Portable run with a stationary coop?

[citymeetscountry]

I have a friend that uses a tractor and now I'm wondering if there's some way to use the coops I have and make a tractor with them, or if I'd have to start from scratch.

Btw we frequently let our girls “free range” we have 2.3 acres (less now that we have a puppy though…) and they’re fairly easy to get back to the tractor/coop, so I could definitely see a portable run working.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I was going to take the chickens out of the coop and pop them into the run and then move it to where I wanted it, which sounds a little crazy now that I write it out.

This sounds great until you realize what a hassle it is to move them back and forth. Back when I had only 4 hens I was manually moving them into a dog exercise pen which I moved around to destroy some of my weedy areas, but it gets old fast having to hustle back and forth with chickens.

 

[3KillerBs]

This sounds great until you realize what a hassle it is to move them back and forth. Back when I had only 4 hens I was manually moving them into a dog exercise pen which I moved around to destroy some of my weedy areas, but it gets old fast having to hustle back and forth with chickens.

I'd like to figure out how to put a couple of mine in small tractor from time to time to work fallow garden beds, but they're not tame enough to catch on a routine basis.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I'd like to figure out how to put a couple of mine in small tractor from time to time to work fallow garden beds, but they're not tame enough to catch on a routine basis.

That'd certainly add to the difficulty, and it's not worth stressing them out by trying to catch them if they're unused to being handled. Most of my birds are "tame enough" but with 10 of them now the only good way to get them to work a patch of weeds is to herd them over there, the hassle of trying to pick them up and carry them over would be a special workout unto itself.

 

[saysfaa]

I want to move mine to a day pen, too, about once a week. The best solution I've come up with so far is to teach them to enter the transport crate easily. I'm on stage one of the training - going through the narrow door to play in the garden side of the shed. And back when I ask them to. When they will all do that easily, I'll put something in upper part of the doorway to make a short tunnel, then longer tunnel, then the transport crate.

If I didn't have to move them very far, a chunnel would be my first choice.

 

[Juli1980]

M

Like this. They come in some different sizes and weights. It would be the framework; not the part that keeps the chickens in. https://www.premier1supplies.com/p/welded-wire-panels-original-design?msclkid=ce05943f78a91f836279f5c1ecc72aa4&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=(ROI) Smart Shopping - Equipment&utm_term=4584207590674353&utm_content=Ad group

There is a different, much more expensive, thing called cattle panels that are pipes welded together to make gates or small holding pens. Not thise for this.

Thank you!

This sounds great until you realize what a hassle it is to move them back and forth. Back when I had only 4 hens I was manually moving them into a dog exercise pen which I moved around to destroy some of my weedy areas, but it gets old fast having to hustle back and forth with chickens.

I got to visit them today and you are 110% right. This would be a LOT to deal with twice a day.

 

[Poppy Putentake]

Preparing a home for seven adults chickens. I have a small yard in a neighborhood... ..What I want to do is have a portable run that I can move around the yard so they have fresh places to ... graze (?) every day... ...Is that crazy?

For security, I would think first of making the coop they sleep in very secure -- no places for small or large predators to get in.
Having an additional portable (covered and partially enlosed) run or a "day tractor" is a practical idea, maybe more so than a tractor that includes their sleepiing quarters and nesting boxes. It could be more lightweight and easy to move, but you would also need some kind of portable passageway(s) to connect it to the coop.
Another alternative would be to divide (all or part) of your yard into 2 or 3 or more paddocks with more-or-less permanent fencing, and with some kind of arrangement to connect the coop to only one at a time. Since you say your total space is "small", the materials you'd need for fencing might not be that much. If you have a vegetable garden, you could even rotate padocks between gardening and chicken space and have the birds do some of your weeding and fertilizing work for you.
This book has some interesting ideas about the concept of paddocks, (plus a ittle about tractors and portable fencing) although it is geared mainly to integrating small flocks into ornamental gardens in urban or suburban settings.

 

[Hoopkins45]

OP, what did you end up doing? I’m considering this exact same setup.