Our chicken tractor from recycled meterials

[HomesteaderEd]

Hello all!

New here and just wanted to make an official first post. Our chicken tractor was built by my 12 year old daughter and I over a few weekends. Its entirely constructed from reclaimed materials. We used things like pallet wood, some scrap wood and fencing we found, and a few milk crates. Not too shabby and our dogs were helpful in showing us week spots without hesitation. Here are a few photos of the final product. The feeder is just your average Plastic water feeder and we had a huge issue with water getting into our feed that I finally got a five gallon bucket, cut a few holes, took the bottom of the 7 lb Harris Farms feeder off and just laid the top piece in. Filled and no issues since.

 

[Kiki]

Good job.
You may want to take some zip ties or something similar and tie the milk crates together so they don't get knocked over.

Beware: the wire you used around the run will not keep predators out.

 

[Kiki]

BTW

 

[HomesteaderEd]

Hello and thank you for the feedback. We will be sure to address the wire issue as it has been ongoing. We change something everyday now I swear. lol. As for the crate they sit on the other side closest to the large opening and the face away side by side. The like to roost on them and the piece of shutter we used is removable for easy cleaning.

Good job.
You may want to take some zip ties or something similar and tie the milk crates together so they don't get knocked over.

Beware: the wire you used around the run will not keep predators out.

 

[Kiki]

Your probably not going to want them roosting on the milk crates if you are using them for nesting boxes...they will fill up with poo pretty quickly.

 

[HomesteaderEd]

Found this today when cleaning so I am removing two of the boxes and already have a large tree limb cut to length for them to do their business.

 

[Kiki]

If you turned the milk crates on their side and stacked them 3 high...would they fit?
I can't tell how low/high the roof is....
It may not leave enough room on the top one for them to be able to sit on.

(does this make sense?)

 

[Kiki]

or just put the 3rd one..that is on the right...on top of the other two...
Kinda the same thing I just said...
How many chickens do you have?
They most likely will only use 1 or 2 nesting boxes...they like to share.


edit....I was only looking at ONE pic..I see now the roof will not allow for 3 stacked...but you could put a piece of wood or something over the top of the double stacked one to prevent them from perching on the sides of it.

 

[DianaMallory]

Nice job looks really heavy tho, how hard is it to move?

 

[Doc Schoepp]

I am in the process of planning on doing a complete coop overhaul using mostly pallet wood and other reclaimed items. Looks like you have a nice little tractor going on there.