MiaS
Songster
Hi BYCers!
My little Woods coop is finally housing 4 teenaged birds, a barred rock, an ameraucana, a russian orloff and a orp/rock cross. Let the games begin
I would like to be able to range them a bit but I'm nervous about letting them free range as my acreage is fenceless and we have coyotes, fox and neighboring dogs. So, I'm thinking of building a chicken tractor that I could use on grass in the summer and also move around my veggie garden in the spring and fall while I'm doing clean up.
Ideally the hens would be housed most of the time in my secure coop and run but I'd like to be able to utilize this tractor on days when I am home in the garden.
I'm seriously considering a walk in hoop coop, like the one @aart built, but I also have leftover materials from my coop build that would be great to use up if I found a smaller one that seemed right. One of the design flaws I see with some of these smaller versions is ease of catching the birds to get them back into my coop.
Anyone have any great, lightweight and easy to build ideas? I've looked at a million ideas here and elsewhere but would love to hear from folks who are using their tractor as I intend to and find that it works, or are able to point out reasons why it may not.
Desired features:
* decent sized for around 6 birds
* light enough to move on my own
* easy enough to catch birds to move to secure housing at night
* attractive (this matters to me, I'm a designer LOL)
Questions:
* Is this even a good idea? Does only periodic ranging stress chickens out, as in are they then always wanting to go out?
* Do I need to offer a nesting area and roosts? I'm assuming I'll need to 'say yes to the nest'
My little Woods coop is finally housing 4 teenaged birds, a barred rock, an ameraucana, a russian orloff and a orp/rock cross. Let the games begin
I would like to be able to range them a bit but I'm nervous about letting them free range as my acreage is fenceless and we have coyotes, fox and neighboring dogs. So, I'm thinking of building a chicken tractor that I could use on grass in the summer and also move around my veggie garden in the spring and fall while I'm doing clean up.
Ideally the hens would be housed most of the time in my secure coop and run but I'd like to be able to utilize this tractor on days when I am home in the garden.
I'm seriously considering a walk in hoop coop, like the one @aart built, but I also have leftover materials from my coop build that would be great to use up if I found a smaller one that seemed right. One of the design flaws I see with some of these smaller versions is ease of catching the birds to get them back into my coop.
Anyone have any great, lightweight and easy to build ideas? I've looked at a million ideas here and elsewhere but would love to hear from folks who are using their tractor as I intend to and find that it works, or are able to point out reasons why it may not.
Desired features:
* decent sized for around 6 birds
* light enough to move on my own
* easy enough to catch birds to move to secure housing at night
* attractive (this matters to me, I'm a designer LOL)
Questions:
* Is this even a good idea? Does only periodic ranging stress chickens out, as in are they then always wanting to go out?
* Do I need to offer a nesting area and roosts? I'm assuming I'll need to 'say yes to the nest'
