How big a tractor for 35 Freedom Rangers?

[Hummingbird Hollow]

This is my first foray into meat birds. i have 35 Freedom Ranger chicks on May 18th. I'll be brooding them in the garage for the first month or so and then moving them out into a chicken tractor. My plan is to move it every day. What size do you recommend for 35 birds?

If the size given will be too large to move, can I grow them for a few weeks in a smaller tractor and then split them between two?

 

[cassidy22]

You should provide at LEAST 1 square foot per bird. We used to use "tractors" for our Cornish X,s - sqaure frames with wire mesh, and a bit of corrugated metal for shade and rain protection. I believe ours were 12 x 20 feet - and we never put more than 20-25 full grown meat birds in there. Yeah, we would start a batch of 75 and then split between 3 frames. Eventually, they were too heavy for us to move daily AND the Colorado winds tore them to bits. We now use quonset huts with billboard tarps over them. And we let them free range in our orchard. It's fenced off, so the sheep can't get in a steal their food, and much less heavy to move daily. IN the winter, we can take the tarp off and store it, instead of letting it get battered by wind and snow.

Anyhow - 1 square foot as a minimum for space is what you will need. For 35 birds, probably need to build two smaller ones so they are still moveable if you don't have a tractor to move it.

 

[Life is Good!]

We've got (25) 4wk old FR's in a 8x8 tractor that is 5' high (dome). You wouldn't believe these birds' ability to flap, fly and move about. Putting them in a saladin style tractor wouldn't work well for our FR's, as they're so active! Although, they do love to lie in the sunshine too!

Due to a house guest, I'll not be building their second tractor until they're nearly 5wks old. By then they will seriously need the additional space! Their 4x4' brooder worked for the first 2 wks really well, the last week not so well - they were out on grass for the day and indoors at night. They've been outdoors since 22days old. And I'll divide the group into two for the next few weeks in two tractors. For the final two weeks, they'll have their tractor attached to an open run (52" high fence) where they'll be able to move about together and in a much much bigger space. This second run is being built for our egg layers. The FR's will 'try it out' first for the last 2-3wks of their lives. Then, the pen will be dormant for 3wks until our layer chicks will need it to keep seperate from the older hens before integrating them together at 16wks old.

Chick rotation schedule! Who knew it would be almost as complicated as a seating chart for a dinner?!

 

[wsmoak]

My tractor is 5x9 and ideally I'd have 12-15 birds in it if I wasn't letting them out. (So, at least 3 square feet per bird.)

I successfully used it for all 26 of my first batch of FR's only because I set up 164' of electric poultry netting in an oval and let them out during the day.

Unlike what I hear of the Cornish cross birds, the FR's I had liked to run and flap and forage, I'm not sure if I'd like to keep them confined the entire time. That has to be balanced with predator pressure though, I'd also like to not lose too many of them!

So... for 35 birds, at least 105 square feet. That's 10x10-ish. I like my 5x9's so I'd probably do three of those and split them up.

(Yes, you can keep them all together until they get crowded, then split them up. That's what I planned to do, but the second tractor never got built...)

-Wendy

 

[wingstone]

my freedom rangers are outside from day one, it is an enclosed pen though, this batch is 2 weeks old and I have not had to use the heat lamp at all, i do not go by temperature i watch the chicks and let them tell me if heat is needed.

 

[Peruvian]

I keep 30 CX in a 8x10' tractor that I move daily (2x day towards the end). I think it would fit 35 birds.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

Thanks folks for the advice and for sharing your experiences. I'm going to try something a bit different with the tractor and hope it works well. I have a 17 year old mini-van that has been sitting in the meadow for the past year. There is hardly a piece of metal that isn't dented or scraped, but I'm hoping to convert the back end (aprox 4'X8') into a coop. There is a trailer hitch on the back of the mini-van. I'm hoping to build a 12'X6' tractor that can be hitched to the back of the mini-van/coop and confine the birds to the back of the van during the night (until they outgrow it) and open the hatch and let them out into the tractor during the day, using the mini-van to drag the tractor to a new location each morning. We have some pretty serious predators here in the Colorado mountains and I'm thinking that the mini-van will be more secure than most tractors at night.

I'm going to post my plan to the coop design thread and see if anyone has experience with this kind of idea. Wish me luck.