Summer Chicken tractor

[Anc66chickens]

Hello all I’m looking for ideas for a chicken tractor that could hold 8 laying Hens or two Tractors that could hold 4 birds whichever is the better way. I plan to only use it in the summer I have a better insulated space for the winter. Thanks in advance for the help

P.s I live in anchorage Alaska but have few potential predators only magpies live in the area and they chase any raptors or cats who dare enter their neighborhood

 

[Ridgerunner]

Check this for ideas, it's from the "Articles" tab above.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/category/tractor-coops.17/

I tried that one summer in Arkansas, made two sections, each 4' x 8', that could be linked together to make one big one that held 8 birds. That lasted about a month. I had to move it every two or three days as the poop would build up and it would start to stink, especially if it rained. That got old fast but may people really like their tractors. Good luck, hope it works for you.

 

[Anc66chickens]

Thanks this helps a lot!

 

[CindyinSD]

Here are some Suskovich tractors I built earlier this year. I had about 60 birds in two of them during the summer, cleaning up after my cows. The third housed 2 batches of 25-30 broilers and has no nesting box. I’m very pleased with them.

They’d be too small for a winter dwelling for so many, but for summer, they were plenty. By the time the turkeys got big enough to crowd, they decided they’d rather sleep on rather than in the tractors. The rest of the birds (chickens, 1 turkey jenny, plus ducks), cuddled into one tractor at night and had room to spare.

If you search Suskovich on Amazon you’ll find his book. Our tip: if you decide to add nesting boxes, be really careful to make them as lightweight as you can

 

[pennyJo1960]

We have one it was built by a electrician he used conduit as we are in a rain state we put a roof on it

 

[Ridgerunner]

There are two basic ways you can use a "tractor", in my opinion. One is to totally house the birds in it, not letting them out of the tractor at all. The only grass or bugs they can get to is what is contained in the tractor. That's the way I tried it and had to move it really often.

Another is to use the tractor as a shelter and surround it with a fence, often electric netting, to allow them to forage over a large area and be protected from land-based predators. You don't have to move this very often. You can lock them up at night for further protection but during the day they are vulnerable to flying predators.

Of course there can be many variations and twists off of these two basic types. Not sure which one you are considering.

 

[CindyinSD]

I had my broilers wholly housed in their own tractor. Suskovich moves his tractors once a day, but, having only one broiler tractor, I moved it 2-3 times a day, especially as the birds got larger. If I do broilers again next spring, I’ll set up the netting—all of it once the chicks get big enough not to slip out through the weave—for them to roam around in. I don’t plan to do broilers, though. I’m planning to hatch out my own chicks and caponize or poulardize those I don’t want to keep for breeding. I may or may not raise them separately from the rest of the flock.

My grow-out and layer coops only needed to be moved once a day. After So many birds having slept in them, the ground needed a break! I moved them every morning but I only moved the netting when the grassy enclosure started looking ragged... every 5-6 days or so. It didn’t really work for me, using the netting. It was too awkward.

Once I put the grow-out coop and the layer coops together, I was making a new enclosure of 5 rolls of netting on thin soil that I usually had a lot of trouble pounding the step-in stakes into. It took me around an hour, hour and a half. That wasn’t the problem, though. My problem was that I felt I needed to keep the birds in the tractors until I was done and had them all surrounded so they couldn’t easily wander off.

Next summer I’m just going to move the tractors and lock the birds in at night with an electric wire around the tractors, but dispense with the netting. It turns out that, unless something changes, I don’t have as much predator pressure as I had thought. The birds hang out with the cows, given a choice. Maybe that’s the reason the coyotes keep their distance.

 

[Anc66chickens]

Thank you all for this help I am planning on letting the birds out from time to time with supervision. Are the Suskovich tractors able to have their dimensions changed I don’t think I’ll need one so big maybe though?

 

[CindyinSD]

Oh yes. Smaller would be easier to move, for sure. I’d make them shorter from front to back though, not lower (you can walk in as they are, which is a really nice feature) and not narrower as they would then be too cramped for you to move around in comfortably. Look up some of the YouTube reviews/builds and you’ll see how easy it would be to alter them to suit your own goals.

As they are, they’re intended for 33 broilers. Layers are more active and with them you will need fewer birds or more space, especially if you intend to confine them much of the time.