Chicken Tractor, first build, suggestions

[Shamo Hybrid]

You’re all going to flip out on me for this... I’m doing absolutely nothing for digging predators. Literally all that we have here are hawks, coons and mink.

If the chickens are on the roosts and locked in at night they should be safe, I think. The box is about a foot off the ground and the roosts are 10 inches above the hardware cloth.

They had a great grey owl in the farm coop once, door was open at dusk and it flew right in, then couldn’t figure out getting out because the door was midway up on the outside with a ramp down, but right at the floor level inside the coop. Scared the chickens and my Aunt in Law when she went to close them up, but no fatalities! The owl might have been just as scared too.

You don't have to use just wires to prevent ground digging, there's other options.... like extra stone slabs laying around, big rocks, hell even a roll of linoleum will do the trick. Just gotta think outside the box (literally and figuratively).

 

[Kris5902]

You don't have to use just wires to prevent ground digging, there's other options.... like extra stone slabs laying around, big rocks, hell even a roll of linoleum will do the trick. Just gotta think outside the box (literally and figuratively).

If it was a stationary coop I would probably do something to prevent digging predators like roccons and mink,. My father in law wanted me to put bales of sedge grass all around it... I’m not up to moving the tractor and ten extra and soggy bales everyday!

 

[townchicks]

Ok, another very large design flaw... chicken coop flew about 20 feet while I was feeding the cows! I went in, in a panic to check my chickens... ok accidentally got out of my Jeep while it was still moving, chased it jumped back in and actually put it in park, then went in, in a panic to check my chickens...

Wow! I'm sorry about your leg, and glad the chickens are ok. I'm amazed, I too would have thought it was too heavy. You can cut some flaps in the plastic to let the air flow through, and maybe some tent stakes and tie downs. Those will make it a bit more hassle when you want to move it, but worth that, IMO.

 

[Nardo]

Ok, another very large design flaw... chicken coop flew about 20 feet while I was feeding the cows! I went in, in a panic to check my chickens... ok accidentally got out of my Jeep while it was still moving, chased it jumped back in and actually put it in park, then went in, in a panic to check my chickens...
While trying to figure out what I’m going to do next we had another big gust that took it airborne again, knocked me over and pinned my leg under the bottom rail.
.

I think I saw this movie.

 

[Kris5902]

Wow! I'm sorry about your leg, and glad the chickens are ok. I'm amazed, I too would have thought it was too heavy. You can cut some flaps in the plastic to let the air flow through, and maybe some tent stakes and tie downs. Those will make it a bit more hassle when you want to move it, but worth that, IMO.

I’m going to add a hanging 5 gallon waterer or maybe two 5 gallon water buckets with little cup drinkers on the front corners to keep the light end down.

We also had winds yesterday of over 100mph... more than we usually see. The power has been out to the entire island since about 11 am yesterday, and 6 large trees came down across the road between the ferry and our farm. The other side of the island got hit worse! Our volunteer fire department and emergency services have been out clearing the roads... hoping to get power back in the next couple of days at the farm (mostly for my mom’s heater, as there’s a wood cook stove in the farmhouse proper!)

This didn’t stop my husband and our other Jeep from getting here last night at 10 with my Corid from my vet though! Even if he was stuck at the ferry terminal most of the day waiting for a sailing due to the high winds. My hero!

 

[paintedChix]

That would have been scary to have it lift & fly with you in it. Sorry to hear of your sprain...

For the top roof where you have the tarp, I was going to suggest putting a pretty stiff wire up that would keep it from sagging due to rain. Maybe even hardware cloth only & remove the tarp completely when you have that type of wind? The chickens can "learn to stay" (some of mine do, some seem to like getting wet!) in the roost section to stay dry...

Or for weighted tie downs - buckets of cement or tires - that you can move each time you move the tractor. Yes, PITA, but more do-able than some other tie downs.

For next chicken tractor - maybe something smaller & only for night time cooping & then free ranging in "hot" poultry netting such as the "permaculture peeps" use... Several different lower profile tractors/"coops" used by Justin Rhodes & Joel Salatin - you can google and search You Tube for lots of videos on the different styles they themselves and their many followers use.

Justin Rhodes has just given out the newest plans for his easily moveable "chicksaw 2.0", but at a projected $750 + for a new build, I won't be building it myself anytime soon... His holds around 30 chickens, I think, for night time cooping - they are out during the day in poultry netting.

I am looking at building several smaller CP hoop coops for my new tractors. They will only be 4' wide (the CP will be cut to 8' lengths instead of the 16' & 1 panel will then make a full coop). Can't walk into it, but could access both food & water from either end until they lay, then could put a nest box in one end. Different door options. All of my birds are really liking roosting way up high, so won't be happy with much lower roost that these will have but we shall see...

 

[Kris5902]

Yes! I’ve been wanting to do the chickshaw! Have the plans and love the videos... need to get the netting still and I’m mostly concerned with Areial predators... going to do my meat birds in Salatin style tractors. I was concerned about our rain mostly!

Today they all clustered in the roost box after I let them out and they had their morning drink, it’s still a bit windy, but nothing like the almost hurricane force winds we had when it tried to fly away. I plan on putting their water in 5 gallon buckets and weighing down the front corners with those, for now I’ve got gravel filled ones doing the job...

Last night I had 2/3 of them up on the roosts for sleeping and only one needed help finding her way into the box (not my smartest chicken!). We are going to be without power until New Years on island... no big changes for me boon docking. But I’m fairly confident that as our big garden shed also blew over, and several other people’s roofs and such blew off, the windstorm was extreme!

We have a sawmill, so I plan on getting more materials this spring!