My wife and I have wanted to raise chickens(for the eggs) and we finally decided to do it this spring. I have read a lot about pastured chicken and wanted to create a mobile coop so that the chickens would not destroy the yard. I have a fairly decent sized yard for the burbs so I hope to move the coop every day or every other day if possible. Hopefully there will be enough space to rotate efficiently I am planning on using mobile fencing to limit the chickens to an area around the coop. This would be moved with the coop everyday as well. So coming up with a system to make this simple is an important goal.
Also I have messed around with the Arduino over the years and thought it would be a great tool for reporting the temperature, water use and closing the doors at night. I hope to use Zigbee to transmit the data back to a pc in the house, then display the data on a web page for remote viewing. The general dimensions are 4 feet by 3 feet with a height of 5 feet on the high side and 4 on the low. It will be raised 2 feet off the ground to keep the critters away and have less impact on the grass.
Items left(items will be removed as they are add to the instructable):
Update:
Still searching for some cedar shingles for the siding.
Added Roof Step 5
Added Door and Ramp Step 6
Added Electronics Step 7
Added Software Step 8
Automation(motor problems)
For more detail: Mobile Chicken Coop with some automation using Arduino