Free Ranging With Supervision??

[Erinmir]

Hi all,

Hubby and I are planning a chicken-tractor style coop/run for our .6 acre yard. We are looking to keep mainly egg-laying hens in a flock of 6-8 small/medium chickens. We are looking into building the catawba coops sytle of A frame tractor, but elongating it to be 10' instead of just 8' to give more space.

I was thinking of allowing the girls out on days that hubby and I are home and outside doing yard or garden work and only on days when they will be supervised. I'm wondering if this is something that would work as we do plant veggies and flowers in the spring and I wouldn't want the girls to decimate either of those, but occasional supervised times out of their coop/run seem like a good idea to me. As far as predators, there are a few neighborhood cats and some hawks in the area, which is my other motive for wanting to only let them out with supervision. What do you all advise on this plan?

Thanks!!!

- Erin

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
You could probably do that, it would get noticeably heavier (and will not be light to begin with!) but should still be stable enough if well-built.

However I gotta say that those A-frame tractors are really not very chicken-friendly, and contrary to what is often claimed they do *not* use much less materials than rectangular box-shaped tractors do (which provide considerably more USABLE chicken space for the same footprint).

If you are in the south of England or something like that, where there really won't be many days when chickens don't want to spend all day outdoors, then that is not such an issue; but if you live somewhere with cold winters or prolonged nasty weather, there are really a lot better designs.

Also, 6-8 chickens in a tractor, even if it is box-shaped and 4x10' footprint, is a LOT of chickens in not much space, unless they will be out running around your backyard most of the day every day. It will be a sanitation mess, trash your lawn despite daily or twice-daily moving, and have a considerable risk of unsavory chicken behavior developing e.g. cannibalism. I seriously would not do it myself.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Erinmir]

Thanks, Pat!

I appreciate the feedback. Hubby is really the one that wants the A-frame - he likes the style. Since he's the one that is going to do most of the construction I was letting him run with that plan. Though, taking your comments into consideration, I'm going to try to get him to reconsider.

Perhaps he'd accept making the A-frame for a small flock of Seramas (he wants some of those desperately) and since I know they are wee little, they'd do ok in that size.

What kind of design would you recommend in lieu of an A-frame? I don't really want to end up denuding an entire patch of grass, hence the tractor idea. We don't have a fenced yard, so I can't let them free-range all the time.

Glad I found this forum before jumping in headlong.

- Erin

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
As long as you aren't somewhere with cold winters -- b/c they (by reputation - I've not raised them myself) do not deal with winter cold well, yet it is real, real hard to heat an A-frame (or even just maintain good air quality in cold winters).

What kind of design would you recommend in lieu of an A-frame?

Frankly, for 6-8 chickens that will be inside the tractor most of the time, I would really recommend a permanently-fixed coop, NOT a tractor. You just cannot make a tractor large enough to give them really ample room.

But if you really really wanna do a tractor, I'd suggest the kind that is like a rectangular box, with the 'house' portion over top of 1/3 or 1/2 of it. Browse peoples' tractor design pages and you'll see what I mean. Or, if you are in an always-very-warm climate, a hoop style one with one end covered.

I don't really want to end up denuding an entire patch of grass, hence the tractor idea.

Er. A tractor messes up MUCH more grass area than a fixed coop does. With half a dozen hens in a 4x10 tractor, even if you move it daily (and you'd better!) the ground it sits on each day will get pretty heavily "chickened" -- eaten down, scratched, dusting holes dug, pooed on. You will be leaving a trail of these daily "tractor footprints" all across your yard. How long it takes before the grass grows back to the point of looking like the rest of your lawn will depend heavily on your climate, soil, precipitation, and lawn type; but it is likely to be AT LEAST 10 days' worth of visible "tractor footprints", or easily more if your growing conditions are not optimal. For a 4x10' tractor, this means that at any given point in time you are likely to have at least 40x10' worth of lawn be visibly in bad condition (including holes and bare patches).

Whereas a fixed structure for 6-8 chickens would take up, what, maybe a 10x10 or 10x20 area (totally depends on how you'd build it), and ONLY that, EVER.

Just sayin',

Pat​

 

[elmo]

I know someone here in North Texas with part Serama chickens who was forced to bring them into her bathroom on freezing nights this past winter, simply because her birds were not able to handle even short spells of cold to that degree. The good thing, though, is Seramas are small enough so that this is actually a feasible, if not ideal, arrangement.

We free range with supervision, too, although not in the winter. There are simply too many hawks in the area in winter and since the trees are bare, not enough cover. I have heard from more than one person who has had a chicken attacked by a hawk right in front of them; human presence did not deter the hawk.

We were driving out of our driveway this last week and as I turned to look over my shoulder while backing up, I spotted a huge redtail eating a squirrel on our front lawn, not 3 feet away from the driveway. It was not frightened by us in the least and finished its meal in a leisurely fashion while we watched it. At that close range, you can really see how sharp the hawk's beak and talons are. Actually, I was a little frightened and we were inside our car!

 

[san415]

I have found that letting my hens out of their yard into the rest of the yard while I am doing work out in the yard during the day, means they are out till dusk. You just can't always get the little buggers to march back in till they want to. And that will be at dusk. What I do is after I am done with the yard work I let them out, maybe an hour till it will be getting dark. I sit and have a coffee or a beer and watch them from my outdoor furniture. They will head back into the chicken yard about a 1/2 hour before they are ready to put themselves to bed for the night.

Otherwise even with a fenced back yard they are stressed and I am stressed if I decide I want to have them back in the yard early. Also even if I plan to go back inside the house I know they will only be free ranging for about an hour. Just long enough to de- bug my hosta garden.

 

[Erinmir]

Quote:
That was my thinking with the supervision, actually. I wasn't super-clear but knowing that they'd put themselves in at dusk, I was thinking of giving them a little time in the evenings to run about from time to time to give them something to do and to let them de-bug the yard.

We are now redesigning to a fixed-coop and yard with thanks to all the advice we've garnered here. I think I partly wanted to do something fixed anyhow because there is so much more flexibility to make them cute.

What do you all think of a movable pen to let them into in the yard during the day? We saw a pyramid shaped pen in a magazine photo-spread and thought this might be a good option to give them some "free ranging" time on the occasion as well. Does anyone else use something like this, or am I now going over the top? I really do want my future-chickies to be happy and healthy.

Pat - I appreciate your honest and up-front replies. I have done research, don't get me wrong, and I'm by no means a silly city slicker who is getting into the chicken-fad, but I know that a lot of what I thought I knew, I don't. I appreciate your help so far and your patience with my bevy of questions.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Yup, a buncha people do something like that. You do want to make sure they have shelter from sun and storms in their 'day tractor' or 'moveable pen' or whatever one wants to call it; and even if it will only be for daytime use, it needs to be dogproof; but, sure, go for it

I do not know what pyramid shaped one you're talking about, but one often-very-useful design is to make a hoop-tunnel-shaped thing out of either cattle panels or PVC (bent into half hoops) covered in smaller-mesh wire; there are bajillions of BYCers with that sort of constructions and if you browse around here you should not have trouble finding some examples to consider.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I'm making a pvc hoop pen for the new wee chickies over summer. There are plenty threads here on BYC to see how folks vary in making them. Mine will simply be 2X2 pressure treated base frame, holes drilled for PVC ends and another 2x2 for center top rib support. Ya know, drill complete holes in that top rib to slide the pvc through then make it hoop into the holes of base frame. Predrill and screw the pvc to wood. Light weight and easy to make/move.

Even with a tractor once winter sets in it's not moving so I'll use the hoop run as an extention to my tractor for added winter run space.

I let my girls free range a lot. Once they have ravaged all the bugs they start to wander to neighbors and have to keep them penned longer each day. When working in garden and general house duties they are ever curious and stick close by, under foot.

 

[elmo]

Quote:
I have an "A" frame tractor, as well as a hoop model. Pictures on my BYC page. I use them as day tractors. Works fine.