Meat bird chicken tractor ideas

[HiddenFawnHomestead]

Hi there! Looking for some chicken tractor ideas for my meat birds next year. Normally we use hoop houses & movable fencing, but I’d like to see if using a chicken tractor and moving it daily will be easier for us, help my chickens grow quicker, and help save $ on feed.
we raise freedom rangers on organic feed, and they just take so long to grow, with feed prices skyrocketing, I think it’s best to try out a method that will allow them to eat grass & bugs, while keeping them from running all over and eating way more feed...
Thanks so much

 

[Isadora]

here's the one we built

 

[Mountain Roost]

We use a nipple water system. Pull cord on each corner. Each coop is a one person move. Door is a panel in the front. We put feed on the ground in the next fresh green spot and then pull the coop over top of the feed. The birds learned quickly to move with the coop. We finished 100 birds in four of these this year. The birds in this picture are about 10 lbs and on their way to the freezer.

You can see where they have been in the picture below.

 

[iwltfum]

The more simple the better. I use joel salatin style chicken tractors made in the exact dimensions and details in his book Pastured Poultry Profits. I have tried several designs and the salatin is the most efficient from what I've seen. We also grow freedom rangers. About 650 of them this season in 6 pasture pens (in staggered batches - not all at the same time). 65 to 70 birds in a 10x10 pen. We have also free ranged some batches of freedom rangers and it takes them about 2x longer to reach the same weight as their chicken tractor counterparts. The chicken tractors will put out 5# freedom rangers in 9 weeks pretty consistently for us. Takes more like 16 weeks to make the same weight under full free range conditions.

 

[Isadora]

Here's another one I have for two ducks. It's smaller than the previous one I had posted. To move it, we just loop a rope around one of the upright PVC pieces and pull. I'll look through the gallery on my phone to see if I have any other pictures.
@Jeff Cooper

 

[Isadora]

@Jeff Cooper here's another

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

A REAL chicken tractor has always been my dream, though unfortunately, I've never owned one. With my meat birds, I got a truck top, and moved that around in the yard for a coop. (Though not very predator proof. Had guinea keets in protecting the flock.)

 

[aart]

This is actually the design of our first hoop house, and we built 2 more, both shorter in height to this one. Our turkeys are in the one like the one in the article, and it works well for them. I need something I can easily feed and water them with.

How would changing the tractor make them easier to feed and water?

 

[Mountain Roost]

Cool thing about chicken tractors is you can house other birds in them when the cornish are all done. I got some grown turkeys off of craigslist and in they went! Instant turkey house. I have a bunch of extra roos from hatching and all 20 are doing great in one until it snows. I love the ease of them. They aren't snow load worthy but I just pack up the tarp roofs at the end of the season.

 

[Mountain Roost]

Sounds do-able. Just remember that once you add chicken wire (or the like) it gets heavy. Maybe put a ring of PVC like mine and @Isadora to help it slide instead of picking it up. Anytime the land would have a divot, sure enough the birds would try to break out because the feed was right there waiting for them. lol Swing sets are just A-frames and would work great. I like to keep my birds dry because they are less dirty that way. So maybe tarp over the peak of the swing set a couple feet and down one side. Or tarp the whole thing during storms.

My tractors are 6 x 8 and 7 x 8 and I fit 25 birds per tractor. Twice that many when they were small. You can monitor if you have too many by how torn up the ground looks when you move them.


Not hijacking...this thread is about IDEAS right!?