Coop-building experts, I need some advice....

[shelleyd2008]

I really like the idea of tractors, but the ones I have now are pretty shabby. No coop or nest boxes, and so light that the wind blows them over quite often. Kind of defeats the purpose of keeping purebreds seperated

The size seems about right for what I have now (trios or quads). The tractors I have currently are 3h x 3w x 8l.

Mostly the specs that I need will be for 5-7 bantam-sized birds. I want to have about 5 hens and 2 roos of each breed, so I need enough room for them (coop and 'run').

Here's what I plan on doing, just not sure how big it would need to be?

I want to have an elevated coop, inside the run of the tractor. Basically, I want it to be half as tall as the actual fencing, so that the coop itself will provide shelter on rainy days, without the pen needing to be covered, and the birds not being inside all day. This will also provide shelter from the sun.

I also have a few breeds of LF birds, but not quite as many. I plan on having 3 hens and 1 roo in my LF birds.

So what I guess I'm wanting to know is:

How big of a coop do bantams need? (h, w, & l)

How big of a coop do LF birds need? (h, w, & l)

What size run (tractor) would be sufficient for a quad of LF birds? For a group of 7 bantams?

What size nest boxes would they need (bantam and LF)?

I'm pretty dumb on building, so I would need to know what size boards (1x1, 1x2, 2x2, 2x4 and so on) would work best to: a)keep the tractors from blowing over in heavy winds; and b)keep something from tipping them over (like my 70 lb. dog).

What size and type wire would be best, as I do plan on letting the hens set their eggs sometimes (can't seem to stop them most of the time).

Sorry for the book, I think that's it.

ETA: I would like to have wheels on them, I have an idea in my head, but not sure how to do it, any ideas?

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
You've got them already living together peacefully, as fully mature adults, in those groups, yes? If you don't, you might want to revise your plans, as expecting 2 roos to live peacefully in close quarters with each other with just 5 hens is not, er, highly likely. Certainly it can happen sometimes but isn't something to PLAN on.

Anyhow... basically you want as big a tractor as you can realistically build, such as 4x8. Bigger would be better but you won't get much bigger unless you go to a hoop type design (not really what you're asking for) or something quite heavy and also expensive to build. Even 4x8 is going to be HEA-VY! and you will need to do some serious weight control on it, and have wheels.

I want to have an elevated coop, inside the run of the tractor. Basically, I want it to be half as tall as the actual fencing, so that the coop itself will provide shelter on rainy days, without the pen needing to be covered, and the birds not being inside all day. This will also provide shelter from the sun.

Having a roof (plain, or in the form of the 'house' part of the tractor) really does not give nearly as much shelter from the sun and rain as you may be thinking; if you are in a hot or rainy climate you will still probably be wanting to add a tarp, or temporarily-attached sheet of plywood or opaque roofing material, or something like that, to parts of the tractor at times.

And indeed you may not want to make the *whole* top of the pen 'house'; although the extra space is certainly a good thing, it will add noticeably to the weight of the tractor, perhaps as much as a third greater weight depending on your design.

If the house part were just atop *part* of the pen, I'd say 14-16" is minimally-adequate for pen headroom, but if it will all be that height then I really really think you want to go 24" for LF (larger if you're talking Orps or JG or like that), proportionately shorter for your bantams depending on what kind of bantams they are. Pretty much the same goes for headroom inside the 'house' part.

What size nest boxes would they need (bantam and LF)?

The same as you're using now?

Seriously. Or, for opinions on how small you can go and still have the nestboxes 'work', use the 'search' utility for threads on nestbox size to read various opinions on the subject.

I'm pretty dumb on building, so I would need to know what size boards (1x1, 1x2, 2x2, 2x4 and so on) would work best to: a)keep the tractors from blowing over in heavy winds; and b)keep something from tipping them over (like my 70 lb. dog).

Your best bet would be to spend a buncha bandwidth poring over the tractor and small coop designs here on BYC and elsewhere on the Web, and find something that looks like it will suit your desires. Then we can give specific advice on construction. Can't recommend particular sizes of lumber etc without knowing what design it is for!

The lower and wider the tractor is, as opposed to very tall and narrow, the less tippy it will be in the face of winds and predators. If the tractors will not be moved too often you can put a couple cinderblocks on the wire apron around the base (an apron is not essential but tractors are otherwise quite vulnerable to anything that has ten minutes on its hand to do a little digging).

What size and type wire would be best, as I do plan on letting the hens set their eggs sometimes (can't seem to stop them most of the time).

I'd just pick the wire base on overall predatorproofness; you can always add hardwarecloth or windowscreen or fine-meshed plastic garden netting on the inside if you need to keep chicks from popping out.

ETA: I would like to have wheels on them, I have an idea in my head, but not sure how to do it, any ideas?

By far the simplest way is to get a coupla lawnmower wheels (they are about $5-10 each new, or free if you can find someone getting rid of an old lawnmower) and put them on appropriate-size bolts that are put through a (strong enough!) part of the bottom frame on one end. This will leave a slight gap between the tractor frame and the ground, however; the only ways to prevent that gap are either to remove the wheels after each tractor move (use wingnuts rather than regular nuts to hold the wheels on the bolts - but this is a pain if you have to do it often) or construct a more complicated cam-type or dolly-type suspension. The latter can be done of course, they'll just take a bit more research, thought and work is all.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat​