Justin Rhodes Chick shaw

[Fisherlmiranda]

I would like to add, the “meatshaw” as Justin Rhodes calls it is almost certainly a 3 season housing system. It doesn’t have any walls and will not protect from winter winds. I would steer clear of it as a permanent housing system unless you live somewhere tropical like FL. Even then I would be careful because it can get below freezing there.

I know I love the idea of the meat shaw! But we have soooooo many predators where I'm at in Ohio. It just worrys me. I watched his success with his this year tho. And it seems so stress free. Its temping to try for sure.

 

[Fisherlmiranda]

I would like to add, the “meatshaw” as Justin Rhodes calls it is almost certainly a 3 season housing system. It doesn’t have any walls and will not protect from winter winds. I would steer clear of it as a permanent housing system unless you live somewhere tropical like FL. Even then I would be careful because it can get below freezing there.

I guess you could park it for winter and stack hay bales around it?

 

[Redhead Rae]

I guess you could park it for winter and stack hay bales around it?

Or maybe put it on top of a frame of haybales. But, that would be a pain in the butt to move to get your birds to fresh ground.

 

[CindyinSD]

You don’t use the Suskovich tractor for winter housing. You take off the tarp and wait for spring. Or you could cover it with plastic and use it as a cold frame... or attach greenhouse panels and then you could probably keep chickens in it through the winter... only then it would most likely end up as a permanent greenhouse. You’d definitely need to anchor it down if you were to do that. I think I’ll eventually make one to try out the Joel Salatin “Raken house” (rabbits above, old lady layers on the ground in the deep litter to stir up the rabbit droppings.) That would be so cool, and a nice retirement for the old girls instead of the stew pot.

Justin Rhodes just posted a video in which he says his chickshaw kept his flock comfortably through a zero degree night. That’s pretty cold, and maybe they’d be okay at -20 or maybe not. They probably would, but with the open floor I’d be up all night worrying anyway... and I have a high expectation of my girls’ toughness.

 

[Katonk]

Anyone try to alter the chicksaw 2.0 for deep litter?

 

[Fisherlmiranda]

I have the plans... They’re so cool, but I haven’t decided for sure whether to use them. I kind of don’t think I will. Counting up the roost space he provides for, I think it would be okay for a bedroom only for my 17 layers. The problem is that we have very long days in summer. I’m not getting up at 4:30am every morning to open the door for them. Not happening. Soooo, they’re gonna need a roomier coop.

I bought materials to make one of John Suskovich’s walk-in tractors for some Color Yield chicks I’ve ordered (meat birds), and if I like it, I’ll likely make a couple more as portable coops (not for confinement-style pasturing) for the layers and for the heritage turkeys I also ordered. I’ll let the new layer chicks stay in the permanent coops and yards all summer as they grow up.

The Suskovich tractors will provide shelter for the meaties, the mature layers and the turkeys as they follow my three heifers around their progressive grazing adventures (hopefully eating up all the fly larvae and spreading out the cow patties as they go.) That’s the plan, anyway.

I’ll be interested how the chickshaw works for you. Maybe I’ll find a use for it at some point. Hope so.

How is your meat bird and the tractors going?

 

[Fisherlmiranda]

Anyone try to alter the chicksaw 2.0 for deep litter?

I would think it would be to heavy. Idk

 

[Fisherlmiranda]

Heres how its going! My husband built this awesome brooder that disassembles and can lay flat against the wall when not in use. He used this video as a jump off point but built ours 6'x3', the chicks and goslings are in there for now. And the chickshaw is about half built.

 

[CindyinSD]

How is your meat bird and the tractors going?

They’re doing great. It was (shouldn’t have been) still too cold for them not to have heat, but they were too big to stay inside. I had to put them out. I added four heat lamps and tarped the open ends. They had over a foot of snow and high winds shortly after I put them out but they were fine. Then a couple weeks ago we had another 18”. Seriously. I measured it with a thin metal ruler, and that was after it had settled for a few hours. Both times I had to shovel snow in order to move them—and believe me, they needed moving!

These birdies poop a LOT. The grass recovers beautifully after a week or so—though I’m sure all the rain does help. Here are pictures. I love these tractors. I’m building one more (3 total) now, then I think I’m done. One is for meaties, one for my layers and the third is for babies who need a place to go since my chicken yard is submerged. I’ll use it later for turkeys.

 

[Fisherlmiranda]

They’re doing great. It was (shouldn’t have been) still too cold for them not to have heat, but they were too big to stay inside. I had to put them out. I added four heat lamps and tarped the open ends. They had over a foot of snow and high winds shortly after I put them out but they were fine. Then a couple weeks ago we had another 18”. Seriously. I measured it with a thin metal ruler, and that was after it had settled for a few hours. Both times I had to shovel snow in order to move them—and believe me, they needed moving!

These birdies poop a LOT. The grass recovers beautifully after a week or so—though I’m sure all the rain does help. Here are pictures. I love these tractors. I’m building one more (3 total) now, then I think I’m done. One is for meaties, one for my layers and the third is for babies who need a place to go since my chicken yard is submerged. I’ll use it later for turkeys.

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That's so awesome! So glad to see you like them! I wonder how they would do on a little more rugged area. My pasture is quite hilly.