Moving chicken tractors with your riding mower?

[mominoz]

I raise waterfowl. But am now adding chickens for show and stuff.(used to have them long ago). I want to build some chicken/ and duckling tractors using cattle panels probably (quick, strong) adding cage wire to them and adding either tarps as needed or house on one end built with light materials like vinyl siding for roofing or maybe some fiberglass panels, and want more than one as I could use then as grow out pens for the ducklings , and different breeds and separating excess males and females...thinking making cuts like a sled so it doesn't get hung up...I want to be able to pull it with my riding mowers (I often use them like a ATV my husband says) to move them as needed. Not on a daily basis, more seasonally. We have 11 acres with cattle fencing...but it is rolling. we have a lot of stuff on the flat area near our house, but to access other areas it is down a slope. I may get some electric netting later if I move them or other birds (geese) down the slopes.... don't want to use PVC pipes... we are in 60's , and although I was quite strong for a woman, I am now conserving heavy lifting to 50 lb feed bags...LOL... So I want to be able to slowly drag the tractor (with or without birds inside) and move it if I need too.Land has some rocks, roots etc. we have some driveable slopes...but there are predators in the area, and even with my fences, there are foxes, coyotes, hawks, raccoons...so I won't be using chickenwire... I probably will have some 'fence aprons' to add to the outsides to keep out diggers... I just wondered if anyone has made some that they can move this way? .(.. Our mowers regularly tow carts with dirt, rocks, logs, small trees being drug, so I know they can do some weight...) probably 4X8 or maybe up to 8X8....because I want to size them to use the cattle panels, which I may cut ...

 

[ColoradoPip]

Yes you could use a lawn tractor to move a tractor coop. They key would be to make sure no chickens are hurt in the process. When you are walking the tractor it's slow and easy to see, you just need to make sure you can do the same from the lawn tractor.

Instead of building it on skids/rails, maybe just build it on wheels or a trailer. Would make hooking it up and moving it even easier. Again you would need to be very careful when moving it so nothing inside gets hurt or run over!

 

[mominoz]

Yes you could use a lawn tractor to move a tractor coop. They key would be to make sure no chickens are hurt in the process. When you are walking the tractor it's slow and easy to see, you just need to make sure you can do the same from the lawn tractor.

Instead of building it on skids/rails, maybe just build it on wheels or a trailer. Would make hooking it up and moving it even easier. Again you would need to be very careful when moving it so nothing inside gets hurt or run over!

Yes, birds manage to get themselves into all kinds of trouble..LOL ...I would catch or lock up birds when I moved it first. Not planning on moving it on a daily basis ...possibly from a protected area to a shady area.... maybe use them as fertilizing some of the flatter pastures... but want to build a couple, and the wheels are rather labor intensive, and $ and well,unless it was a dolly that could be used and put away, I don't see them as useful to me... thought about some kind of dolly , you could lift and bungie on to move , then take off...considered trailers, but the cost, and the having to pump tires up (unless you buy run flats), and tire rot, eh...if I only had one small group of birds....but I have over 50 -75 ducks and geese now... and may have another 25+ chickens...

 

[ColoradoPip]

Ahh, that's a lot more than I was imagining! I like wheels over skids because they move easier and don't tear up the ground, but there are cons to them as well.

I think your idea of using cattle panels to build on skids, then move with a lawn tractor would work just fine.

I seem to recall Joel Salatin videos on youtube which had an egg mobile that was huge, on skids, and they would move however often with large tractors. It's a lot larger and there's not coop, so it's not the design you want, but proves it's definitely possible!