Forget roosters. Neighbors will hate you. Do make it of 6' tall 2x4 welded wire fencing and add 24" tall roll of chicken wire to inside bottom perimeter. This will keep them from poking their heads out of tractor. Coons wil rip their heads off and they will double up ant tag-team your chooks. It has happened to someone I met, and was in broad daylight. They killed and dismembered 3 from outside the tractor before he could get out to stop them. Took turns stampeding the chooks from one side to the other where first one then the other would reach thru to grab and dismember. So do add the chicken wire around the bottom. Make coop part above ground, linoleum floor (unless raising little chicks in it) to where it can be completely latched at night to keep coons, weasels, foxes, etc from your birds. Big wheels and if feasible for your place, a way to hook to your car or truck for ease of moving. Do put a fence charger on it wired to an outlet on the frame. Then put a power pigtail on that so that you can run a drop cord to it wherever it is. The dogs and all the other critters will learn real soon to avoid it. Do make bumpout nest boxes so that you do not have to go into tractor for egg removal or cleaning. Put nest boxes at floor level of interior, and make roosts higher by 2 ft or so. Lots of ventilation that can be modified in wintertime. No drafts in winter, lots of drafts in summer. Heat will kill them 10 to 1 over cold. Some 4" pvc pipe and fittings will make it possible to feed and water them from the outside too. Use grass clippings for litter inside coop. Put a box with some coarse sand of the type for making cement in there for them to get grit that is cheap and effective.
I have 6 each of Buff Comets, Rhode Island Reds, Black Austrolorpes, and Barred Plymouth Rocks. Good all weather brown egg layers. The Barred rocks are friendliest, but a little below egg production of the other three I am told. For most eggs for the feeding dolar, Leghorns are tops. White eggs. You will only have meaties a short time, but they should be kept in a different tractor. Goats are great for meat. Billies can be had pretty cheaply. They are hardy and will be big enough to be worth the labor of killing and cleaning. I am thinking of getting some, and if the economy continues to decline as I suspect it will for average americans, I will do just that. ( I have the space and I am zoned Ag/farm due to my site being 15 acres of an original farm of 40 acres.)
Hope this helps, and blessings in Christ.
I have 6 each of Buff Comets, Rhode Island Reds, Black Austrolorpes, and Barred Plymouth Rocks. Good all weather brown egg layers. The Barred rocks are friendliest, but a little below egg production of the other three I am told. For most eggs for the feeding dolar, Leghorns are tops. White eggs. You will only have meaties a short time, but they should be kept in a different tractor. Goats are great for meat. Billies can be had pretty cheaply. They are hardy and will be big enough to be worth the labor of killing and cleaning. I am thinking of getting some, and if the economy continues to decline as I suspect it will for average americans, I will do just that. ( I have the space and I am zoned Ag/farm due to my site being 15 acres of an original farm of 40 acres.)
Hope this helps, and blessings in Christ.
