Grow better

Here is a short video of my chicken tractor made to pasture up to 50 meat chickens. There are no roosts, nesting boxes, or provisions for winter. Just a reasonably lightweight, simple way to get your commercial or home meat chickens out on pasture for around $200. Here in Indiana, I expect to be able to use it (with slight modifications) from about April through December. I’m also planning to add strands of electric wire around the outside perimeter grounded to the welded wire and/or an “extra” strand.

I’m working on a version for my layers. Right now, I have it mostly planned out, but I’m waiting on the supplies to arrive.

I would like to hear your comments, questions, and experience on this.

Luke Townsley
SaltMakers LLC
8956 E State Rd 54
Dugger, IN 47848
812-269-8581

Two different chicken tractors are in progress at the moment.

The first is a unit intended to hold up to 50 layers complete with roosts and nesting boxes. It has proven very challenging to make light enough to move, heavy enough not to blow away, secure, and simple enough to build of commonly available materials for a reasonable price. I’ve made a lot of progress on it and am settling in on an 8′x16′ design with a canopy top and electric wire around the outside for security.

Also in progress is a smaller one intended for up to about 10 chickens. I’m looking at a similar design with a canopy top and wire bottom.

Actually, I was hoping to be a lot further along on these by now, but it has proven more challenging to design than I thought given the myriad design elements that need to be thought through. Making the larger unit light enough to move has proven exceptionally challenging.

I need to have three of these larger units built within the next three weeks since I have 100 chicks and 50 laying chicks hoping to be rehomed as soon as possible. I also have a customer who is patiently (I hope) waiting for me to complete a smaller unity for his boys’ 4H fair chickens.

Luke Townsley

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m working on designing a chicken tractor. So far, I have a basic configuration that should be moldable into something practical, lightweight, easy to use, secure, and wind resistant.

One of the things I’m fussing over is how to cut welded wire/hardware cloth at an angle (which ordinarily leaves a lot of wires poking around) and still have a smooth end, similar to a metal strap or lightweight bar for mounting. If I could do that, it would allow me to do something with the base that would be really nice. I haven’t found anyone yet who has really solved this problem, but it seems like there should be a solution waiting to be implemented. It seems like the only ideas I can come up with are relatively expensive and just not practical.

As of now, it looks like it could cost up $200-300 for materials and house up to a dozen or so chickens.

I’m developing plans for a chicken tractor, and I want your input.

And by tractor, I don’t mean a 5 ton diesel puffing wheeled machine. I mean a lightweight portable chicken house designed to be moved daily allowing the hens access to fresh pasture.

For now, I’m looking to accommodate up to about 12 “heavy” breed hens like Golden Comets or Plymouth Barred Rocks.

There are a TON of ideas and pictures out there, a few of them pretty good, but most of them have some notable design issues that affect usability for the grower or livability for the growing. Others are just totally overbuilt for the grower not wanting to pay $20 for a dozen eggs after considering housing costs. I will grant though that some of them are works of art in their own right.

Lots of chicken housing is built like I built my chicken house last summer, just using whatever is on hand, slapping it together as quickly as possible, and then spending the rest of its life frustrated with certain issues like doors that don’t close without scooping poop, poor ventilation, difficult access to feed, water, and nesting areas, lack of security against predators, poor roosting areas, excessive weight, and so on. And I’m just talking about the one I slapped together last summer.

Granted, to work out those details takes quite a bit more time, as well as some trial and error, but the end result should be a chicken coop that is easier to put together, affordable, easy to use, secure, and gives the hens their best chance at a healthy, happy life.

Would you like to put a bug in my ear, or suggest design considerations or materials or talk about problems you have with your current system or contribute anything else that might be useful at this stage? Give me a call or leave a comment within the next week or so, and I will send you a copy of the plans when they are finished, hopefully within a month or two, free for the asking. I just need your email address or physical address.

Luke Townsley
SaltMakers LLC
8956 E State Rd. 54
Dugger, IN 47848
812-269-8581