Check out this Chicken/duck house The wheels are levers.

That is a really cool design.

The problem is the size though. In a lot of places (my state for example) people are required to purchase at least 6 chicks so really the minimum coop needs to be able to support at least 5 or 6 full grown chickens. That design would be great for three chickens (or perhaps four or five bantams) or maybe two ducks.

A lot of these tractors have really cool designs but if you have ten or more chickens you really either need a stationary coop or an actual tractor to pull your mega chicken tractor. I tried building one for the ducks one time and by the time I got it stable to last a season with our sometimes rough terrain it was too heavy to move by myself. Now it has been converted into a lean to.

I kept 5 in here and would move it once every 24 hours. I could do 10 moving it 2 times a day. I also think I could scale this up maybe 50% and still keep it easy enough to move with one person. Beyond that it would take some kind tractor to move.

Peter Hartman wrote:I kept 5 in here and would move it once every 24 hours. I could do 10 moving it 2 times a day. I also think I could scale this up maybe 50% and still keep it easy enough to move with one person. Beyond that it would take some kind tractor to move.

I suppose it is personal preference in how much space each animal has, but even then you are talking about a maximum of 15 birds moving it twice a day with them having perhaps 2-4 square feet per bird. Does the design include roosting bars and nest boxes? I watched it at work so I had it on mute but I didn't really see either (looked like 1/4 of the inside was filled with a 5 gallon bucket waterer).

I ask because we are in the process of trying to design another tractor that we can use in the orchard for a handful of our birds and we are looking for ideas.

I am using it for ducks and they prefer the ground. It is tall enough that I could add nesting boxes with a roost over top.

Peter Hartman wrote:I am using it for ducks and they prefer the ground. It is tall enough that I could add nesting boxes with a roost over top.

Do What would you need to make it work for rabbits beyond a layer of hardware cloth at the bottom? We are undecided on what we would want to run in the orchard and it might end up being rabbits.