Chicken coop

Claim 1

A chicken coop comprising a generally horizontally extending bottom structure of generally rectangular shape in plan, a generally horizontally extending top structure of similar rectangular shape in plan, a four-sided peripheral wall structure extending vertically between the periphery of said bottom structure and the periphery of said top structure, said peripheral wall structure being molded integrally with one of said horizontally extending structures of a plastic material, the other of said horizontally extending structures being separately molded of a plastic material, said peripheral wall structure including a plurality of horizontally spaced vertically coextensive elongated elements integrally connected at one of their ends with the periphery of said one horizontally extending structure and a continuous peripheral portion integrally connected at the opposite ends of said elongated elements, each of said elongated elements including an inner portion disposed inwardly of the adjacent peripheral portion and presenting a smooth interior peripheral surface which merges smoothly into the peripheral surface of the remaining portion of said elongated element, the inner portion of each elongated element forming the maximum thickness thereof measured in the direction of horizontal extent of the adjacent peripheral portion, the thickness of each elongated element measured in a direction perpendicular to said maximum thickness being at least as great as said maximum thickness, said other horizontally extending structure having a peripheral portion constructed to cooperatively interengage with said first mentioned peripheral portion, means for fixedly securing said peripheral portions in cooperative interengagement, said top structure having a portion disposed inwardly of said peripheral portion formed with an access opening therein of a size to permit the passage of a plurality of chickens therethrough, the remaining portion of said top structure inwardly of said peripheral portion being of perforate configuration, perforate door means mounted for movement into opening and closing relation to said access opening, and upper and lower stacking elements adjacent the periphery of said top and bottom structures respectively operable when a plurality of like chicken coops are disposed in vertically stacked relation to interengage with the lower and upper stacking elements respectively of chicken coops disposed thereabove and therebelow in the stack formation.