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There’s a growing debate among chicken owners: the mobile vs. stationary chicken coop - which setup works best for your flock’s needs and the space you have to work with?
Mobile chicken coops have earned a place everywhere from simple backyard setups to housing chickens on massive free-range farms.
Which one is better for you, though? Should you try one of the new mobile options, or is a more traditional coop a better idea?
We’re going to go over a variety of factors to help you understand where you fit in with a mobile chicken coop vs stationary options for your flock.
Raising chickens is a lot of hard work. Many new chicken keepers underestimate that, and they end up getting overwhelmed very quickly.
One of the biggest sources of stress for chicken owners is how much cleaning and maintenance a coop actually requires. After all, the chickens mostly take care of their own needs as long as you provide the resources.
Mobile chicken coops have a distinct advantage here.
First, you can move the coop around. This lets you take it away from the area where your chickens are for deep cleaning and not make all their ground turn into mud or contaminate their area with any cleaning agents used.
Then, there’s the open design of the coop. It’s a lot easier to clean every detail of the coop without having to hunch over, crawl in, and do it the traditional way. A lot, if not all, of the cleaning can be done from outside the coop.
One of the biggest benefits of mobile chicken coops is convenience, especially if mobility is a challenge and you'd rather avoid spending time hunched over doing heavy upkeep.
Another clear benefit is that mobile chicken coops are made of metal and polymers. There is very little maintenance required to keep the actual coop itself in good shape.
A traditional stationary coop requires you to crawl into a cramped, hot, coop and stay there for the whole cleaning process, and you have to consider that anything you use to clean the coop is going to be staying there since you can’t move the coop.
They’re also traditionally made of wood. You have to maintain that wood carefully if you want it to last for a long time, and neglect can cause risky issues such as cave-ins, roofing issues, and more that might even harm your chickens eventually.
In pretty much every way, it is easier to maintain a mobile chicken coop.
While we’re talking about maintenance, we should cover how each one affects your land.
If you leave chickens in one place, they’ll tear up every scrap of green and leave a lifeless patch in your yard, and you have to worry about their droppings accumulating and creating unsanitary conditions.
With a mobile coop, the chickens still peck at the foliage and certainly defecate all over the place, but there’s a difference. If you responsibly move them regularly, they act a lot like a 2-in-1 lawnmower and fertilizer.
They don’t overwhelm the spot they’re on, and instead, they end up helping you have healthier land as you move them around. This goes for the smallest backyards to the biggest farms.
This isn’t just easier to deal with. It actively reduces the amount of work you have to do, and since mobile chicken coops are so easy to move, it’s not even strenuous to move them around every few days or so.
This is a big one, and it’s probably what most chicken keepers are concerned with when it comes to mobile chicken coops vs stationary coops. Traditional coops are as safe as you make them.
We’ll give them that point. With the right fencing and construction, your chickens are safe and sound against the weather and predators.
Mobile chicken coops are somewhat the same. Except, they defend against predators, heat, and rain extremely well right from the start.
The only way mobile coops fall behind is when winter hits. While there are practical ways to keep your flock warm, they usually require a bit of prep. You typically need to put in a day’s work each year before winter starts to winterize them. It’s more difficult to keep them set up for all seasons at all times.
However, since you save so much time and energy all year round, winterizing your mobile coop isn’t a big drawback.
You have to have a coop big enough for your flock, or none of this stuff matters. So, let’s compare the two.
With a traditional coop, you have to build it. So, you can make it as big or as small as you want.
With a mobile chicken coop, you can’t really adjust the size. However, there are a wide variety of sizes available: from the compact 6x8 and mid-sized 10x12 coops to spacious 12x12 setups. They’re all conveniently charted to show you how many chickens can go in one of each size, depending on the type of chicken you’re raising.
Hundreds of chickens can be held in the largest models, while small backyard options are designed for a couple of dozen chickens.
You might not be able to make your mobile coop bigger by building onto it, but because of the next talking point we’ll cover, it’s easy to buy multiple coops without having to build anything, and it ends up working out monetarily.
Of course, it’s important to watch your costs. Whether you’re a backyard chicken keeper living an average life, paycheck to paycheck, or a livestock farmer who needs to carefully manage finances to keep the farm open, money is crucial.
So, which one is cheaper?
This depends.
A traditional coop can be made by hand very cheaply if it’s small. However, it’s also unlikely to last long, and requires more maintenance, and those savings will disappear, and the costs will skyrocket if you ever decide to upgrade it a bit.
Mobile chicken coops are made to last and minimize the work you put in. You should expect to spend around a grand on an average coop.
However, it will last for decades with almost no difficult maintenance, it’s better for your property, and if you grow your flock dramatically, you just buy a second one. No complex expansions are needed.
In the end, the mobile coop ends up being more cost-effective thanks to its quality and the benefits it provides.
If you’re ready to start keeping chickens and want to minimize the tasks you have to do to maintain them, pick up a mobile chicken coop from Chicken Ranger today! Feel free to give us a call to place your order, ask questions, or get help choosing the right coop for your flock.