how big of a chicken tractor?

[raygirl4386]

i will have a total of 12-16 chickens, they have a huge run that is 20' by 14' and i want to make a folding tractor so they can focuse on the part of the yard that needs help instead of them just roaming around. how big should it be? they wont be in it all the time, or is that too many chickens in a small space? i guess i could always just put half or so in hafl the day then the other half in the other part of the day.

 

[florida lee]

I made a two story tractor, coop up top and run on the bottom. it is 4 x 10 ft. I originally had 8 chicks in it. It got too small fast. Now I use it for a couple of hens now and then. with large wheels it wasn't too hard to move.

 

[raygirl4386]

they have a coop and run, but i wanted to make a tractor so they could weed my yard and such.

 

[Heat]

I normally see tractors for up to 8 chickens due to the fact that any larger and they would be too heavy to move. I remember seeing somewhere that for a happy chicken they should have 2 square feet of "run" area when they are outside grazing, 1 square feet in the coop if they have a good sized run area. So using that you would may want a tractor that is 24-36 square feet (if I am doing my math correctly) for your 12-16 chickens. But chickens scratch a lot and can demolish a small area quickly, so I can see 8 chickens outgrowing a 40 square foot enclosure (but since it is a movable tractor you will be able to move them once the yard gets where you want it which is one of the beauties of chicken tractors!)

Most of my friends who use tractors have 1 to 3 depending on the size of their flock and they will put 6-8 chickens per. It may not hurt to do half in the tractor and half in the run and then rotate them.

Good luck! I'd like to know what you end up doing!

 

[raygirl4386]

i think if i did eighter an 8x4 or 8x6 my might be fine, thats 4sq ft per bird for 12, im still not sure how many i want to keep =/ i have 6 hens and roo right now and 6 chicks which 2 are kinda roo looking but they are only 8 weeks only time will tell.