stand-alone small coop to quarantine new or sick birds or as a jail for bullies:
(2) As a run extension that creates more covered, secure space when we have to keep the birds locked up or during bad weather:
(3) And, when the two roofed sections are apart, as separate covered perches within the chicken yard:
I wanted something that could move around our yard easily, so that we could put it far away from the coop during quarantine situations and then bring it back to the run area when all the birds were together. I also wanted it to be aesthetically pleasing and to roughly match the look of our larger coop.
I was surprised when I started thinking about this idea that there weren't many examples to go off of on backyardchickens. Some posted about temporary pullet coops that could come apart afterward, but I didn't see anything that came apart and could be functional during nonquarantine situations.
The coop is roughly 3.75 feet wide, 4 feet long, and 4 feet tall. It's an open air coop so the birds simply jump up to the roost to sleep and their poop falls into the run below. This works well in the warmer months and is much easier to build, but if I needed to use this in an emergency situation in the winter I'd need to do more winter proofing.
It comes apart into four pieces:
The first three pieces are held together with eye bolts:
The smallest panel is secured using a hasp and caribiner on either side. That panel is sized to match the width and depth at the end of our run, so when it is attached to the main coop and run we keep that panel off; it's only attached when the small, modular coop functions as a separate structure.
Both of the main, covered sections can have a perch in them that's roughly 2 feet high. When the sections are together I only put the perch on one side so they have space to jump up and down. Initially I only had the 2 foot high perch, but one of my pullets had trouble jumping up so I added another one to serve as a stepping stone (it was added after the other sections were built so I haven't stained it yet):
I chose to do one section with a flat roof and one section with a sloped roof because that's the best way I could think of to have them fit together and be reasonably weather resistent. There's a bit of an overhang on the higher one, which blocks rain from getting into the part where they fit together.
It's a bit hard to see in the photo below, but for the framing for the sloped section I cut the 2x4s that go vertical to be sloped at the top, and then screwed a horizontal 2x4 across the top of them. Another way to do it is to cut a "birdsmouth" joint into the 2x4 that the roof rests on, but I had a hard time doing that when we built our larger coop and I wanted an easier method for this smaller coop (I am not a woodworker in general).
Originally I didn't imagine having a nest box in the coop but it took me longer to integrate our pullets than I planned and one started laying before I was able to get them in the main coop. So I ended up building a nest box that could be added to the coop as well:
The nest box isn't ideal. It's not great that it is at the same level as the roost, but that's the only place I could think of to put it. I used the variable length pieces on the end to discourage perching on it, but that didn't entirely keep them off of it at night. So this wouldn't be a great situation for a full-time coop, but it worked as a temporary situation.
I used the same materials I used for our larger coop: 2x4 lumber, half inch hardware cloth, tongue and groove cedar siding, galvanized steel roofing, and Penofin verde wood stain (in cedar color).
I thought about putting plywood and roofing paper under the metal roofing panels, but I decided against it because of the weight it would add—I really wanted the sections to be fairly light so they could be moved easily. If I ever have to use the coop as an emergency quarantine in the winter I'd probably add material under the roof to make sure condensation wouldn't drip on the bird(s).
I did think about using 2x3 lumber to reduce weight, but I had a bunch of 2x4 lumber left over from another project and I could get additional 2x4 lumber in the 70% off bin at Home Depot. So I hardly paid anything for that.
I got the cedar siding for even more of a discount—75% off—because the pieces were a bit damaged and I asked if they would sell them to me for a discount. I was surprised how much of a discount they gave me, so this is a reminder that it's OK to ask!
For the roofing panels, I really didn't want to have to cut them so I ordered them to specific sizes through a local metal company.
Unlike what I did for my write up for our larger coop, I'm not providing step by step instructions and in-process building photos because the framing for this coop is visible in the final photos. The dimensions also aren't all that important—with this kind of design, you can tailor it to what you need.
I've now had this for a few months, and here are my pros (cons to follow):
- I love how multifunctional this coop is. I didn't want to build a coop that would only be used on the rare occasion when I have to quarantine new birds, which I don't do every year. This design allows me to use it all the time. Now, when we go away on vacation, we'll keep the chickens locked up with the run extension securely attached to the end.
- I can now throw out my old pre fab coop that is an eye sore and is not very secure, which I had been keeping as a quarantine coop. Sadly, a racooon broke into it when I was quarantining pullets earlier this year and killed them. That's what spurred me to build this more secure quarantine coop.
- Having a secure quarantine coop created peace of mind when pullet integration took longer than planned. I ended up doing a month of quarantine in a separate part of the yard and (after moving the set up to the chicken yard) a few weeks of "see but don't touch." Then, I locked up a bully in the quarantine coop for a few weeks until she integrated safely with the pullets. It was nice not to have to worry about a raccoon breaking in during all that time.
- The coop sections are surprisingly light and they can be moved around the yard easily.
- The coop has two doors. This was more work to build—than, say, one door—but I was glad I did that. It's good to have multiple access points.
Some cons:
- When I designed this, I imagined that it would be a breeze to put all the pieces together. In reality, it does take some time to get the sections level and lined up to get the eye bolts in. I also put hardware cloth skirting down around the coop and that took time to move and secure.
- The quarantine space isn't huge but I think it's OK for one or two birds for short periods of time.
- I imagined the girls would like the two sections separated from one another so they could have perches to jump up on in their chicken yard. That vision didn't really come to fruition—they haven't really used it for that purpose. So I might just end up keeping them together so I don't have anything to move before we leave on vacations.
- I'm not sure it was necessary to build the front panel as a separate removeable structure. The section it attaches to (the one with the slanted roof) isn't very heavy so it probably would have been fine to build it into that section rather than making a removable panel. I'm now finding that I might actually just keep it attached all the time (I had originally imagined just attaching it when we went away) and if I had known that would be the case it would have been easier (and more weather protected) to just have it be part of that section.
I hope this post gives you some ideas if you are looking to build something similar!
