Just like the title says, can anyone offer advice for a scrap made chicken tractor? We are just using what we have available and this is what we have so far. Nesting boxes are a small section from an old chicken house that will be welded onto this frame.
My issue is how to do a roosting area? We have hot summers and cold winters, zone 6b, so it can't just be a roof and roosting pole, it has to be better protected from the elements.
We have so much more of the galvanized steel pipe (we believe they were several large trampolines) and a decent amount of tin. A pile of 2x4s and several rolls of chicken wire. The frame so far is 16×7 feet.
Any advice is greatly appreciated or if there is a better sub for this kind of advice I would appreciate that as well.
Edited to add: this is for laying hens. We currently have a heavy wooden A-frame style one that they live in year round with no issues, but it is getting old and the design was never great as the roost is above the nests so they poop in the nest. It can technically be moved by hand but not by me. I use the lawnmower to move it. We also have an actual tractor to move this new one if we make it too heavy
Thanks!
by Immediate-Lettuce653
9 Comments
They need out of the wind and out of the rain/snow with a ventilated coop. You’d be surprised what they can take winter wise.
Keep it as light as possible. I played the waaaaay to heavy game before and it made it a chore move
I found this design years ago and have it saved.
https://youtu.be/a6GIX1BuhtM?si=hq22fPi5Nx0B8Zzb
I always liked how large it was but easy to roll and steer with the bike parts but also the consideration for the fold down wire to keep things out but it folds up for easy transport.
Look around online you’ll find great ideas out there. You’re the one who knows the materials you have at hand so let your ingenuity and imagination run.
Good luck
If youre not using a vehicle to move it- focus your design on being light weight (without sacrificing predator security)
Heavy, cumbersome chicken tractors will make you hate them inside of a month.
Where are you located? A chicken tractor in my area is really only possible for half the year.
I would wrap the whole thing in chicken wire and then a tarp on 3 sides. If it’s for meat birds you don’t need roosting bars. Otherwise you’ll just have to build something using the frame.
I also found it easiest to hang the feeder and water on a rope/chain so I didn’t have to pick it up when I moved it or work around slopes.
Build it light unless you are dragging it with a tractor. Our trampoline framed chicken run would be to heavy to move. The framining gets heavy quick
The cheap vevor run we have is a fraction of the weight granted the pipe wall is much much thinner.
My advice is don’t.
Use electric poultry netting with a solar electric fencer. It keeps out everything and is easy to move.
I have three chicken tractors that I can stand up inside of. I am 5 foot 6 inches tall. I used metal hoops for the front and back hoop and plastic gray PVC conduit for the two middle hoops. They are 10 foot by 10 foot. I did put some sheet metal on the sides to keep my goats from bursting through the sides. I used 2 inch by 4 inch welded wire on the flat ends. I put some chicken wire or hardware cloth on the bottom of the 2 inch by 4 inch welded wire so raccoons couldn’t reach in and grab chickens or chicks. I used some weird plastic sheets that go between stuff on pallets to cover the rest of the roof for two of the the chicken tractors. I used poly foamed vinyl corrugated plastic roofing for the rest of the roof on the third chicken tractor. The base is 2 inch by 6 inch boards. I fasten the hoops to the boards with pipe clamp stuff and screws and or metal strapping. I put one piece of metal pipe on the top and I can hang the feeders and waterers from that.
I usually raised 33 meat birds in the chicken tractors but I have raised pullets in there too. Some toes with a hole cut in the side make good nesting boxes. You can put in roosting bars for layers. I have done it before.
I put some wheels on mine. Too heavy for me to drag. But I can move them with my riding lawn mower.
You should be good using those metal hoops. That angle iron might be a bit heavy.
You can run a piece of 2 by 4 down from the top of a hoop to the bottom of the frame on each hoop. Then you should be able to run a roost bar across the pen by screwing it onto the 2 x 4 on each end.
I actually have a stationary chicken coop made with metal hoops covered in reused sheet metal. I put the roost bars in it pretty much how I explained using some 2x 4 pieces. I used an old storm door from our house for the man door in one end and a chicken door in the other end. It all sits on a 2 by 6 pressure treated base. Been using it for years. I keep my free range egg layers in that coop.
The hoop style coops and tractor seem to pretty wind resistant. I wrapped my chicken tractors in 6 mil plastic when it was cold and I was raising meat chickens in them.
Invest in big wheels with solid tires it’ll be way easier to move.
Keep it light
Uses hardware cloth for the floor instead of chicken wire.