Chicken tractors?

[Plowboy]

Does anyone have any advice about chicken tractors. Our family got out of raising chickens when I was in high school. Now after 15 years I bought some pullets ready to lay 2 yrs ago. Last year I wanted to get some chicks so my kids could watch them grow. When I ordered I decided to get 20 broilers and 15 sex link pullets. At first I modified a big wooden crate into a brooder then built a pen for them after they feathered out and everything went well. However last year feed was at a record high so I got thinking about using a chicken tractor to improve my pasture as well as offset feed costs. I ordered 15 pullets and 25 meat birds this year so I’m thinking I will have to build 2 5-6ft wide and 14-16 ft long wth a roof and windbreak on one end. Probably on 4×4 skids with corner braces to prevent racking while towing it. Am I on the right track? Anyone have an advice or downfalls for using one? How about predator problems? Thanks Dennis

[Andy Carson]

Do you have a dog to run around on the outside of these pens/tractors? In my case, raccoons were a problem before I had a guard dog because they could and would hang out outside the coop and tinker with ways to get at the birds inside. If a dog is around to chase the raccoons away before they have time to find a way at those birds, the defenses don’t have to be so strong. This saves substantial amounts of money and time on fencing. I have lost perhaps one young pullet to a flying predator (Maybe a great horned owl??), despite free ranging during the day for a couple years now. I don’t worry about flying predators with full-sized adult birds. Knock on wood…

[j.l.holt]

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.

[bdcasto]

I found this article to be of great help in the past. I’ve also had good pasture response from rotating birds like this.

http://www.plamondon.com/chicken-coops.html

BD Casto
New Carlisle, OH

[sean518]

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

[Robert MoonShadow]

@j.l.holt 40584 wrote:

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.

The group you’re referring to is probably the Hmongs – an indigenous group from Laos/Viet Nam/Cambodia – my brothers knew them well during the Viet Nam war – good people, the ones I met – it’s not a slur, it’s their group/tribal name for themselves.
As for the chicken tractor: I just leaned two cattle panels together at the top, zip-tied the tops of them together, spread the bottoms apart & wrapped chicken wire around the whole thing, with cut-out door at one end, access “windows” and a couple of boxes wired onto the sides for the layers. Moved it as needed simply by picking up one end & dragging it slowly – so they’ve got time to move along with it. Not too easily moved on rough ground, though. I learned real quick to unhang the feeders/waterers before moving – packs a wallop for you or the birds, otherwise. {Um, just take my word for that one! } Threw a tarp over half of it for shade…

[Robert MoonShadow]

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

[JayChase]

I made one with 4x4x16 skids that was 8 ft wide… Used welded wire for the sides and 2×4 for the “rafters” and a 30″ wide house at the end.  I made the mistake of not having enough perches and lost 10 young pullets. I put cross pieces between the rafters and a tarp over them. Haven’t lost any since (keep crossing fingers)!

[dominiquer60]

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 🙂

 

[Plowboy]

Thanks everyone for your advice. It’s hard for me to simplify with deep roots in construction as well as farming. I think it the frame may be fairly heavy but sturdy and offer years of service and hard for predators to lift when trying to burrow under. It will definately be trial and error. We have coyotes and bobcats nearby but so far when I forget to lock up the hens nothing has bothered them in the yard.  I guess that is why I am thinking sturdy would be better. With feed and chick prices going up I hate to lose any. I’ll try to post pictures when I get one done. Might try and build the first one in the next couple of weeks. Thanks again for your ideas. I’m sure I’ll encorporate some of them into my frame design. Dennis

[wild millers]

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

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[Plowboy]

I have a question about the electric poultry netting. Every electric fence I have seen requires a ground rod. I’m not crazy about driving ground rods all over the farm unless it is just a small removable spike. The tractor is going to be primarily for meat birds. My hens are in a permanent coop with an outside yard and shut in every night. We start new pullets each year and sell the batch from the previous year while they are still laying well. The red sex links lay upwards of 90%. We have 16 now and get 15-16 eggs consistently each day even in the winter. THe meat birds were cornish rocks and were 8 1/2-10lbs at 9 weeks last year with no leg problems on commercial feed in the barn. I thought this year I would slow the growth on grass and butcher some at lighter weights and cut them up. A family of four with 2 young kids can eat a lot of meals out of a 10lb chicken! Sometimes you get tired of it before it’s gone.

 

[wild millers]

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.

[dominiquer60]

I have a 2.5 foot heavy copper wire that I use as a ground rod when I am moving frequently.  It isn’t what is recommended for a ground rod, but it is easy to slide into the ground and the fence is effective, so I keep using it.  Like the Millers I use water on the ground rod when it gets dry out.  Recently I have lost track of the heavy wire and I am using a small piece of rebar and a hammer. I found the wire this winter, but darned if I could find it today.

 

[j.l.holt]

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.

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