Here is the chicken tractor I built out of scraps! The only thing I bought new was the chicken wire. I did buy the hinges and wheels at yard sales. Everything else we had lying around. I didn't even have to buy nails or screws because we had some left over from another project.
***WARNING*** This chicken tractor was not made to be cute or pretty. It was made to be functional and was made as cheaply as possible.
I didn't follow any specific plans to build this coop. I studied all the chicken tractors on BYC and read the comments of what people liked and didn't like about their coops and I took into account what I liked and didn't like about our non-portable chicken coop.
I wanted a portable coop that would protect the chickens from our rainy Pacific NW weather, and the neigbors dogs
Of course the main requirement was that it needed to be practically free 
So here's my plans;
I gathered all the available wood, took the 3 longest pieces (ripped one so I had 4 long pieces), cut them all to the same length (just under 8 ft). I then cut the second longest pieces to 5ft and ripped several of them and tada! I had an A-frame.
The finished measurments are roughly 4ft wide x 8ft long x 4 1/2ft tall.
I used a hollow core door cut in half for the "loft" which holds the nesting boxes and the sand box. The nesting boxes are left over pieces from a very nice shelving unit DH made (if you look close you can see that it is stained and varnished
) and bits and pieces of other random wood.
The nesting box is not actually attached to anything, it just fits snugly. so if I need to really scrub things down, I can.
r
The frame is done and the wire is on! I did end up moving the roosting stick after I took this picture.
Here are the nesting boxes and sand box. The front section I filled with sand so they can still dust bathe while I have them on the grass.
I love our big porch! I can work on projects out of the rain! (of course if we had a big garage that would be even nicer
The chickens have moved in!
DH helped me dissect a golf caddy that I bought at a yard sale. From it we got nice strong aluminum wheels.
The handles are just a ripped 6ft 1x6.
Here is the roosting sticks.
This side has two doors. The lower one is where the food and water are.
I used some goat feeders that were left here at the house when we bought it
So that's it! I told you it wasn't pretty, but it is very functional!
***WARNING*** This chicken tractor was not made to be cute or pretty. It was made to be functional and was made as cheaply as possible.
I didn't follow any specific plans to build this coop. I studied all the chicken tractors on BYC and read the comments of what people liked and didn't like about their coops and I took into account what I liked and didn't like about our non-portable chicken coop.
I wanted a portable coop that would protect the chickens from our rainy Pacific NW weather, and the neigbors dogs
Of course the main requirement was that it needed to be practically free So here's my plans;
I gathered all the available wood, took the 3 longest pieces (ripped one so I had 4 long pieces), cut them all to the same length (just under 8 ft). I then cut the second longest pieces to 5ft and ripped several of them and tada! I had an A-frame.
The finished measurments are roughly 4ft wide x 8ft long x 4 1/2ft tall.
I used a hollow core door cut in half for the "loft" which holds the nesting boxes and the sand box. The nesting boxes are left over pieces from a very nice shelving unit DH made (if you look close you can see that it is stained and varnished
The nesting box is not actually attached to anything, it just fits snugly. so if I need to really scrub things down, I can.
r
The frame is done and the wire is on! I did end up moving the roosting stick after I took this picture.
Here are the nesting boxes and sand box. The front section I filled with sand so they can still dust bathe while I have them on the grass.
I love our big porch! I can work on projects out of the rain! (of course if we had a big garage that would be even nicer
The chickens have moved in!
DH helped me dissect a golf caddy that I bought at a yard sale. From it we got nice strong aluminum wheels.
The handles are just a ripped 6ft 1x6.
Here is the roosting sticks.
This side has two doors. The lower one is where the food and water are.
I used some goat feeders that were left here at the house when we bought it
So that's it! I told you it wasn't pretty, but it is very functional!
