How I Built Our Chicken Tractor

This an an explanation of how I built our chicken tractor for raising 14 chickens. The coop is movable/ portable so the chickens can feed on new grass and bugs each day. This cost just under $100 in materials. The design is made to be lightweight enough that my 11-year old daughter can move it by herself. The nesting boxes are low enough for my 5 year old to collect eggs.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• raising chickens
• nesting boxes
• chicken tractor
• chicken coop
• cheap chicken coop
• coop for kids
• coop for children

[bruhaha66]

• Some people get a rooster to protect the hens. They will die protecting them. I don’t like the noise. We don’t have one. Also if you let the hens out the rooster will keep an eye on the sky and shoo them back into the pen if he spots a hawk.

[bruhaha66]

• All of this depends on the type of chickens. We have Barred Rocks. Good disease resistance, good cold tolerance, don’t brood, don’t fight. If you get brooding hens, they may want to find nests in the brush and sit on them.

[bruhaha66]

• We now let the chickens out for free ranging from about 2 to 9 pm. They come back to the roosts and we just close the door at night. So far, the dog and cat don’t bother them. Reason we leave them in till 2 is to make sure they’ve laid the eggs for the day.

[bruhaha66]

A couple of pointers.

• In the winter, run an extension cord out and provide at least 15 hours of daylight (use a timer). Otherwise production drops from a dozen a day to 1-2 day.

• Also in the winter we put the water in a 2-3 gallon bucket which is screwed to a plank so it doesn’t tip. That’s enough water to keep from freezing most days (here in Tennessee) frozen water is a bear. Happy chickens (not thirsty) produce better.

[bruhaha66]

I had 15 birds in it for a long time. The roosts were the only crowded part.

[bruhaha66]

If I was doing it again I would scale down the amount of weight yet even more:

• The large box with the nesting boxes inside: the chickens only use 2 of six, so I would cut this down by 1/3 the width

• Rip some of the 2x4’s to even narrower

I would also build in a watering system using nipples or a gravity watering bell. Watering twice a day in the heat of the summer is not something I want to spend my time doing.

[itsearlable]

nice job on the chicken tractor. i think it might fix your waterer problem if you just put a couple of bricks or a block of wood or something like that under the waterer. this would take the stress off of the downward pull from the weight and the hanging cord left on there would keep the chickens from knocking the container around if it happens to get empty before someone comes around.

[MultiWallrunner]

on the hanging water problem you could try hanging it by both of the top pvc pipes in a triangle shape or fashion

[crazyfarm31]

great job!!!!! we made one and it was all out of wood super heavy...you gave me a great idea!! with the wheels!

[crazyfarm31]

great job!!!!! we made one and it was all out of wood super heavy...you gave me a great idea!!