CindyinSD
All will be well, and that will be well is well.
My place is really hilly, too. JS calls for 9” wheels, which I used for the first one, but I couldn’t find them for the second so I bought 10”. For my terrain I like the 10” better. I have the meaties on a fairly smooth slope and the 9” ones work okay for them but even there, 10” would be easier.
The layers are following the cows and they’re currently on top of a hill. As long as their roosts are fairly horizontal it doesn’t matter if the tractor isn’t flat. I provide them with paddocks of e-netting which corrals them and protects them from ground-based predators. (We have coyotes, cougars and the rare bobcat. No raccoons. No stray dogs/cats.) So, if there are gaps under the edges of the tractor because of uneven ground, that’s not a big danger.
The one thing I don’t like about the tractors is that they’re fairly heavy, especially once you add nesting boxes. I’m sure I could figure out a way to move them with the 4-wheeler, but you couldn’t do that with chickens inside. They’d get hurt. They’re intended to be moved by hand, one tractor length at a time, while watching to make sure the chickens aren’t getting too close to the edges.
As long as you’re not trying to move them over lots of obstacles like branches, big rocks, etc., or across long distances or mushy ground, they’re not really a problem.
Your chickshaw build looks awesome! I think I’m still gonna end up building one. It’s a lot more mobile than the tractor and would be great to have if only for purposes of fowl transportation when I need to move them farther than a few tractor lengths. I do like that if I’m not up at first light (about 4:30 a.m. here this time of year) to let them out, they do still have some room to move around in. They’re not stuck in a tiny box on a roost. So, pluses and minuses for both.
The layers are following the cows and they’re currently on top of a hill. As long as their roosts are fairly horizontal it doesn’t matter if the tractor isn’t flat. I provide them with paddocks of e-netting which corrals them and protects them from ground-based predators. (We have coyotes, cougars and the rare bobcat. No raccoons. No stray dogs/cats.) So, if there are gaps under the edges of the tractor because of uneven ground, that’s not a big danger.
The one thing I don’t like about the tractors is that they’re fairly heavy, especially once you add nesting boxes. I’m sure I could figure out a way to move them with the 4-wheeler, but you couldn’t do that with chickens inside. They’d get hurt. They’re intended to be moved by hand, one tractor length at a time, while watching to make sure the chickens aren’t getting too close to the edges.
As long as you’re not trying to move them over lots of obstacles like branches, big rocks, etc., or across long distances or mushy ground, they’re not really a problem.
Your chickshaw build looks awesome! I think I’m still gonna end up building one. It’s a lot more mobile than the tractor and would be great to have if only for purposes of fowl transportation when I need to move them farther than a few tractor lengths. I do like that if I’m not up at first light (about 4:30 a.m. here this time of year) to let them out, they do still have some room to move around in. They’re not stuck in a tiny box on a roost. So, pluses and minuses for both.
