Question about small chicken tractors (2-4) hens

[Davaroo]

Heres the one I use, and have been for a couple of years.

Tall enough to enter and stand up in, it has wheels that dismount and it can be moved by one person without any trouble. It is light weight and takes advantage of cantilevered construction and stressed skin techiques for strength.
Build two and you can use the other as a small greenhouse, chick brooder or whatever. Using a layer of heavy mil poly under the tarp roof does a good job of holding in the heat
It has a lot of innovative features not found in other tractors, too. In windy locations it needs staking or added weight as it tends to be tippy in a stiff wind.

All in all there is only one real problem with it - Im not smart enough to have thought it up myself!!

 

[dftkarin]

Pat, I loved seeing your pages, that cutie and the brilliantly designed tractor!

 

[PAChickenChick]

Quote:
Davaroo (still think of you as Elderoo

) I hope you're happy....I don't come on BYC to get an engineering education...but I just had to figure out what "cantilevered
construction" was...lol

Very interesting!! I'd love to see pictures of the inside of that!

Sometimes I really think I'm "over-thinking" my coop, guess my OCD makes me want to be perfect...

AND PAT....I love you're tractor too...when I first came to BYC your's was one of the very first ones I "copied" the picture to my harddrive so that I could study it and work the parts I liked best into my plans!!!

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Yeah, what's up with that anyhow, David? I go away for a week and when I get back you're someone else only of course not really

Sometimes I really think I'm "over-thinking" my coop, guess my OCD makes me want to be perfect...

You know what, if it makes you happy to plan plan plan, then do; if it makes other people happy to half-assed-ly plan and then fix fix fix, that's fine too, it's just a matter of taste

Have fun,

Pat​

 

[mudshark]

Quote:
WHAT!!! Need MORE Ventilation!!!

All of MY tractors have plenty of ventilation. A lot more than any coop ever had. Open air ventilation is only one of the benefits of the chicken tractor. I don't know what tractors you have built but if yours has that little ventilation you might want to rethink the design.

I think you need to read these things more carefully! The point being made is that ventilation is easy if you don't worry about drafts!

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Quote:
I, myself, am in a mixed marriage.

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
Very interesting!! I'd love to see pictures of the inside of that!

Ask and ye shall receive:

A view looking in the door:

The ramp to the roosts and nests to the lower left. Note the dropping boards beneath the roosts. These were interim until I could fit up the roost dropping collector.
This collector is a plastic barrel cut in half, hung beneath the roosts and partly filled with water. The birds droppings fall in the water and are drained out as a liquid via a large PVC valve in the bottom of the barrel. Instant liquid fertilizer!
A quick swish with water to clean 'er all out and refill with water for another week. The water also adds some weight to help stabilize the coop. Man, I wish Id've thought of that!

I still havent gotten it in yet, either... call me lazy.
Or too much BYC...

Here're are the nests. I goofed up the intitial construction for being stupid and so didnt cut in the nests according to plans. SO I came up with an alternative - plastic crates! They lift in and out for cleaning and really are just fine. Their only drawback is I cannot collect eggs from outside the coop, as intially intended.
The top cover is a piece of scrap Coroplast, hinged at the top to make a lid roof and overhanging enough to help darken the nests - thus it does multiple duty AND offers storage above the nests for anything I may want to keep up there.

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
Yeah, what's up with that anyhow, David? I go away for a week and when I get back you're someone else only of course not really

I thought the name elderoo sounded pompous and ostentatious. Lord knows Im enough of that without my name sounding like it, too!

Sometimes I really think I'm "over-thinking" my coop, guess my OCD makes me want to be perfect...

You know what, if it makes you happy to plan plan plan, then do; if it makes other people happy to half-assed-ly plan and then fix fix fix, that's fine too, it's just a matter of taste

Well said Pat.​