Does anyone move chickens to tractors during day, back to coop at night?

[FNF]

We have 8 chickens (egg layers not meat birds) currently, with a plan to get another 8 or so chicks this spring. Our chickens have a nice coop with a run, and a large fenced "free range" area around a pond. It's a lot of space and they're pretty safe.

That aside, we also have acres of pasture around us, also fenced in. Cattle are in one large pasture, but the rest are empty at the moment. I was thinking it would be nice to be able to take the chickens to different pastures over time for fertilizing the soil, eating the bugs, etc. I still want them to roost in their "home coop" at night however. I've been searching the internet for predator safe tractor ideas - hoop, A-frame, and otherwise, but without a full coop and nest boxes. I'd just supply water and some feed, plus shade on part of the enclosure. Maybe a couple of simple nest boxes for those late layers but nothing fancy.

This would also mean loading up birds for a literal field trip most days. My thought is something I can tow on a little trailer behind my Can-Am for a three minute trip to the pasture. I figure with treats, I could lure them in there no problem and they'd catch on. And then a little ramp into the tractor enclosure in the field. At the end of the day, load them up to come home with the same plan. Is this silly? Too much overthinking? Too much work? Worth the extra space and free food?

If anyone has done this or something similar, please share how it's gone, and if you have a picture of your setup, all the better! Thanks!

 

[No Coop No Problem]

Chicken tractors seem like an inherently silly idea. Many breeds are capable of predator evasion, and those that aren't won't get enough calories from 100 square feet of grass to justify moving around a fortress

 

[FNF]

Chicken tractors seem like an inherently silly idea. Many breeds are capable of predator evasion, and those that aren't won't get enough calories from 100 square feet of grass to justify moving around a fortress

So that's one vote "silly"! It might be entirely pointless and too much time for too little gain. Thanks for your input!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Getting them to load back up in the afternoon / early evening is where your plan breaks down. Chickens go "home" to roost at dark or nearly dark. That would be their coop. People cause themselves all kinds of frustration trying to get the silly things to go to bed when THEY - the people - want them to roost, instead of waiting 15 or 20 minutes, when the birds will naturally put themselves to bed. If you think you can get your chickens into some kind of transport while it's still light enough to see so you can haul them back to their coop, well .... please hire a camera crew because I would love to be entertained by the process.

 

[FNF]

Getting them to load back up in the afternoon / early evening is where your plan breaks down. Chickens go "home" to roost at dark or nearly dark. That would be their coop. People cause themselves all kinds of frustration trying to get the silly things to go to bed when THEY - the people - want them to roost, instead of waiting 15 or 20 minutes, when the birds will naturally put themselves to bed. If you think you can get your chickens into some kind of transport while it's still light enough to see so you can haul them back to their coop, well .... please hire a camera crew because I would love to be entertained by the process.

Yes they are creatures of habit. I watch them file into the coop like clockwork each night.

 

[thistlewick]

Hah, this sounds like me, before I really knew what having chickens was like.

We bought 2 tractors with this intent. What a waste of money and time. I regret it, but alas. One of them is now a bachelor pad under a shed for 3 cockerels that we don't know what to do with but don't want to kill them and one is just sitting way out on the other side of our pastures for a "quarantine" spot getting cobwebs.

We converted a shed for the hen house. They coop up there, they lay in there (and up near the shed haha! sneaky buggers) but other than that, they free range.

Now here is the thing - pastures aren't for chickens. They want cover. Think hedges, bushes. Places they can run into when hawks fly over. They really won't graze on an open pasture if they have other choices; how do I know? My hen house sits on the edge of an open pasture. Where do they go? They cross my property to get to the hedge -- every single day. I want them to free range so I gave up trying to worry about them staying near the hen house. I want happy, healthy hens.


If you really want them to do all the things for your pasture, you can try those Joel Salatin tractors -- they're for broilers though, so not exactly useful for laying hens but I'm sure people have altered them for laying hens.

 

[FNF]

Hah, this sounds like me, before I really knew what having chickens was like.

We bought 2 tractors with this intent. What a waste of money and time. I regret it, but alas. One of them is now a bachelor pad under a shed for 3 cockerels that we don't know what to do with but don't want to kill them and one is just sitting way out on the other side of our pastures for a "quarantine" spot getting cobwebs.

We converted a shed for the hen house. They coop up there, they lay in there (and up near the shed haha! sneaky buggers) but other than that, they free range.

Now here is the thing - pastures aren't for chickens. They want cover. Think hedges, bushes. Places they can run into when hawks fly over. They really won't graze on an open pasture if they have other choices; how do I know? My hen house sits on the edge of an open pasture. Where do they go? They cross my property to get to the hedge -- every single day. I want them to free range so I gave up trying to worry about them staying near the hen house. I want happy, healthy hens.


If you really want them to do all the things for your pasture, you can try those Joel Salatin tractors -- they're for broilers though, so not exactly useful for laying hens but I'm sure people have altered them for laying hens.

This is useful and realistic, thanks for sharing. Yeah leaning away from this idea now. I was thinking the Salatin-style for protection, not just open pasture, but sounds like it's a lot of trouble for no real return in our case.

 

[Bawkbok]

Thistlewick is exactly right. We have small open areas in different places around the house with the perimeter and sections being covered by shrubs, trees etc. I try to encourage the girls to get sun since their run is in almost 100% shade all day, what do they do? Fly across the open sunny areas to another perimeter shrub and forage there. The sun is obviously where the grass and weeds grow; they spend little time there.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

The chickens would eat up all of the bugs under the chicken tractor within 10 minutes being there and spend the rest of their time pecking at the ground or eating grass out of boredom. Some grass if fine, but you don’t want them eating too much especially long grass. With this being unused pasture I would assume it’s very grassy and most likely not mowed short? From my experience with chickens, free ranging they eat about 90% bugs and the other 10% forage which is how it should be. Eating tall grass out of boredom is a recipe for impaction.

 

[paintedChix]

I'm not sure how you would do what you want to do. Agree with previous posts.

The only thing I can think of is "pastured" poultry. But then the coop they go into are the mobile tractors, not coops up at the home place. They are fenced in w/ electric poultry fencing around their water, feed & coop. A large variety of coops - joe salatin, Justin Rhodes - 3 different styles & sizes, John suskovich. Hooped CP coops. And then everyone's upgraded takes on the various styles.

Maybe using the "chicksaw", from Justin Rhodes would work? Teach them to go in before dusk to wheel (or tow?) them back to their home coop. Teach them to "unload" so they can roost properly in their coop.

I can't remember which member here did that w/ chicks. They loaded into a wagon from their run, wheeled to their daytime "pasture" a hooped coop in their large backyard, loaded back onto the wagon & unloaded & entered the coop to roost. If i remember right, the chicks graduated to folowing the O out to the tractor (& back in evenings)...