Making new and improved chicken tractors

[Tommie Hockett]

Well as the thread title suggests I spent most of my weekend building some new and improved chicken tractors for my laying hens that will be arriving on the 5th of february. 25 buff orpingtons and 25 brown sexlinks. Anyway they are loosely based on john suskovich's meat bird tractors only with more square footage. They are 150 sq ft and with 25 hens a piece that is 6 sqft per chicken. A little overkill but i like my laying hens to have plenty of room to roam and this makes it to where I only have to move them every other day. Ok here is pictures and more to come when I get them from my wife. My camera is broken on my phone.


Ok so I cant get pictures to upload. Signal sucks here. So I will upload them when I get to work with their wifi.

The ones made from cattle panel are the new ones and the one built like a spanish fort is the old on (it has tarps on it). I will be using the same cam locking wheels on the new ones. I should be able to finish them this weekend so look for more pictures in the coming days so long as the rain holds off!

 

[Tommie Hockett]

Here are the pics as promised

 

[aart]

Would love to see some closeups and detailed pics on your wheel assemblies.
Where's the nests gonna go?

Oh, and....Welcome to BYC! @Tommie Hockett
Where in this world are you located?
Climate, and time of year, is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, (laptop version shown), then it's always there!

 

[Tommie Hockett]

Sorry about that. I will update my profile when I wake up today.. night shift. But until then I live in a little town called Callisburg it is in North Central Texas in a region called texoma, our usda growing zone is 7b so that should cover the climate. We are hot and humid for most of the year. I will get a close up of the wheels and also where the nests are going as well. Have a blessed day and thank you Im glad to ve here!

 

[Tommie Hockett]

Ok I put my location on my account page however I don't see it on the thread. Let me know if it worked please. I'm off to take pictures with my wife's phone and then send them to mine and I will post them when I get to wifi

 

[aart]

Ok I put my location on my account page however I don't see it on the thread. Let me know if it worked please.

It did work...if you're on a phone you may have to go landscape rather than portrait to see it?

 

[Tommie Hockett]

Ok as far as the pictures go the nest boxes are completely movable anywhere in the coop that I want/need them. I welded on hooks and bottom supports that swivel. I tried to get better pics of the wheel assemblies I stole the idea from a website called buildyourowngreenhouse.com but as I am not selling them I think it is ok I just build them for my own tractors. I will take better pictures as I start building the new ones when they aren't on the tractor. I also have a design for a wheel assembly that will be able to steer it from the front and I will show it to yall if what seems right in my brain works in the real world haha.

 

[Tommie Hockett]

Here is the pics

 

[aart]

I will take better pictures as I start building the new ones when they aren't on the tractor. I also have a design for a wheel assembly that will be able to steer it from the front and I will show it to yall if what seems right in my brain works in the real world

Good to take pics as you build, tho it can be annoyingly distracting to the work flow.
I take you have welding equipment and skills, changes the game for sure, and I'm a bit jeally.

 

[Tommie Hockett]

Yes I have a couple of mig welders and one arc welder. As far as skills. If you can operate a hot glue gun you can weld, in the words of my daddy "it aint got to be pretty it just has to stick, the pretty comes later". I built my first three out of wood and stapled cattle panels to it, but they were so stinkin heavy that it was hard to move them even with the wheels. I then tried another one out of conduit but the wind swept it away. So then you have the other one in the pictures that I over built out of schedule 40 1.5 inch pipe.... so now onto what I hope is the winning design version 4.0