Have chicken tractors....now have bad back

[sealer39]

Looks good! I bet your back is thanking you!

 

[aart]

In the future I 'd like to modify my design to be able to put one on the front

Not sure one of those wheels in front would roll as well as the hand truck wheels/tires,
(pics of type you are using?)
plus hand truck has a handle.
But Bravo...nice solution!

 

[sealer39]

I agree with aart. Those trailer wheels are great on one end but you will want tall and wide tires in the front that are fixed. After a good rain those little hitch wheels will sink easily (at least in Louisiana they do). But if your pushing from the hitch wheel end, you will naturally be taking the weight of the tractor off the little wheels and they won’t sink as easily.

 

[Billylynn]

Good point about wheel size. They are more substantial than they look in the picture and the ground I use is mostly firmer ground. Glad you mentioned it. I'll pay attention as I plan my future routes through the yard.

 

[chickensk]

Just buy a cackellac, the Cadillac of chicken tractors

 

[aart]

They are more substantial than they look in the picture and the ground I use is mostly firmer ground.

They are what.....4-5" dia and about 1.5-2" wide?
What do your hand truck wheels look like?

 

[Billylynn]

Just thought I'd give an update.
First to answer the question on the hand truck. It is the standard hand truck you'd pick up at any hardware store to use to move heavy objects, boxes, etc.
The solution of putting crank-up wheels on the backend of the tractor worked well. I then slid the hand truck under the front end of the hand truck and then the coop moved easily. The hardest part was sliding the front edge of the hand truck under the coop. After a bit of healing I was able to stop using the hand truck and wen back to pulling the tractor with a rope that is attached to the front corners (after cranking up the wheels in the back.) This seemed to work well enough. Since I only have meat chickens there was a limited amount of time that I had to work with this arrangement before I could choose to take a break until my healing is complete.

If I were to build another tractor. I would definitely build it with the capability of putting 4 good wheels on. It is definitely worth the expense (I forget I'm not 30.)

Another interesting development was that I consolidated from two tractors to one. Of course that could only work with some major changes in how I managed my flock. I experimented with free ranging my Jumbo Cornish X birds. And it worked out really well. I only had one hawk attack which was deflected because my husband was close enough to spot it and scared the hawk away. I put the food and water outside the tractor every day so they all had to get up and do a substantial amount of moving everyday. There very little sluggish movement throughout their 7 week lifetime.