Is there such a thing as a reasonably priced coop to buy on wheels?

[OneHardShell]

As I won't be building my own I am looking for recommendations where to buy for both price and quality.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Nope.

The two are not often found together, and much less so since the start of the pandemic. A "reasonably priced" quality coop is rare enough. A chicken tractor??? I've seen exactly ZERO mentions of one on this forum since joining BYC most of two years ago.

 

[aart]

As I won't be building my own I am looking for recommendations where to buy for both price and quality.

Most that are big enough space wise are way too big to be mobile.

Do you want something you can move daily or.......?
Would it contain both a coop and a run?
How many birds are you wanting?

 

[OneHardShell]

Nope.

The two are not often found together, and much less so since the start of the pandemic. A "reasonably priced" quality coop is rare enough. A chicken tractor??? I've seen exactly ZERO mentions of one on this forum since joining BYC most of two years ago.

Kinda thought so but figured I’d ask. Tomorrow I should have a few price lists in my email. Usually I have found when companies don’t list prices it’s because they are high. Might have to just pay the piper.

 

[3KillerBs]

Welcome to BYC.

How many chickens do you want?

How do you intend to move the tractor? By hand or with power equipment? And how often?

What does your land look like and how much land do you have available before you have to reuse the same spot?

If you've read the book Chicken Tractor: The Permaculture Guide to Happy Hens and Healthy Soil

https://www.amazon.com/Chicken-Trac...sprefix=chicken+tractor,stripbooks,206&sr=1-1

I have to say that I found it wildly optimistic at best.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

To keep weight down, many mobile chicken tractors are made with cattle panels as glorified "hoop coops". Those require very little skill or specialized tools to construct. If you go here for tractors, and here for small coops searching "hoop coop", you may get some good ideas. Even if you have to have someone else build it for you...

and Aart's questions above are excellent ones. Mobile coops quickly become too large/heavy to move without equipment like an ATV or tractor, or too flimsy/flexible to move constantly. For a half dozen birds, daily movement is practical under human power. Beyond that, there's some give and take which grows with the square of the size. Aart, in fact, has a mobile hoop coop example.

 

[NatJ]

Do you want the chickens to have access to the ground in the coop?
A portable pen, where the chickens are on the ground, and often with no wheels, is often called a "chicken tractor." (The idea is for the chickens to "plow" the ground, although they really don't.)

Here's an example of one with no wheels:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/hoop-tractor.69336/

Here's a different style, also with no wheels:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/mgws-page.49985/


Or do you want a safe, enclosed place for the chickens to sleep (coop, complete with floor), with wheels so you can occasionally move it to another place?

I've seen a few built on trailers. They tend to be too heavy to move by hand, but can be moved with the aid of a vehicle of some sort.

Here's an example on a 4-wheeled trailer:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/chicken-tractor-coop-self-sustaining.75413/

I don't know where to buy any of them, but this site has a lot of articles about ones built by various people:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/categories/tractor-coops.17/

 

[OneHardShell]

Welcome to BYC.

How many chickens do you want?

How do you intend to move the tractor? By hand or with power equipment? And how often?

What does your land look like and how much land do you have available before you have to reuse the same spot?

If you've read the book Chicken Tractor: The Permaculture Guide to Happy Hens and Healthy Soil

https://www.amazon.com/Chicken-Tractor-Permaculture-Healthy-Homestead/dp/0984338209/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3LX95ANODIYGH&keywords=chicken+tractor&qid=1641166914&rnid=283155&s=books&sprefix=chicken+tractor,stripbooks,206&sr=1-1

I have to say that I found it wildly optimistic at best.

Want like 12 chickens…have 13 acres…will probably get a tractor when I move there for other things and also moving the coop. Thank you for your helpful imput.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

...and I personally have a little 4x8 trailer from Northern Tool made from aluminum (saves a bunch of weight compared to steel). Came in three boxes, assembled in six hours by the time I added decking, fixed the wiring for the lights, etc. They have similar aluminum trailers at 5x8 and 5x10. Any could be combined with the hoop coop idea to create a one person-moveable chicken tractor with some effort. The large car-type tires really help on uneven ground - and of course even a small car could move one carefully.

But it would take "some effort" to predator proof from the bottom of the trailer to the ground - definitely not an "off the shelf" solution, and would only be appropriate for 4-6 birds, really, unless you planned to move it constantly.

 

[3KillerBs]

Want like 12 chickens…have 13 acres…will probably get a tractor when I move there for other things and also moving the coop. Thank you for your helpful imput.

Here are some basics about chickens' space needs:

The Usual Guidelines

For each adult, standard-sized hen you need:

• 4 square feet in the coop (.37 square meters)
• 10 square feet in the run (.93 square meters),
• 1 linear foot of roost (.3 meters),
• 1/4 of a nest box,
• And 1 square foot (.09 square meters) of permanent, 24/7/365 ventilation, preferably located over the birds' heads when they're sitting on the roost.

12 hens

• 48 square feet in the coop. 6'x8' is more practical than 4'x12' since a long, skinny coop like that would be difficult to work inside.
• 12 feet of roost
• 120 square feet in the run. 10'x12' or 8'x15' -- 8'x16' means fewer odd cuts than either of those. 6'x20' is possible, especially if your run is an open-topped, fenced area instead of fully-enclosed with a solid and/or wire roof but risks social problems because subordinate hens need to be able to pass the dominant hens at a respectful distance.
• 12 square feet of ventilation.
• 3 nest boxes.

Note: These numbers are *guidelines*, not hard and fast rules. This article is valuable reading on this subject.

A tractor that serves as coop and run combined for 12 birds *may* need less than the 168 square feet of run and coop added together if it's all one big space rather than a coop and an attached run on wheels. Or it may not.

Moving the tractor frequently solves some of the sanitation problems of chickens being kept in tight quarters, but it doesn't solve the social problems of chickens interacting in a close space. Especially because a tractor doesn't lend itself to having "clutter" in the run (useful thread on clutter here).

The use of very large tractors is most common when raising broiler chickens with the main benefits of moving them frequently (even twice a day at the end of the production period), being feed savings through access to forage and improved sanitation by spreading the manure over a larger area. The social issues I mentioned don't arise because Cornish X "meaties" are essentially great big chicks in a great big brooder rather than adults in permanent housing.

Laying hens in a tractor-ish situation are more often given a coop-on-wheels such as was mentioned above as safe night roosting quarters and let out into a run made with easily moved electric poultry netting during the day.

Enclosed tractors work best on smooth, flat ground with little in the way of obstructions or irregularities. The sides don't seal down well on rough, irregular ground to keep the chickens in and the predators out.