a question aboout meat chicken housing

[zyzzyx]

Good afternoon all--

I have been studying about chickens for a long time trying to decide which chicken experiment I want to do first. I have decided to raise some chickens for meat for me and my close friends and family. I need to give you some background before I ask the question.

I will have two tractors able to house 25 chickens in each. They will be enclosed inside an electric poultry fence I got from Premier Fencing and will be free ranging as much as they will/can.

The more I write about this the sillier the question becomes in my mind---The question is If I train the chickens to go into the tractors by keeping them inside them for a week or so. When I let them free range; will they return to the tractor they were trained to or would it make any difference at all?


Any assistance would be appreciated; Thanks in advance

 

[missnu01]

Even though they have been bred for quick growth at the cost of a lot of chicken-y functions they are still chickens and will go back into their coop like any other chicken as long as they know that is where home is.

 

[zyzzyx]

Thank you for the quick answer. If I move the tractors ---will they still go to the house they were trained too?

 

[Tabasco Jack]

As long as you hang the feeder in the tractor, they'll go back.

What kind of tractor you planning to build?

 

[zyzzyx]

I am using 1/2 inch pvc ( the kind they use for hot water lines) with a bar of 3/8 rebar inside to reduce the wobblies of the pvc and to provide much greater strenght with only a small increase in weight. (small pvc bends a lot). The rebar never rusts because it is inside the pvc and the pvc I am using has a greater resistance to UV light because it is designed for heavier use than regular pvc. It is just a box with a brace across the top which acts as a frame for the top door. The chicken entry is on each corner of the box. Actually it is pretty simple and straight forward.

I know everybody on BYC likes pictures---sorry I don't have a camera

 

[4roadranch]

What the size of your tractors?

 

[zyzzyx]

They are 9.5 feet by 7.5 feet now.
I started out with one that was 18 by 14 but found that it was too wobbly and was very hard to move. I cut it into four pieces and now have finished two of them. Eventually I will have four of the smaller ones. They are flexible enough to bend a little to conform to the rocky and rough ground here and the smaller ones are very easy to move around. I may just use two for chickens and when the time comes to move them I will just place the two empty ones where I want them and move the chickens and all the feeding trays and water sources.

 

[Bone143]

Not exactly the same but maybe this will help you a little. My coop is built on a hay wagon frame since I free range i move them to pasture and then generally keep them closer to the house in the winter. When I move the coop short distances like 100 feet or so I just move it while they are hanging out and they go back to the coop when it is moved. I don't know if it would be the same if I moved it from pasture to the house I havent tried it that would be around 1500 feet or so but I would assume based on my chickens acting like they are dogs they would just follow along beside the tractor as it moves. hope that helps