We've been busy building things this spring. The latest is a chicken tractor for the laying hens. In case you don't know what a chicken tractor is, it is a movable chicken coop or pen. This allows the hens to have more room to forage for bugs, grass, and weeds without turning them completely free-range where they might eat up all the garden plants. They also tend to roost and poo on everything we don't want them to around here when we let them free range. Oh and they think 5 acres isn't enough and they take off for the neighbor's property who also have chickens. We can't have them fraternizing with the neighbor chickens so contained they must stay!
This chicken tractor cost us $10 or less to build. We used all recycled, upcycled, salvaged materials (whatever you want to call it)! The only thing we bought for this project were 4 hasp closures to secure the doors from predators and high wind issues. As soon as the weather warms up and dries out some we'd like to paint it a classic red with white trim.
We've decided to add another set of wheels on the other end as well to make it easier to move....because well I am still learning to build things light and movable. This thing is HEAVY and it takes at least 2 people to get it moved to a new section of grass each day.
I would like to add a window to let natural light in, so far I haven't found any plexi-glass or small windows but I will keep an eye out and when I find something suitable I will be cutting a hole for some light in no time!
In this next picture, you can see the custom creep feeder that Tobers and I built together. We needed a creep feeder to discourage the hens from wasting feed by scraping it out onto the ground. We drilled large feeder holes for them to peck into, but not large enough to let the hens waste the feed out on the ground. It works great, and it holds a lot of feed too which is nice.
I like that the feeder is mounted on the door for easy feed refills. We used heavy duty door hinges and they seem to handle the weight fine. We also hung the waterer from the underside of the coop floor so that when the coop moved we don't have to worry about the waterer being tipped over. Also by hanging it, the waterer always stays level even when it is on sloped ground.
The hens seem to like it in the coop, but they have not been using the roost. The only thing I can figure is they don't have enough head room on the roost. So I am going to change the roost height to just about 6" above the floor and that should make it easier to get onto the roost as well as give them more head room once on the roost. Sometimes there are a lot of tweaks and changes even after you think you are done with a project.
In the next picture you can see the recycled plywood for the lower door has some graffiti on it. The house that we salvaged this from was supposedly a druggy hangout. Mr Wonderful snagged all these cool building materials for me when he did a house demolition. I am always thankful for free building materials because the supplies sure add up when building with new materials. The downside to using salvaged materials is you have to work around the unique aspects of your supplies. Damage or holes, warped boards, and other things can make it a challenge to have a nice looking finished product.
The narrow upper door is the access to the nest box and above the nest box is a shelf inside to store empty egg cartons, plug ins, and a light fixture for winter supplemental light.
A hen looking up from the ground level into the coop. We need to install a ladder here for them to walk in instead of hopping and fluttering in.
Eggs in the nest box.
More happy hens.
That is the tour of the chicken tractor project. I can't wait to see it all painted up pretty in red and white, surrounded by lush green grass. I will enjoy seeing that out the kitchen window while I do dishes I think.
We've also been working on a larger design for the meat birds we plan to raise this year. Hoping to share that project with you soon!
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