Day-use chicken tractor space?

[BanoOmg]

Hello again, oh fountain of chicken knowledge!

We're looking to build a day use chicken tractor for eight birds. I am not comfortable with leaving them out free ranging, due to brave hawks and coyotes. We're looking to make a cage-range run.

Are the space requirements the same for a regular chicken run? 80sqft for the eight birds?

I've searched the forum and looked at several tractor designs here, but didn't see anything about space to bird ratio.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Aunt Tat]

I love everyone's sense of humor on these forums!

 

[3KillerBs]

Meat birds are often tractored at higher densities because they are, essentially, very large chicks in a mobile brooder. They're too young for adult hormones to trigger the same territoriality and pecking-order conflicts that adult birds would have and they are specifically bred to stand high-density living without stress.

The hatchery notes on some breeds include the phrase "tolerates close confinement" -- though individual birds may vary.

Run space isn't just about sanitation and foraging, it's also about space for chickens to be chickens -- working out their social behavior. Crowded chickens who don't have room for subordinate birds to properly demonstrate their acceptance of the higher-ups' dominance often develop significant behavioral problems even if frequent moves to clean ground fixes the sanitation problems that go along with crowding.

It might work -- with a certain set of birds.

Or it might turn into a bloodbath.

 

[BanoOmg]

Meat birds are often tractored at higher densities because they are, essentially, very large chicks in a mobile brooder. They're too young for adult hormones to trigger the same territoriality and pecking-order conflicts that adult birds would have and they are specifically bred to stand high-density living without stress.

The hatchery notes on some breeds include the phrase "tolerates close confinement" -- though individual birds may vary.

Run space isn't just about sanitation and foraging, it's also about space for chickens to be chickens -- working out their social behavior. Crowded chickens who don't have room for subordinate birds to properly demonstrate their acceptance of the higher-ups' dominance often develop significant behavioral problems even if frequent moves to clean ground fixes the sanitation problems that go along with crowding.

It might work -- with a certain set of birds.

Or it might turn into a bloodbath.

That's a lot of good information, but I don't think it really answers my question.

Are you saying 10sqft per chicken is NOT enough for a mobile run?

 

[rosemarythyme]

Probably depends on how well the birds get along, and how long they'll be left in there...

I don't have a tractor but I used to use a lightweight pen that could easily move around, 16 sq ft, and I put 4 hens that got on well enough in there. I wouldn't leave them all day like that but for a few hours with dense forage, they'll busy themselves enough with foraging to not mind the confinement.

If you're hoping to have them out for longer than a couple of hours then I'd scale up bigger than what I was using.

 

[3KillerBs]

That's a lot of good information, but I don't think it really answers my question.

Are you saying 10sqft per chicken is NOT enough for a mobile run?

No, not at all.

I'm just offering information knowing that a lot of people who read this thread will want to push the density on a tractor because it moves to clean ground.

 

[BanoOmg]

No, not at all.

I'm just offering information knowing that a lot of people who read this thread will want to push the density on a tractor because it moves to clean ground.

Strategic posting, good call!

 

[FeatheredRaptor]

Strategic posting, good call!

I recently built mine to the 10sqft per bird to avoid crowding but my birds are not meat birds. I guess it would depend on the type of bird and the duration they will be in the tractor. Egg layers being kept in there during the daylight hours should probably have the minimum 8 sqft per bird. Cornish cross meat birds likely need far less as previous people had mentioned due to no adult hormones and being bred to withstand high density. Personally I would suggest the 10sqft per bird.