- Mar 12, 2014
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My husband and I have been building a brooder/chicken tractor for several weeks now. It has been slow going, but we can almost see the finish line. I will post what we have done so far. The chicks are now living in the chicken tractor, so they have to hang out in their old rubbermaid tubs when we are working. They have been very good sports about it. We have just ordered a hot wire system after talking to our neighbor who has experience in keeping chickens in our neighborhood. We have a lot of predators to watch out for. Hope you like it as much as our chicks do! We drilled holes for vents in the front. We covered them with both screen, and hardware cloth. We have a lot of mosquitos, so wanted to try to give them a break from them as much as we can. We started stapling the hardware cloth on and that was not too much fun at all. I got on line and found a power stapler to hook up to our air compressor. SWEET!!!
That made quick work applying the hardware cloth. We are painting and cutting molding to put over all the areas where the hardware cloth comes together. Basically covering it all, but it looks nice, and the coons can't just pull the wire off since we are screwing all the molding on with strong screws.
These lock the roof on. We will be adding hinges soon.
We think we will buy some of those lifts that hold the back of car trunks/glass open. Mostly found on SUVS I think. They will hold lid open well when the shingles go on.
The hook goes into an eye on the handle of the tractor tire system. Keeps it locked while the chicks are going for a ride in the yard.
The roof is laying on top of the run
Hubby doing tire adjustment
Only one roost, but one more coming!
Looking down into the brooder
There new place to hang out! On top!
They have learned to jump out now in our garage. It is heated, so they are comfortable. We will move them out next week when the hot wire is in place.
That's all for now!
These lock the roof on. We will be adding hinges soon.
The hook goes into an eye on the handle of the tractor tire system. Keeps it locked while the chicks are going for a ride in the yard.
The roof is laying on top of the run
Hubby doing tire adjustment
Only one roost, but one more coming!
Looking down into the brooder
There new place to hang out! On top!
They have learned to jump out now in our garage. It is heated, so they are comfortable. We will move them out next week when the hot wire is in place.
