Would a chicken tractor work well in a smaller yard?

[lonebluetear]

I've wanted chickens forever, and my husband finally said I could have some. As such, I've been watching videos and reading everything I can about chickens, coops, etc. I've learned a LOT but am still confused.

We live in a City where we can have up to 6 chickens. Though I am thinking of 3 or 4. While we have a decent sized yard, it's not overly large. I really like the chicken 'tractors' and found a model I am seriously considering. However... I see most mobile coops in large fields.

I am wondering if the birds would eat all the grass and such (as I move them around), and end up not having any grass left to eat. We bought a house with more weeds than grass, so chickens cleaning that up would be cool - so the tractor seems a great option. But is it? I don't know for certain.

Also, in the winter the grass doesn't really grow (we live in Tacoma, WA), so would they be okay then? I love the idea of the mobility and all the great aspects of the tractors, but really need to be sure I get them the absolute best home.

I found this site about an hour ago so thought I would ask all you who know about these things. I thank you in advance for any help or clarification.

liz

 

[N F C]

There are quite a few people that use tractors, either as their primary "coop" or as a way to get the chickens outside without being subject to predators. If you put "tractors" in the search box, you should get back a lot of information. Also, click on the Coops tab at the top of the screen and you'll see a section on tractors & mobile coops.

Joining your state thread would be helpful. Type Washington in the search box and your state thread should come up in the results.

Good luck to you, hope you enjoy the chickens!

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi and welcome to BYC - you have some great advice already from NFC so I'll just say hello!

All the best
CT

 

[mlm Mike]

 

[lonebluetear]

Thank you for your reply. I've been looking into coops/runs/chickens (and starting last night, ducks) - for a solid week. I'm even dreaming about chickens! Crazy. Once I think I have a fairly good understanding, I read something else and then the questions start anew. For sure I will check out the Washington State thread. Good info!

I was re-reading my areas laws and found I can have up to 6 'fowl'. I hadn't thought of ducks before but started reading all about ducks vs chickens. Seems ducks may be better suited for our area, as it gets incredibly windy where we live. Also, it rains a lot. I also read that ducks are 'sturdier', less prone to disease, friendlier, lay bigger eggs and lay longer. I research everything to death so this is exhausting. Wondering if there's a thing called coop-brain, then thought maybe something called chicken-brain which led me to duck-brain and finally bird-brain. I think I'm officially a bird-brain now. An exhausted bird-brain. Great

 

[lonebluetear]

Kenya? How cool. Thank you!

 

[lonebluetear]

Thank you for the welcome. I'm really excited I found this site.

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!

 

[lonebluetear]

Thank you! That's a beautiful chicken!

 

[drumstick diva]

Welcome to Backyard chickens - I'm glad you found us too. You may want to post on the "Duck thread," for their advice. Ducks probably will tear up some grass also and really like to have a pond or pool (even kids pool) to swim in. I don't know if I've ever seen ducks in a tractor - they may not like that confinement.