Why a mobile chicken house?

Mobile chicken coops are becoming an increasingly popular form of free-range chicken housing. They are often chosen by farmers who already have their own poultry farm, by farmers looking for an alternative use to manage their pastures and fields, or by those who simply see it as good, forward-looking business.

However, there is an opportunity for any farmer to get into this type of farming as it is an activity that does not require as much commitment and money as investing in stationary poultry houses.

However, many of you probably see the many advantages of a mobile poultry house and yet have wondered more than once whether buying one is really a good idea. Will it bring the expected benefits? One thing is for sure: if you don’t decide to make this investment, you won’t know!

In our last post, we described the main benefits of a mobile chicken house, focusing mainly on how its mobility and the chickens living in it affect the condition of the meadows and fields, and conversely, the impact that constant access to fresh grass has on the chickens.

However, this was only an introduction to what we would like to share with you in this post!

The undisputed benefit of mobile chicken coops is that they offer the possibility to keep fewer chickens (200-250 chickens). This makes it possible for small farms in particular to “start” keeping chickens without a great financial risk. This is because, unlike a stationary poultry house, a mobile hen house can always be sold in the event of a difficulty, just like any other agricultural machine. The purchase of a mobile poultry house is a low-cost factor compared to the construction of a stationary house. It is also often possible to obtain subsidies for the purchase of mobile poultry houses that comply with ecological standards and requirements, upon submission of the relevant documentation.

It could give the impression that the workload in a mobile chicken house is much higher than in a stationary house, but this depends on the number of chickens kept, the size of the house and its level of automation. In a mobile poultry house in our production, for example, no more than half an hour a day is needed to check the feed, to check the processes in the poultry house in general and to collect the eggs in the poultry house.  The 600-litre water tank is filled up every 7 days on average, and this does not require much effort either – just connect the hose and check the water level in the tank (this does not take more than 40 minutes, and in the meantime, you can do other work in the poultry house, such as refilling the feed containers). Also, manure removal will not take much time because, as in most mobile poultry houses, we used a belt system, and it takes no more than 30 minutes to remove the manure from the belt. 

So, by planning the activities in the mobile poultry house well, all the required activities can be done efficiently and in optimal time, and most importantly, you don’t need staff to manage it. Most of these activities can be done alone.

What deserves special attention is the power supply system of the mobile chicken houses.

Most of them are equipped with photovoltaic panels that can supply the entire poultry house with electricity on sunny days. It is therefore not necessary to constantly connect the poultry house to the electricity grid or to use a power generator every day, which significantly reduces the maintenance costs of the mobile poultry house. 

Moreover, thanks to this independence from the electricity grid, the poultry house does not have to be located on a plot of land right next to the farm but can just as easily be erected in a meadow some distance from the house.

Many farmers decide not to buy a mobile chicken coop because they have concerns about the safety of the animals outdoors, and these fears are partly justified. When investing in a mobile chicken house, one must expect that the lives of free-range chickens are at greater risk than those of chickens living in sheds or in much smaller runs near farms. However, manufacturers of mobile chicken coops are responding to farmers’ concerns by introducing several measures to protect chickens from foxes, martens, or birds of prey. One of these is the electric fence, which, in combination with other safety measures, ensures that the chickens feel safe not only inside the coop, but also outside.

In our offer you will find, among other things, a special protective net over the run that covers an area of 22.5 m2 and thus creates a “safe zone” for the chickens in case of danger.

When deciding to buy a mobile hen house, there are many factors that will affect the selection of the right mobile hen house tailored to your needs.

However, we recommend choosing a model that is largely automated, as you will then have much more time to focus on marketing and the well-being of your chickens.

Therefore, we invite you to take a look at our mobile chicken house models. Contact us for a non-binding offer.