small chicken tractor design

[centrarchid]

I am interested in building 18 small chicken tractors for broilers. Each is to house 20 birds. How many square feet should in design? Are there any extension publications providing rules of thumb concerning sizing and design?

 

[conny63malies]

Are you building them to sell them? You might want to go over to the meat bird section and check over there.

 

[centrarchid]

Are you building them to sell them? You might want to go over to the meat bird section and check over there.

Research purposes. They need to be small enough so one person can move them all easily at some point during day yet durable enough to last 3 production seasons.

 

[Daisy8s]

This is a rabbit tractor that I built. Total length is 6.5 long and 2 feet wide. Only the PVC pipe and the wheels (hidden in the pic under the A-frame house) touch the ground so it'll last for quite awhile. It's light enough my 9-yr-old son can move it. Now I have rabbits mowing my lawn for me!

Of course this is way too small for 20 broilers. But, I sent this picture to show the PVC pipe which may be an option as it's lightweight, strong, and will last a long time. I used 2 inch and that was overkill. 1 inch diameter probably would do the job just fine. The A-frame is a simple design but I'm not the best carpenter so there was a gap at the top, hence the clear plastic along the ridge.

My brother just built a pig tractor on cedar log skids. Very, very heavy but he's using pulleys and a come-along to move it once a week through his garden so the sow can do his plowing for him this spring. Do you have strong trees that could be used to help move the tractors?

Have you looked at the Joel Salatin website (www.polyfacefarms.com)? He uses a customized dolly to add wheels to each chicken tractor just before he moves them.

Hope this gives you some ideas. I have more pics of the rabbit tractor I built if you're interested. And, if you're a master carpenter I can send you pics of my brother's pig tractor. It's a true work of art--very sturdy and built with old barn wood from his place.