Just finished my Chicken Tractor (Image heavy!) - My own design

[Dogfish]

Very nice.

 

[jondecker76]

Predators aren't a big concern really - I live on 200 acres and pretty much all the trees are at the edges of the property, so I rarely if ever see raccoons or skunks - but time will tell. If I start seeing signs of predators, I will definitely switch to some stronger wire.

Another change that I would have made if I were to start from scratch would be to figure out a little better nesting box arrangement. Right now, the hens want to sleep in them because they are up towards the top of the house. Maybe I can lure them into sleeping on other perches up high that I can put in. I'll have to experiment a little and see what works. If I have to, I'll move the nesting boxes to the bottom, though it would kind of defeat the purpose of having an open floor and keeping things low maintenance.

 

[happyhensny]

You have done a fantastic job! Congratulations and most of all - have fun!

 

[Turner]

Very nice tractor -

I live in NE Ohio too and I promise that you have predators. Skunks, Possum, Racoon, Fox, Coyote...I have seen them all and at times have had to trap and remove. Once they know your hens are there they will return.
I would replace the chicken wire soon. Good Luck - chickens are so much fun and eggs are so good!

 

[jondecker76]

thanks for the advice - I will surely replace the chicken wire asap!

 

[patman75]

Most impressive. Awesome job.

 

[MotherJean]

This just blows me away! I, too, am excited to learn about the passive solar heater. Does it continue to work (at least marginally) on overcast days? We don't get the bitter cold (yet sunny) days of winter here in the NW. Temps are milder, but many, many days when we don't see the sun at all, so am wondering if this would work for me. Also, will you just cover the heater with something during the warm months so you're not superheating the coop?

You've really done a very nice job of thinking your tractor through and executing your design. Congrats!

 

[jondecker76]

The solar heater will work a little on slightly overcast days, but for the most part it needs full sun to work. In the winter, this only accounts for about 30% of the days where I'm at. I do a lot of alternative energy projects from windmills, to solar air heaters to solar water heaters to solar ovens and even making ethanol at home. I also grow my own corn and burn it all winter to heat my house. Having livestock is new to me though, and for me is the last piece of the puzzle to becoming more independent. My end goal is to be as close to self-sufficient as possible within the next 2 years. I like the thought of not having to worry about how I will provide for my family during an extended power blackout, natural disaster, loss of income or an economic collapse. On the brighter side, if none of these desasterous conditions ever happen, then I'm at least saving money, helping the environment, keeping my family healthy and staying entertained all at the same time!

My next project is to make a small wind turbine for this chicken tractor that will put its power through a resistive heating element and heat the coop on windy days. Between the wind and solar heat, it should greatly help keep the temperature more tolerable in the winter! I may even put some rigid board insulation on the inside of the coop to hold the heat in better (I wasn't sure if the chickens would peck at it or not). I already have the scraps of insulation, just haven't put any in at this point.

Another future plan is to use install a "Power Wheels" battery and charge it using solar/wind, and in the winter have it run lights in the roost area to encourage better egg laying in the winter months. I'll be sure to return to this thread with pictures as I complete each of these projects.



PS - a note on these types of solar heaters.. They are very easy and cheap to make even for your home. A single heater the size of a single pane of glass from a sliding glass door can be made from less than $100 in materials will pump over 2000 watts of heat into your house on any sunny day even on the coldest of winter days. Anyone wanting more information on these types of solar projects (either for your coop, garage or home) should go to www.builditsolar.com - they have hundreds of working examples!

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SpaceHeating/Space_Heating.htm shows a lot of excellent solar air heaters.

Here is a link to a guy that built a pretty big one for his home and it provides 100% of his home heat on sunny days:
http://solarairheater.lampresource.com/

I get free used sliding glass doors all the time and just remove the large tempered glass panels from them (you have to have tempered glass, as these solar heaters can and will get hot enough on the inside to crack normal glass). To date I have gotten 18 free panes of glass this way!

 

[catdaddy66]

Quote:
I was going to make the suggestion of lower nest boxes but your very quick to see it yourself! That tractor is one of the most original, thought out, functional designs I have ever seen in my time as a BYC member (maybe 7 months). You are to be commended for your ingenuity!

 

[jondecker76]

There has been some great feedback and excellent suggestions to improve my design - thanks to all of you!

I work 12 hour shifts for the next 6 days - but on my next break, I'm going to implement the following improvements to the design as suggested my the knowlegable members here:

1) I'm going to simplify the perches in the roost. I currently have too many, and they are too small. I'm going to replace my current roosting pole mess with some 2x4s.

2) The chicken wire is going to be replaced with 1/2" mesh hardware cloth. I will secure this with screws this time rather than staples.

3) The nest box is going to be moved to the bottom, in a new compartment that extends out the back. This will ensure that the hens aren't tempted to roost in the nesting boxes. Also, having it extend out the back will leave the entire floor of the roost open, keeping maintenance simple and less time consuming (as per the original goal).

4) Because of the nest box relocation, I will have to move the solar heater up above the nest box, and likely lose 1 access door (which is ok, as I will still be able to easily access all areas of the tractor from the outside)

5) I need to make a door between the roost and the run. While I currently don't have plans on locking them up (unless I forsee predator problems maybe), it would be nice to have the option. It will also let me lock them into the run area while I work on the roost area.

Edit: 4-25-2010
6) After watching the chickens in the rian yesterday, I'm going to extend the roof over the entire run (currently only half of the run has a roof) to help keep the chickens dry in bad weather. I may even go as far as making some panels that fold down over the sides that I can put down in bad weather so that they can continue to graze on in the run.
end edit

The end result should be a design more robust agains predators, as well as being more chicken friendly (with more logically placed nesting boxes and wider perches).

I took the time to model this in Google sketchup (kind of like a 3D modeling ? CAD drafting program). I will have to update this once the design is finalized - I'd like to release a nice set of plans once this is done so that others can build it easliy and avoid some of my mistakes.