my new turkey tractor

under construction


the battery-powered electric fence charger


mixed group of inhabitants


roost and food areas covered


Bourbon Red modeling the roost


I finished my PVC turkey tractor. I took the standard PVC chicken tractor design and raised the height to 36 inches, and made a peaked area for roosting. It's hard to tell in the photos, but there is a wire running around through the ends of the pieces of pipe that stick out all around. It's keeping the raccoons at bay very well. Every once in a while at night I hear a pained yelp-scream coming from out there, and I cackle to myself. I lost a lot of my heritage birds to coons earlier this summer, and had to buy an emergency batch of BBWs; that's why there are the older heritage birds and the younger BBWs in the tractor together right now.

I'm happy with my tractor so far. It's easy to move around so they are on fresh ground every day.

wow very nice! You did a great job i'm impressed, do you hire out?

Steve

How easy is it to move, what size PVC did you use, and do you allow others to copy the design? If so, what are the total dimensions? That looks really nice!!! DH built me a chicken tractor, and decided to beef up the lumber frame. Nice and sturdy, but... I don't think chicken tractor is supposed to mean that you need a tractor to move it.

That's nice but I'm wondering if you get many thundersorms up that way. I'm afraid something that light would get flipped over pretty often down here.

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I used the 1-inch PVC. Feel free to copy and modify as needed... I adapted the design from others I saw posted here and elsewhere on the web. It's 36 inches high (excepting the peaked part, which adds another 2 and 1/2 feet, roughly), and the footprint is 8 ft X 12 ft. The "Tuftex" plastic panels are 26 inches X 8 ft, so that's how I decided on the width.

I can move it myself; I'm moderately strong but no superwoman, so I think most people could do it. What I did to move it is drill holes through all the bottom pipes, and then I ran four ropes through the holes, and tied them together onto a handle at the ends. You can see them lying on the ground if you look closely. When I want to move it, I pull the rope, and that way most of the force is actually on the rear pipe, so it doesn't come apart when I pull, and it rides pretty easily over bumpy terrain.

It seems really sturdy... I was a little worried that it was going to be too flimsy, but everything I read said that 1-inch pipe was sufficient, and it seems true. It flexes enough to hug the ground and eliminate gaps, but it doesn't sag.

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I was worried about it getting flipped over in high winds, too. I had planned to put a couple of nylon straps (like the ones you use to secure cargo in a truck bed) over it and anchor them to heavy-duty tent stakes, but I forgot about it until you said something! It hasn't been stormy this past month... and I don't think we get the kind of storms you get down South here. We do get a few, though. I will let you know how it goes!

I love your tractor design. I have a smaller one for my meat chickens. How did you hook up the electric fence? Do you drive a new ground rod every time you move the tractor or do you use a long ground wire? I want to do the same set up you have.

moodychicken7 said:

I love your tractor design. I have a smaller one for my meat chickens. How did you hook up the electric fence? Do you drive a new ground rod every time you move the tractor or do you use a long ground wire? I want to do the same set up you have.

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@10ducks hasn't visited the site since the first of June. This is a 5 year old thread and your best chance of getting a response soon from the OP would be to PM that person since most members are set to receive an email notice of a PM.

Hi, I used the ground rod that came with that green electric fence charger you can see in one of the photos. It's only about 30 inches long. So it was easy to move every day along along with the tractor. My understanding of ground rods is that if you have relatively damp soil, you can get away with a short one. It's always seemed so work for me. I put a clamp on the end of the ground wire so it was easy to connect and disconnect... I forget what they are called but they look like miniatures of the clamps on auto charging cables if that makes sense.

Thanks for the info. I just purchased a solar unit and I will be trying it out in a few days. I will be playing around with the ground portion. Sounds like the smaller the diameter the fence is the more you can get away with. Again love the pvc turkey tractor! Pvc is the grown ups Legos.