Freedom Rangers in Chicken Tractor?

[jso2]

Hi,

We did several batches (totaling about 150 birds) of CX last year in our chicken tractors. They were more than happy with the space they had in their Salatin-style tractors. Although they did fine for us, we were a little disturbed by the morbid form of their bodies and the way they just laid there. I know they were bred intentionally for this outcome, but still wanted to try something different this year.

We are picking up our first batch of Freedom Rangers tomorrow morning. I don't know what to expect from these birds. We have a big problem with hawks here, and so we were planning to use tractors again so we don't lose a lot of them to predators. Does anyone have a style tractor they know of that will work well for this active bird?

I know they like to jump and flit about, and that they like to move around the grass and forage a lot, so I want to give them enough space to do so without getting in each other's way. I wish that I could just put up a fence area and let them forage that way, but I know we'll lose a lot to hawks... Do they require a roost or can they sleep on the grass like the CX?

Any suggestions of approx. dimensions per however many birds would be greatly appreciated. Our tractors from last year were about 6'x10' and about 2.5' tall. Is this too small/short for FR? If it's not, how many birds would you put in them?

Thank you to anyone for your advice!

 

[thriftyfarmer]

I would give it a try. I had a friend that used a Salatin tractor for FR until they were about 8 weeks old, then he moved them to a feathernet. If you reduce the density you might succeed using the Tractor alone. For CX I always give each bird at least 1.5 square feet of tractor space. For FR you might want to increase that space, but not by much. I wouldn't put more than 40 in one pen. 30 would have plenty of room. I'm giving these amounts based on the idea that you should move the pen at least once a day.