![Brad Coghlan showing off the ten-chicken caravan at the Australian National Field Days. Picture by Riley Krause. Brad Coghlan showing off the ten-chicken caravan at the Australian National Field Days. Picture by Riley Krause.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/YN4FA67iw2pXwXjwm2vmnJ/64e3a619-c5d6-4456-a475-536a47fd5ef0.JPG/r0_110_4928_3264_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
John Rullis and Brad Coghlan are changing the way you look after your chickens.
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Making their Australian National Field Days debut in 2022, the team from Chicken Caravans were displaying mobile coops which are entirely solar powered.
"We had set up a dairy farm about 15 years ago and we had the chickens running behind the dairy cattle to break all the manure up and to build our soils up," Mr Rullis said.
"That all worked, but we wanted to make it mobile so we didn't have to clean out coops."
Since then, they have developed mobile caravans of varying sizes that can fit anywhere between ten and 600 chooks at a time.
Mr Rullis said everything from giving the chooks a place to lay, to putting them to bed was all automated. This allowed people the option to "set and forget."
"We have a feeder as well, so if you wanted to go away for three days, this setup will keep your girls, fed, watered and alive," he said.
"Whether its sunrise or sunset, we set our timers and the doors will open and close when we tell them to."
![Brad Coghlan and John Rullis with the 30-chicken coop. Picture by Riley Krause. Brad Coghlan and John Rullis with the 30-chicken coop. Picture by Riley Krause.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/YN4FA67iw2pXwXjwm2vmnJ/cfbecb71-c44e-4299-acbb-cc488b8c4b8c.JPG/r0_142_4928_3197_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"We collect our eggs and at 2pm because the chickens have all laid by then. So what you want to do is close your nesting box so they don't manure in there and that is all set automatically and runs off the solar energy stored in the nine-volt battery."
The thought to make the coops mobile was also to ensure the chickens are kept safe from any potential predators.
"You don't have the mice, rat, snake or goanna problems because they want a full, fixed shed," Mr Rullis said.
"We do a double floor, so if any foxes did come in they can't get to your chickens as well."
So what type of price are you looking at to turn your chickens into grey nomads? Well the 10-chook caravan comes in $3300, while a 600-chicken space will set you back about $35,000.
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