Could someone please explain a chicken tractor to me? How do you move it around your yard, from the pic on here, they look heavy? Also, what about the run, do you move it as well, and how? This thing seriously confuses me. LOL Thanks!
Hi there! I must say that the "idea" behind a chicken tractor appealed to me greatly. I believe that it is mostly useful if you have either a few chickens and want to be able to relocate them periodically or if you have a large amount of land and want to use the land to feed them more than feeding pellets to them. (Also it seems to work great for helping with cultivating gardens and fertilizing areas). Having said all that I have built a tractor. IT WAS HEAVY because I used a pallet as a base. Since then I have found that building just a portable run is more to my needs. I can move certain birds to the runs for the day and put them back in their coops at nite. This seems to work better for me. I have seen many tractors that look very useful and lightweight. The wheels are built to enable it to be moved easier with less lifting. Not sure any of this helps but at least gives you someone else who is slightly confused by the whole idea. PS I am in NO WAY a carpenter so it may also just be my lack of ability that has caused me to not be able to build the perfect tractor.
Hubby and I also built a coop with the intentions of it being a tractor, but as we got more into building it we quickly realized it is only mobile if hubby is here to help me move it. He is Navy so that only works a few months a year Our coop & run can be seperated to move each to their new destination but both are very heavy so moving them more than a few feet is pretty tiring. I am looking into a movable run myself so the girls will be able to forage in lots of places without me lugging around the coop. My only concern is that if they have to lay an egg and cant get to the coop the egg will be left on the ground I am considering building another coop while hubby is deployed but I haven't settled on any plans yet.
I have had much more sucess building "flat A" frame runs. I do learn as I go it seems so my latest run is better built than the first one. If you leave the board on top flat instead of to the side it seems sturdier to me. Then it's simply a matter of boards on each end in an A shape and in the middle. Boards down each side on the bottom and boards at the ends on the bottom. Wire across the whole thing. I've also found (for me) having the door opening on one of the side panels is easier to deal with then having the door be on the "A" end. Just what has worked better for me.
