The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: cameldairy on September 29, 2009, 07:37:43 pm

Title: Chicken tractor?
Post by: cameldairy on September 29, 2009, 07:37:43 pm
Does anyone here have any plans they would like to share on making a chicken tractor? I finally have my new chicks and I need to build them a tractor. Right now they are in a stall in the barn. :chook:
Title: Re: Chicken tractor?
Post by: MiriMaran on September 29, 2009, 08:01:32 pm
What in the world is a chicken tractor?  The mind boggles!
Title: Re: Chicken tractor?
Post by: jameslindsay on September 29, 2009, 08:06:27 pm
What in the world is a chicken tractor?  The mind boggles!

I was thinking the same but thought I was being stupid - thanks Mirimiran. :)
Title: Re: Chicken tractor?
Post by: cameldairy on September 29, 2009, 09:20:15 pm
I'm sorry, a chicken tractor is a movable chicken coup. This is so you can drag (or the ones with retractable wheels) it from place to place so the chickens can eat grass and bugs. When they have eaten up the grass in that spot you simply move it to another.
Title: Re: Chicken tractor?
Post by: marigold on September 29, 2009, 10:00:53 pm
I saw a fabulous chicken tractor the other day that was built out of upvc piping and covered with chicken wire. Its shape was like a geodesic dome. THe guy who had built it had pegged it into the ground and once un pegged he could lift it really easily. Inside he had created a bamboo raft which he suspended from the top for the hens to roost on.
The design had come from an australian permaculture book. Apparently it doesn't work quite so well in Scotland because of our limited growing season. In Australia the vegetation was so lush it could be moved around much more quickly.
If I can figure out how to post a picture i'll add it later.
A simpler build would be the timber framed pyramid or triangular tube with no floor.
Title: Re: Chicken tractor?
Post by: carl on September 30, 2009, 03:19:49 pm
Now those farm traffic road signs make sense. a black tractor in a red triangle. They are being driven by chickens.
Title: Re: Chicken tractor?
Post by: cameldairy on September 30, 2009, 09:46:36 pm
 ;D ;D ;D ;D