Chicken tractors?

My brother had a group of people called ”Mongs” (?) raiseing chickens on him for years. They had 10’x20′ pens with covered roofs. Every day they set the pen forward about 3′. the bigger the birds the farther. Had a 3gal. waterer hanging as well. They picked everything down to the roots. What grew back was the best looking grass he had. All weeds were in check and the ground was well fertlized.

He does the same thing for him self with about 50 each year now.

My wife just told me i should not call them that but don’t know them by any other name. Not meanning to slur anyone.

I made an A-frame chicken tractor last year out of 2×4’s and plywood enclosed upper, but I find it to be rather heavier than I’d like, as I’m moving it by hand. This year, I plan on making them out of cattle panels, much like these:

http://thelazybfarm.com/new-chicken-tractor

I have a few cattle panel sheep/goat shelters that are very similar, and they just can’t be beat for portability/cost/ease of assembly/space. You can make it as long as you need with more cattle panels. The only drawback is that if you get a heavy wind, depending on how much tarp you have covering it, it will blow over or bend the cattle panels skewed. With the sheep I have tarp across the whole thing, and I have to make an A-Frame at either end to support the panels with sort of a beam running down underneath the middle of the top.

– Sean

Oh – And another suggestion: go to here: http://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/2/Coops

There are so many designs, and the best one for you is what fits your financial, time and pasturing goals, including the ease of moving it.  There is also the possibility of  keeping a coop in the center of you pasture and rotating an electric chicken fence around it in pie shaped wedges.

Here is a good read with many options http://www.plamondon.com/chicken-coops.html, i find the Salatin structure hard to move and hard to catch birds in when the time comes.  I like the type that use bent conduit like this one, http://www.grit.com/multimedia/image-gallery.aspx?id=4294979516&seq=4, they are easy to work in, shed rain and snow well, laying boxes can be added to the back wall, and you can use it as a tractor or a coop with fencing.

Best of luck with the new chicken endeavor, there is nothing like a fresh home raised egg or meat bird, come to think of it I should take one out of the freezer, I have been hording the last few 🙂

You may have already started your construction on your new coops, but I had a few thoughts on design. We started with 4 chicken tractors for our flock of 50 hens that all moved side by side. Had  simple drop down wheels and giant wheelbarrow handles on the other end so one man could move the tractor. We stopped using this design and built our coop on an old 4 wheel running gear, set up with flexible poultry netting around it. Mostly because we are often traveling quite far between chicken moves. Depending on the time of year and where the crops are at, we may be on a portion of the market garden one day and then out on the grass pastures the next. This simplified our chores and I feel is easier on the pastures and our backs. We now move this wagon with 200 hens behind the for-cart every day in the summer. At night we close the door, which is about 2 1/2 feet off the ground and have never had a predator problem. So I guess something to consider is how far your moving the hens and how frequently you plan to move them.  I am very pleased with having the coop on wheels and would recommend it. Good luck

As far as the ground rod goes.. we simply use an old tedder tine. When they break usually its at the spring, leaving the spring and about 10 inches or so of rod, makes for a convinient step in, clip on spot for the ground wire, and handle for pulling it back out again. This works well unless the soil gets really dry in which case we will dump a little bit of water over the ground during watering chores.

In times like this with the ground rod,my grandfather used a old pitch fork.  Had the ground wire clamped to the center of the step.  It was easy to get good contact and to find as well.