does a tractor keep my birds safe enough

[Jo Anne]

Hi I am in the process of building a meat tractor. The question I keep wondering is ... most plans show the tractor movable. What protects the birds from any predator? do they stay in their at night or do i need to have a permanent coop for them?

 

[bigt447]

Yep, you need a coop for safe sleeping if you have half the night roaming varmits I have....coons, possums, owls, foxes, coyotes and in my case bears.

 

[slingshotandLAR]

They stay in the tractors 24/7....

The tractors are movable, but secure enough so nothing can get to the birds. I keep a few rough cut boards handy incase I have gaps.

I keep mine in a pasture surrounded by high tensile electric fence, that keeps everything out.

As long as the tractors aren't light enough for a coon to pick up you should be ok. Just do your so diligence and keep your eyes out for predator activity around the tractors. If you see any act accordingly.

 

[HoneyMelon]

I did my meat birds in a 10'x 10' chain link dog pen with a sturdy top on it and then we secured boards with tarps on the sides to roll down in inclement weather. I left the door of that open at all times and surrounded the whole thing with electric poultry netting from Premier1. I have a heavy fox population here and did not have one problem. We put the dog pen on wheels and hung the feed and water from the roof bars. We rolled the pen every day so they did not sit in old poop and then we moved the electric fencing when the dog pen hit the other side. (so we only moved the fencing every few days.)
Never a problem and we felt very safe with them in it. Basically, as long as you have good strong electric currents you are good. Obviously I would not do this in the winter, but I only do my meat birds in the spring and summer.