chicken tractor for cold climate?

[kefiren]

hello! my first coop was a home-made chicken tractor. i loved it. since then we've built several stationary coops inside a large paddock. however, we recently have had bobcat predations and so i've given up on the semi-free range. half my flock has been eaten. also, the winters are getting tough on me and i'd like to have a small coop right up near the house instead of 500 feet away. we get snow measured in feet and get to 20 below degrees F.

our original chicken tractor was SOO heavy and so i'm actually thinking of buying one instead this time. recommendations?

thanks in advance!

 

[SunHwaKwon]

For how many birds?

 

[kefiren]

i'm flexible but perhaps a dozen?

 

[snow5164]

We made a 2x4 base frame and used pvc bent in a arc , covered with stucco wire . It's really light weight.

 

[kefiren]

interesting snow! i've been looking at the ones that are for sale and they generally only take like 4 chickens. i wonder why? was i really jamming my chickens in? haha they seemed fine with the small chicken tractor i had. i guess ignorance is bliss. but when you are moving them all the time, they are very happy, and they snuggled into the roosting space...

 

[kefiren]

this is not my tractor, but similar to the one i had
http://thecitychicken.com/tractor32.jpg

 

[kefiren]

i truly don't remember how many birds i put it it, maybe 8 max?

 

[centrarchid]

In a heavy snow setting I would abandon the tractor concept during the winter. Two feet of snow shuts me down when comes to moving my pens and that is with weight saved at expense of weather protection. My tractors are much smaller weighing less than 30 lbs yet I can not move them effectively in deep snow. Hardened run is my suggestion with enlarged coop for winter quarters.

 

[kefiren]

centrarchid, i think you are right. also... since the "bought" chicken tractors are so tiny, i also started thinking of putting just my four best layers into a chicken tractor (seasonally) while older ladies stay in a stationary coop/run run full time.

i have a very nice little chicken barn that is warm, (dirt floor rather than off the ground). i have another coop that is off the ground and much colder and the chickens in that got frozen combs. very windy here. if i could wave a magic wand i'd move the dirt-floor chicken barn closer to the house. but hubs says it wasn't built for moving. perhaps that is a topic for another thread!

last year i had the flu and a fever and had to carry heavy buckets through 2 feet of snow to the far coop...and almost didn't make it. here in new england barns are often connected right to the old houses. hubs put our paddock far away because he was afraid of "stink".

when i had a chicken tractor my lawn was great! the girls ate the grubs i think.