My Chicken Tractor is quickly becoming a Chicken Penthouse

[Shawn29073]

Hello Everyone,
I finally got off my butt and started on my little girls new Chicken Coop. Last season we bought a flimsy chicken tractor off of CL and a stray dog got in and killed my daughters small flock. After seeing her devastated (she's 6 and loves chickens) I vowed that it WOULD NOT HAPPEN AGAIN. So I'm not at all going cheap on this coop / run. I will post up some pics tomorrow. But basically its 5 foot wide, 4 foot high, and 12 foot long. The back 4 feet of the run is going to be a fully enclosed HOUSE/COOP. Complete with a pitched roof. I'm still debating whether I should put a floor in it or just leave it open to the ground, suggestions? The house will have a door to secure the flock at night. I may even put an automatic door opener on it. She will also have a rooster wind vane on the top! LOL Like I said cheap is not my aim,but rather security. I have 150 invested so far. I didn't have any scrap material laying around so all this was bought from lowes. I'm using untreated lumber, and I will paint the entire thing when I'm finished. When I started this It was supposed to be a portable chicken tractor, but its quickly becoming not so portable, haha. But I am going to put some wheels on the back, so I can move it with the ATV. Oh and how many chickens can I put in this thing? And I need 1 nesting box for every 2 hens, right?

 

[Stumpy]

You'll probably find that you won't need quite that many nesting boxes. They all seem to gravitate toward a certain few. The great thing about having a tractor is that the chickens will have fresh ground every few days. The downside is that there is no wire running into the ground to prevent digging predators, but if this is not a concern during the day and they are locked inside a coop area at night, it shouldn't be a problem. Also, use hardware cloth instead of chicken wire. It can be purchased reasonably on Amazon or Wayfair.

I am sorry about your predator incident. I'd suggest reading some of the threads about predators to learn from them. I hope all goes well in the new coop.

 

[Shawn29073]

Thank you for the reply and info on the hardware cloth. How many chickens will be comfortable in this coop / run? I have decided, I am going to install a floor in the coop, its just more secure with a floor. Boy oh boy the painting that I'm gonna have to do.

 

[Shawn29073]

Here are a few pics of my coop in progress, I really didn't have any plans. I just looked at some pics on here and basically just shooting from the hip. And I'm doing all this with a hand saw, a hammer, and a drill. The rack on the back of my ATV is my saw horse.

Everything is screwed together with deck screws.

 

[Shawn29073]

How many chickens will be comfortable in here?

 

[topgunn601]

Hello Everyone,
  I finally got off my butt and started on my little girls new Chicken Coop. Last season we bought a flimsy chicken tractor off of CL and a stray dog got in and killed my daughters small flock. After seeing her devastated (she's 6 and loves chickens) I vowed that it WOULD NOT HAPPEN AGAIN. So I'm not at all going cheap on this coop / run. I will post up some pics tomorrow. But basically its 5 foot wide, 4 foot high, and 12 foot long. The back 4 feet of the run is going to be a fully enclosed HOUSE/COOP. Complete with a pitched roof.  I'm still debating whether I should put a floor in it or just leave it open to the ground, suggestions?  The house will have a door to secure the flock at night. I may even put an automatic door opener on it. She will also have a rooster wind vane on the top! LOL Like I said cheap is not my aim,but rather security. I have 150 invested so far. I didn't have any scrap material laying around so all this was bought from lowes. I'm using untreated lumber, and I will paint the entire thing when I'm finished. When I started this It was supposed to be a portable chicken tractor, but its quickly becoming not so portable, haha. But I am going to put some wheels on the back, so I can move it with the ATV.  Oh and how many chickens can I put in this thing?  And I need 1 nesting box for every 2 hens, right?

I to recently built my first tractor. I wanted to be able to move it to fresh grassy areas in my yard. Mine is not nearly as big as yours but I made it a 2 piece design. I move the coop section first as it is heavier the the run section butts to it and the have latches on either side that holds them together nice and snug. I have 2 large pit bulls that keep most critters outta my yard but even the dogs have been able to part the setup. Has worked well for me. My wife is a lil woman and has no trouble moving and setting it up. I have wheels on both sections on one end and I made wheel barrel like handles for the other. I have two reds in mine but intend on moving those and housing 5 bantams in it shortly.

 

[topgunn601]

T

I to recently built my first tractor. I wanted to be able to move it to fresh grassy areas in my yard. Mine is not nearly as big as yours but I made it a 2 piece design. I move the coop section first as it is heavier the the run section butts to it and the have latches on either side that holds them together nice and snug. I have 2 large pit bulls that keep most critters outta my yard but even the dogs have been able to part the setup. Has worked well for me. My wife is a lil woman and has no trouble moving and setting it up. I have wheels on both sections on one end and I made wheel barrel like handles for the other. I have two reds in mine but intend on moving those and housing 5 bantams in it shortly.

the dogs haven't been able to part it!!!

 

[Shawn29073]

How many chickens will be comfortable in here?

BUMP!

 

[gryeyes]

The general rule is 4 square feet in the coop per chicken, if they are allowed into a run or to range freely. Space in the run should be 10 square feet per chicken.
As a general rule...

 

[Shawn29073]

My coop is 4X5, and the run is 5X8. So thats 5 chickens. Wow I thought I could get 6 to 8 in this thing. hmmm and here I thought it was too big.