OK, the coop is done, and the girls want some fresh grass and bugs. So I'm thinking about tractor designs and I have some total newbie questions: 1.) Do you put wire on the bottom of the tractor? A wire floor? 2.) How do you get the girls from coop to tractor? I envision walking with them to the tractor, luring them with treats. I also envision them scattering off and becoming wild birds that I'll never catch again. The other silly picture in my head, is me pushing my tractor back to the coop with the girls walking along in the tractor as I go. Which is not working for me if it has a wire floor. How do these things work??! And, have you SEEN this Chicken Tractor system? Amazing: http://lemoncraft.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/chicken-tractor/
No floor needed, just skirt it to stop diggers and the skirt also fill in any gaps between the bottom rail and the ground caused by uneven ground. You could dock the tractor to the coop or incorporate the coop into the desigh (a upstairs?) A all in one set up is great because you can close in the birds and be able to move it without possibly injuring a bird by running over it while moving. Scroll thru every tractor design you can find and look at their ideas, there are some pretty smart people out there coming up with some neat designs. That design you found is very neat and expensive, is your yard set up like that or just a lawn area full of bugs and other chicken delights like mine?
oh, I'm not going to do that amazing set up thing - too late for that with my chicken coop/run already built! But wow, I wish i'd found link that 2 months ago! My yard is just a yard, some flat, some hills, lots of weeds, and lots of overgrown areas that would really be nice to put chickens in with an electric fence and a little box day house/egg box. Part of me thinks electric fence, herd the chickens over to that area for the day, let them out at bed time so they can go back to the coop. But a tractor seems a little safer to me, new chicken momma and all. And if it doesn't have a wire floor, it works better in my head.
Another nice thing about any coop or tractor is the birds will want back into it because it's their safe sleeping and egg laying spot. Don't get too worried about them running off in the evening after a couple hours of free ranging under your laugh teared but watchful eyes. They will do it themself once they figure out the entry point.
I guess I'm more worried about getting them from the coop to the foraging tractor in the morning. I imagine they would rather free-range than be cooped up in a tractor. Going back to the nice coop seems like a no-brainer, they like it there and put themselves to bed at 7:30 all by themselves.
No worries about that, once they figure it out, they will be lined up and waiting go go go! But it might help to design a docking set up to make it smoother transition cause they might get addicted to free ranging
so, something like a coop/box that they hop into, ride down to the grassy place of the day, then let them out of the box part and into the run part? Something like this maybe - they could hop in from the coop door and go for a ride. LOL! I don't really want to get this fancy. (found on this gallery page: http://home.centurytel.net/thecitychicken/tractors.html) I really just want something simple like this, but it's not a "lets go for a ride now, chickies!" kind of tractor. It's a destination.