Does anyone move chickens to tractors during day, back to coop at night?

[mqoh]

We have 8 chickens (egg layers not meat birds) currently, with a plan to get another 8 or so chicks this spring. Our chickens have a nice coop with a run, and a large fenced "free range" area around a pond. It's a lot of space and they're pretty safe.

That aside, we also have acres of pasture around us, also fenced in. Cattle are in one large pasture, but the rest are empty at the moment. I was thinking it would be nice to be able to take the chickens to different pastures over time for fertilizing the soil, eating the bugs, etc. I still want them to roost in their "home coop" at night however. I've been searching the internet for predator safe tractor ideas - hoop, A-frame, and otherwise, but without a full coop and nest boxes. I'd just supply water and some feed, plus shade on part of the enclosure. Maybe a couple of simple nest boxes for those late layers but nothing fancy.

This would also mean loading up birds for a literal field trip most days. My thought is something I can tow on a little trailer behind my Can-Am for a three minute trip to the pasture. I figure with treats, I could lure them in there no problem and they'd catch on. And then a little ramp into the tractor enclosure in the field. At the end of the day, load them up to come home with the same plan. Is this silly? Too much overthinking? Too much work? Worth the extra space and free food?

If anyone has done this or something similar, please share how it's gone, and if you have a picture of your setup, all the better! Thanks!

There's a guy I watch on youtube, "gold shaw farm" He rotates his cattle on pasture and has his chickens to follow his cattle. He built some sort of mobile coop, not a tractor, hitches it to his ATV to move it. He has a solar door on the coop and when he's planning a move he sets the door not to open in the morning. In the winter he brings the whole thing into a hoop coop with the rest of the birds (Vermont). He does use movable fencing for them. You could watch a couple of his videos for some ideas. He claims very few losses from predators, and the ones he mentions I think were aerial.

 

[paintedChix]

I found this one - where Morgan shows how he built the Justin Rhodes "Mini Me - Chicksaw".

I'm still looking for the one mqoh described.

 

[Hondo7]

We used chicken tractors successfully for over 10 years. We are located back in the woods and have a lot of predators (both land and air-based), so it seemed like the only economical way to free-range them. We relocated the 8'x24' tractor to fresh grass every morning. Then when we would open the coop they would bolt for the tractor. And every evening we would open the tractor and they would make a bee-line for the coop. New chicks added to the flock usually caught-on pretty quickly, and in all that time we only lost 3 or 4 birds to predators (always "escapees" wanting their very short-lived freedom).

The problem we ran into was that if any hen decided to go broody, she was left alone in the coop with her clutch of eggs all day long. After a couple days of that, she decided to abandon the eggs and leave with the rest of the flock. The result, we were unable to "grow our own" and had to buy a fresh batch of chicks every two years.

Our solution was to build 8 large (8' x 32') enclosed / covered paddocks, connected by an 8' x 64' hallway which was attached to the coop. We only open 1 paddock at a time, giving the planted grains, grasses and veggies in the other paddocks a chance to recover from the grazing. This means that brooding hens now have full access to the rest of the flock all day long, and for the 2nd straight summer we've hatched several clutches of eggs.

Building chicken tractors is a mix of science and art. They can't be too light or they will either not protect the birds / keep them in, or they won't hold up for more than a couple years. They can't be too heavy, or even with wheels that can be raised and lowered they will be hard to relocate every day. They really need to be tall enough to walk into (ours were 8' high). And we found that having a split door was really useful since you could just open the top half to dump in table or garden scraps.

I would say a chicken tractor CAN work, but you need to really think through whether that is your best option. We have friends just down the road that simply put up a fence around a large pasture and they only lose a bird every couple of years to predators. Up the road the other direction the people just let their birds have the run of the entire property (no fence at all), and only occasionally lose one to getting hit by a car. You just have to know your area and how much loss you are willing to accommodate.

 

[paintedChix]

Ah, think you mean this one!!

Either one could probably be used. The trailer mounted one needs to be pulled by an actual tractor or vehicle.

The Mini Chicksaw can be moved back & forth by person. My coop & run doors aren't wide enough to accommodate this type of tractor, but if you made that adjustment, then this type movable coop could come back to the main coop/run every night... The birds could (would?) stay in the movable coop each night...

 

[Love Donkeys]

This is useful and realistic, thanks for sharing. Yeah leaning away from this idea now. I was thinking the Salatin-style for protection, not just open pasture, but sounds like it's a lot of trouble for no real return in our case.

We free-range 46 chickens. When our Donkey herd is grazing in the closest 3 fields the chickens come and go as they please. When the herd is moved to a further field the chickens may follow them down, when they come back they stay close to the brush along the fence line.

What I'm trying to say is maybe you should let the chickens decide for themselves where they want to go....

 

[lizo97]

So... I'm going to be the odd one out here..

I do this exactly thing. I have a nice large coop and run that's predator proof. We have all sorts of critters in my unfenced partially wooded acreage (bobcats, hawks, foxes, coyotes, etc) so I do not free range.

A friend gave me small chicken run wrapped in hardware cloth with a little house on top that I've turned into a mobile tractor. I added wheels and handles for moving. I park it at the run door, open both doors carefully so no one escapes, and the chickens file in one by one. They're so excited because they love grass. I don't do it every day but when I have time. It's their little field trips! I move it around the property so they can scratch in new areas. The funniest part is when I move it. They understand now which direction I'm going and they jog to keep in the front.

I mostly keep the ramp to the little house pinned up but if they're in there for more than an hour, I put straw down and that acts as their laying box.

It's not a ton of room like my run and coop but it works nicely for short field trips.

Hi, I am thinking of building one. Is the run part of your tractor 2 or 3 ft high?

 

[lizo97]

We used chicken tractors successfully for over 10 years. We are located back in the woods and have a lot of predators (both land and air-based), so it seemed like the only economical way to free-range them. We relocated the 8'x24' tractor to fresh grass every morning. Then when we would open the coop they would bolt for the tractor. And every evening we would open the tractor and they would make a bee-line for the coop. New chicks added to the flock usually caught-on pretty quickly, and in all that time we only lost 3 or 4 birds to predators (always "escapees" wanting their very short-lived freedom).

The problem we ran into was that if any hen decided to go broody, she was left alone in the coop with her clutch of eggs all day long. After a couple days of that, she decided to abandon the eggs and leave with the rest of the flock. The result, we were unable to "grow our own" and had to buy a fresh batch of chicks every two years.

Our solution was to build 8 large (8' x 32') enclosed / covered paddocks, connected by an 8' x 64' hallway which was attached to the coop. We only open 1 paddock at a time, giving the planted grains, grasses and veggies in the other paddocks a chance to recover from the grazing. This means that brooding hens now have full access to the rest of the flock all day long, and for the 2nd straight summer we've hatched several clutches of eggs.

Building chicken tractors is a mix of science and art. They can't be too light or they will either not protect the birds / keep them in, or they won't hold up for more than a couple years. They can't be too heavy, or even with wheels that can be raised and lowered they will be hard to relocate every day. They really need to be tall enough to walk into (ours were 8' high). And we found that having a split door was really useful since you could just open the top half to dump in table or garden scraps.

I would say a chicken tractor CAN work, but you need to really think through whether that is your best option. We have friends just down the road that simply put up a fence around a large pasture and they only lose a bird every couple of years to predators. Up the road the other direction the people just let their birds have the run of the entire property (no fence at all), and only occasionally lose one to getting hit by a car. You just have to know your area and how much loss you are willing to accommodate.

Do you have a picture of your setup? It sounds like a paradise for chickens!

 

[stavrost]

Yes they are creatures of habit. I watch them file into the coop like clockwork each night.

My tractor plans include matching up the door on the tractor with a door on the fenced coop area that contains their coop.

 

[Sh1nyH4ppy]

We bought 2 tractors with this intent. What a waste of money and time. I regret it, but alas.

Are you considering rolling your own meat birds?

Now here is the thing - pastures aren't for chickens. They want cover. Think hedges, bushes. Places they can run into when hawks fly over. They really won't graze on an open pasture if they have other choices

Totally agree! Good reminder. Time for me to invest in mulberry trees, great for fodder too!

 

[Sh1nyH4ppy]

really to encourage the chickens to forage/scratch which they need to do to keep fit. It's not just about the food, it's equally about the exercise.

Great information!

I was thinking of hanging up our nesting boxes & bins and pulling up anchors on our 10'x10' hoop coop and dragging it around our little acre. The flock would still be out to free range daily within the 5-6' fences.

Maybe drag it weekly if not daily. It would mean not having to buy bedding, fertilizing the grass.

My concern is how windy it gets here, tornado alley. Anybody else dealing with high winds and s mobile Suskovich coop?