Hey guys, I had a question concerning chicken tractors I have always raised my chickens generally free range, this is they were free to roam around the yard as they pleased until the PM. The only reason this was possible is that we had good neighbors who I grew up around who didn't give two hoots about the chickens. Now I am in a new neighborhood since I just moved back to Colorado and I don;t know any of my neighbors and am not sure how accepting they will be of barnyard fowl running around, and a possible escapee into their yard every now and again. At the same time my landlord might be less then approving of chickens tearing up the lawn by living in the same coop/run spot every single day (I also dont like this idea because once they do turn the lawn into desert, their standard of living goes way down IMO). So I was tinking of building a tractor for them so they could be contained at all times, but, they wouldn't be destroying the herbage quite as badly...I hope. So that leads me to the question what do you think of tractors? I dont have an excessive amount of lawn in my back yard (although I do have a large yard, most of it is "landscaped" with gavel and pavers.) so how much lawn space do I need for sucessful tractoring, and what, yall's expierience, is the best way to go about the whole thing? Ive never done it this way before, so hopefully I can make it work.
My tractor is 4 x 9 feet. Its a two story type. The coop space is "upstairs", all below is open to the ground. I had to move it every third day I would only move it as far as needed to reach new grass. So the lawn underneath would not be depleted (eight pullets in it). Frankly, it became a pain. So now it is wheel-less and used as a coop for my antisocial hen who I let free range during the day. Who btw got into big trouble the other day after getting into the wife's flower garden. All my other chickens are in conventional coops with communal run connecting to all the coops.I still like the tractor idea, but 8 chickens in a tractor is too many. I also found the tractor to hard to clean for my old back. Even with as many door as my has and the back completely opens up. Good luck with yours.
