Low profile chicken tractor

There are numerous chicken tractor threads here on Permies, and I couldn't decide on a good one to add my tractor build to, so I started this thread. One characteristic of the tractor I built is it's low profile design which seems to set it apart from other pictures I saw here.

I have made two mobile chicken coops, but this is the first tractor I've made for broilers, and it's also the first time I've raised a broiler breed. I was fortunate to have most of the supplies laying around leftover from a pole barn the my wife and I had built last year. Only the galvanized hardware cloth was purchased for this project. All lumber was 10 foot long 2x6's which I ripped on a table saw into 3 strips somewhere around 1-7/8" wide. There are two 2x4's as roosting bars for the birds if they want them (they were roosting on their little long galvanized chick feeders while in the brooder, so I think they'll use them). All lumber is fastened with three inch screws, the hardware cloth is attached with 1/4 inch crown staples, and the metal sides and roof are secured with self drilling sheet metal screws that were also leftover from the metal pole barn. The chicken tractor is ten feet long, four feet wide and 24 inches tall. The roof slopes ten degrees. It took two days to build, finding time among my other daily farm work to tend to, and I finished it yesterday. I put the broilers in today. While the handle bar end is fairly easy to lift, it takes some effort to drag through the grass and is certainly heavy enough that I'm not worried about winds tossing it over. I may add two wheels to one end and if I do I'll come back and update this thread. I hope the pictures offer ideas of consideration for anyone else that sees them and is planning to build a chicken tractor.

That is a nice looking chicken tractor. How heavy is it to pull around?

That looks great. I really like metal roofing and siding. I built a similar low profile tractor for quail but it was so light that predators could leverage it up to get at the quail. I got around that by putting a hardware cloth skirting around the perimeter.



This has resolved the issue. The downside is that the 1/2" hardware cloth traps stuff. In the next revision I'll use 1/2 in by 1 in mesh instead.  

Matt McSpadden wrote:That is a nice looking chicken tractor. How heavy is it to pull around?

Hey thanks Matt. It's difficult to describe the amount of effort it takes to pull it. I guess the best way to describe it is moderate effort. If I had to pull it 100 feet all at once, I would most certainly be winded and need to sit down to catch my breath. I have some bunching type of grasses and the crown on those sits above soil level, and pulling it over those grasses takes extra oomph.

Nice tractor Aaron! So far I haven't had any predatory attempts. If I see evidence of digging to get under the edge, I like your approach to having some hardware cloth on the bottom like shown in your picture.