Chicken Tractors for Meat Birds without Electric Fencing or Feed?

[russofford]

Hello,

I am considering using the chicken tractor method by using a 225-250 square foot shelter to raise meat birds.

One of my main reasons for wanting to do this is to help improve the pastures after my steers graze it (and hopefully make a profit from the meat bird efforts, too!) My pasture sizes for cattle rotation are roughly between 1.0 - 2.5 acres each (or roughly 0.5 - 1.0 hectares each) with several different pasture areas on the farm.

I have been researching this topic for a few days now, but I have a few newbie questions before moving forward with a prototype or project.

1. Is it possible to use the chicken tractor method without electric fencing (but where the chickens stay inside the enclosed shelter 24/7)
2. With the above true, can you raise these chickens purely on the natural pasture grass/bugs/manure/etc, or would you need to provide extra chicken feed if they are confined to the enclosed shelter 24/7 (though it is moved daily)
3. With all of the above true, how many birds can be supported in a 225-250 sf enclosed area with only being given water and natural pasture for feed?

My limitations are:
1. not having electricity at the farm
2. not wanting to purchase or use electric fencing
3. not providing chicken feed beyond what is naturally available in the daily fresh pasture.

Thank you. Sincerely

Russ

 

[Chick Charm]

Russ

What type of chicken determines a lot of your needs/actions. Freedom Rangers vs Cornish X's are very different in needs. That being said you must provide chicken feed to these for growth to happen. And lots of it.

#1 It is imperative that you give your MEATIES chicken feed with HIGH protein. No way around this one.

#2 Yes you can raise your meaties in a tractor for their whole life.

#3 You can put 50-100 birds in an enclosure of 250 sf. It MUST be moved daily as their poo will build up fast and boy do they stink.

Wish you the best.

 

[russofford]

Thank you Chick Charm!

I do not yet know the type of meat chicken I would use, but I would also consider Guineafowl, as here in the Dominican Republic they are common, too.

1. Now that I know I must provide feed in addition to pasture with the chicken tractor system, I will investigate the proper types of high protein feed for the bird I finally choose to raise.

2. Great. So I don't necessarily need electric fencing!

3. I had assumed that the reason for moving the enclosure daily was to provide fresh pasture area for the chickens to eat, but I see now that there are other reasons to move it, such as chicken coop poop piles.

What type of chicken determines a lot of your needs/actions. Freedom Rangers vs Cornish X's are very different in needs. That being said you must provide chicken feed to these for growth to happen. And lots of it.

#1 It is imperative that you give your MEATIES chicken feed with HIGH protein. No way around this one.

#2 Yes you can raise your meaties in a tractor for their whole life.

#3 You can put 50-100 birds in an enclosure of 250 sf. It MUST be moved daily as their poo will build up fast and boy do they stink.

Wish you the best.

 

[aart]

Electric fencing is for large predator (dogs, coons, coyote, fox, etc) deterrence rather than to contain the birds.

What kind of predators might you need to deter at your location?

Small mesh (1/2" x 1/2") fencing might be needed to deter, smaller chicken killer...rats, weasel, snakes, etc.

.....and remember, chicken wire keeps chickens in or out of areas, but is of little resistance to larger predators and the smaller predators can go thru the holes.

 

[russofford]

Hi AART,

Thanks for the input.

On the island of the Dominican Republic there are not many predators I can think of... besides rats, snakes and the occasional dog in the area.

Perhaps some reinforcement of the hex shaped chicken wire at the bottom 1 foot of the enclosure with, what they call 'rabbit wire' here (closer spaced, thicker wire, rectangle shaped), could help to deter rats/snakes somewhat.

Russ

Electric fencing is for large predator (dogs, coons, coyote, fox, etc) deterrence rather than to contain the birds.

What kind of predators might you need to deter at your location?

Small mesh (1/2" x 1/2") fencing might be needed to deter, smaller chicken killer...rats, weasel, snakes, etc.

.....and remember, chicken wire keeps chickens in or out of areas, but is of little resistance to larger predators and the smaller predators can go thru the holes.

 

[cstronks]

The hardware cloth sounds like a good idea. Snakes would definitely be able to get through the chicken wire. Also, I would suggest Cornish X as the breed because of their common use as a meat bird. They seem to fit your needs. Guineafowl would be an interesting experiment, nonetheless. Also, would you provide them with any outside space, or just confine the birds to indoor space? If they are confined to the indoors in a 250 sq. ft. trailer, you would potentially have to do A LOT of cleaning at 100 birds. Keep that in mind. If you are raising the birds for food, you certainly want to maintain sanitary conditions. Best of Luck!

 

[russofford]

Hi CSTRONKS,

My reasoning for keeping the birds confined to the enclosure would be for ease of management. As the farm is an hour from town and I currently pay a local caretaker a small fee to feed the cows each day and rotate their pastures, I would give him something extra each month to manage the chicken tractors as well.

I want the whole operation to be as easy/least amount of work as possible. So I imagine that having birds running around the fields (without electric fencing) might cause more work or be harder to control / manage.

Could you tell me to what sort of cleaning are you referring? With 100 birds in 1 chicken tractor that moves daily, what sort of cleaning might be required? I assume that the caretaker would need to clean out the feeders/waterers at a minimum.

Russ

[...] would you provide them with any outside space, or just confine the birds to indoor space? If they are confined to the indoors in a 250 sq. ft. trailer, you would potentially have to do A LOT of cleaning at 100 birds.

 

[cstronks]

Basically food and water and whatever else chickens can manage to crap on. If there are roosts in the tractor they can get dirty. I was just surprised by the size of this tractor I guess. It is pretty big! Also, on second thought, I realized that my recommendation of Cornish Cross was in poor judgement. Being in the Dominican, you probably experience some hot weather. Cornish do pretty poorly in the heat. Guineafowl might be your best bet if they already strive on the island. Again, you will not need an electric fence. A sturdy enclosure should do the trick.

 

[russofford]

Hi CSTRONKS,

I have been studying various 'larger scale' chicken tractor plans online and on YouTube over the last few days and I am going to build my first prototype in the next week or two.

My idea, again, is to try to make it as simple as possible. I can buy metal pipe (3/4"-1"?) at 19' long as well as PVC tubing (3/4'?) at 19' long. I was thinking of making the base out of the entire metal pipe (no cutting, less work... at least for the length) and using the PVC arching the width of the enclosure for the roof bracing.

I calculated that a 19' PVC tube curved in an exact semi-circle would create a ceiling height of 6' at the center and a diameter (width) of 12'. I would cut have to cut another 19' metal pipe to 12' (or perhaps 13' long) for the frame width. If I use 13', then the arch would not be an exact semi-circle and thus be a bit lower than 6'. At 19' x 12' I would get about 225 sf and at 19' x 13' I would get about 250 sf. The reason for the size is because I have large pastures to cover and I want enough birds to make it 'worth the while' on a larger scale. (If I build 10 of these enclosures, I can theoretically raise 1,000 birds at once, clean my pastures 10x faster and have birds at a couple different stages of maturity for continual sale/income throughout the month.

I would cover the entire enclosure with strips of chicken wire at 48" wide each, which would require 5 strips to cover the entire enclosure for a total of 95' feet (very convenient that the roll comes in 100' here!) Since there would be 5 strip, I would need 6 PVC conduits for the roof. The 5 strips of chicken wire would be attached to the 6 PVC roofing braces (one on each end and 4 in the middle.) If the structure was too flimsy, I could use some (+) style tubing connectors for the roof's peak and cut each PVC tube in 1/2 and that way a PCV tube would run along the length of the enclosure down the middle of the roof top.

To prevent the metal pipe frame from bowing outward with the pressure of the bent PVC pipe, I could install some cross bracing, perhaps raised somewhat, which can double as a perch area. (perhaps 4 inner braces to match the 4 internal PVC pipe locations. I would 'raise' these braces/perches just enough to avoid hurting the birds when their enclosure is moved.

This is all just theory right now, but my goal is to create this to be somewhat light but not blow over in heavy winds. I assume that I would also place some sort of tarp or cloth over parts of it to provide shade/shelter from sun/rain.

Thoughts?

I was just surprised by the size of this tractor I guess. It is pretty big!

 

[Chick Charm]

250 sf PVC COOP is a really good idea.

Most meat birds do little to NO FORAGING. Some of the hybrids can forage alright in pasture however, so you may consider one of these to meet your criteria. Like a Freedom ranger type or what you have available there in the D R. They do take longer to grow out but you get a "mor natural type" chicken.

I like chicken and have raised many for meat and eggs and of course our pets that the family would disown me if I ever even thought of eating. I like meatiest the best for meat. Cornish cross are do quick to mature and are so tender. I still do like broilers and even Plymouth Rocks also.



Phil