Chicken Tractor

[nanasohana]

Have these been discussed yet?
http://home.centurytel.net/thecitychicken/tractors.html



Edited by - Nancy Fryhover on 07/21/2007 13:59:59

[Rob Tucker]

Some nice coop designs. I think I'll build one.

Mahalo

Punaweb moderator

[Hotzcatz]

We made one out of PVC pipe and chicken wire. It worked real well to keep the young chickens contained until they got bigger, but if the bottom has gaps big enough for mongooses to get in, it is big trouble. We lost a whole batch of three-quarter grown hens to a mongoose when the edges of the pen weren't staked down and there was a gap big enough for the mongoose to slide under. Had the hens been able to run away, I think they would have all been fine. If we were to use it again, we would probably stake the edges of the pen down each time it was moved.

[Nalu]

We originally intended to build one similiar to one of those on that site, but it got too big to be really portable. Another factor is you would need to have a reasonably flat yard for it to work right. After we built ours we moved it around a tons of times until we could get it in a flat spot. it made me realize that for our hilly yard it wasn't a real option. If it's not on level and flat ground you would have gaps in the bottom where mongoose could get in. I think our compromise is to make a large fenced run, that we will let the girls out in while we're home. But I think chicken tractors are a great idea it just didn't work out for us. Angela

[Hotzcatz]

Our neighbor has a huge "deluxe" movable chicken coop. It is about ten by fourteen feet or so. They moved it a couple of times but now it pretty much stays in one spot. I think the chickens are supposed to dig up the area under their "tractor" hence the name "tractor" but I don't know how many people around here actually use the chickens to till up the ground.