Chicken Crammin!

[DENALI]

Quote:
I have thought about that. I actually thought about just building a simple tractor type thing out of PVC like this for the meat birds.

 

[arlee453]

If you are mostly going to have the meat birds during the warmer months (like spring or fall) then that PVC tractor idea is pretty good. Just keep in mind whatever predators you may have around. I'd use hardware cloth rather than chicken wire and make a skirt of wire to come off the sides and stake down around so if anything tries to dig, it'll be hitting wire. Also think about ways to stake the PVC down. If the tractor is too light the wind may get it OR predators can simply lift it up to get in.

With a little forethought and raising birds in the nicer weather months, I think that idea would work great for your meat birds (AND you can move it around the yard every few days to cut down on the pooper scooping).

 

[patandchickens]

Hey, here is a thought! Why not build a knock-down-able (for easy off-season storage) tractor type thing for the meat birds, but put it INSIDE one of the runs. That part of the run could be subdivided off so the layers don't mess with the tractor.

The advantage is that, since presumably (?) your runs will be pretty good 'n predator-proof already, you can build a more primitive tractor without worrying about losses. It just has to keep out rain and wind, have room for a lamp for the first few weeks, and keep the meat birds from wandering off which should not be hard <g>. Having the tractor inside a run should also decrease its vulnerability to wind. You'd just have to shovel all the poo out once the meat birds were done, since you could not move the tractor around *as* a tractor, in the run.

Wow, I am liking this idea a lot... you know what, I think I will do that myself this summer, as I have a spare chainlink outside dog run that I could use and it is almost completely predator-proof already. Gee!

Pat