Chicks getting run over while moving tractor!

[5acrehome]

what is the best way to keep the chicks off the back wall while moving a tractor around? Had 3 get broken a leg from very first move! help would be great in this case. Had to remove the rest move the tractor and then put them back in.

 

[elmo]

I never, ever move the tractor with chickens inside. It's just too dangerous.

 

[5acrehome]

it's supposed to house broilers and I want to move them each day to new locations in the yard I do not want them out of their enclosure becuase i have my laying hens free rangeing. surely there has to be a clever idea about how to keep them off the draging edges.

 

[FlipFlopFarmer]

I had an impromptu plucking after the first time i moved mine, mostly because i built it way too heavy. my personal solution, i have one with 2 compartments, i open the top of the run area, shoo them into the coop part which has a bottom, and move it. Mine moves with my own strength, if u use a 4 wheeler or something else and have no area with a bottom, i dunno how to do it without taking them all out and putting them in another enclosure, or maybe if all u have are roosts, move em at night?

 

[5acrehome]

it is heavy however I think my solution to be tried will be drilling a few holes in the runners and lift it up abit more during the moving. I remember a post saying to put a noise maker on the back but i have no clue what that would consist of.

 

[5acrehome]

with the wheels on it moves easy but it also leave about 1.5" gap at the bottom the chicks are going everywhere but atleast they are not getting pinched or pinned from the drag any easy answer or quick pointers would be great.

 

[gavinandallison]

buy a small dog crate and put them in there for safety while you move it then let them out again..... better than the poor chicks suffering with broken legs....

 

[5acrehome]

They did not suffer they were separated and handled. It's a mistake I will not soon forget.

 

[BWKatz]

I move my tractor before I let them out of the coop. My coop is separate & they go back & forth every day so its no big deal.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

If they are old enough to free range for a little bit right at the end of the day, that's a great time to move a tractor. They can go run off to forage and you can move the tractor. Since we only moved ours to the next patch of grass, the tractor was almost in the same place in the yard. It was easy for the chickens to come back to it, to roost.