Our First Chicken Tractor

This weekend Nick and our grandson Matthew built this chicken tractor.  Nick borrowed ideas from a few You-Tubers to come up with this design.

The pvc hoops are secured to a wood frame made of pressured treated 1 x 6, with tee connectors which he screwed to the wood.

A piece of rope threaded through a bit of hose is just right for pulling the tractor across the grass.





 The frame is covered with plastic fencing which has 1 inch square holes.  It is secured to the pvc and to the wooden frame with zip ties.

The back portion of the tractor is also covered with translucent plastic, as is the back panel, for protection from the elements. 

Each end of the tractor opens for easy access.

 

Here Matthew is setting it into position for the meat chicks first day.  The chicks have been living in a portion of the hen house for about 10 days.  We left the door open with a screen to keep them indoors, but with plenty of light and air until they were ready to go outdoors.

They finally have their feathers and have been acclimated to the weather, so they should be fine in their new home.

We have nine Cornish meat chickens.  They are about  3 1/2 weeks old.  We put them into the chicken tractor yesterday and they were totally bewildered by the new environment.

Today they seem more comfortable with it, but they still don't seem to know that they are supposed to eat the grass, not just poop on it.  Nick is counting down to butchering day.  We also have two bronze breasted turkeys which are about 6 weeks old.  They are also for meat.