Simple straw bale meat bird coop...

[Marianne]

Oh, good point! My DH always uses bolt cutters and then hits the edges with a grinding disc.

 

[big brown horse]

Thank you all for your ideas!!

Bee, I do have tons of those panels right now. They are being used as horse fencing at the moment, however I can switch them for other cheaper fencing, if I really had to. (I also built a hoop coop out of them, it isn't a tractor though, and it is too small to keep my meaties in with the other chickens/ducks.)

Would anyone care to post pics of their "panel tractor"?

I'm still leaning toward straw bales though for financial reasons mainly. I'm trying to keep the cost of raising these organic meat chickens down to a minimum. (The organic feed alone is going to cost a fortune. CHA-ching!) I can build it for no more than 8 bucks AND I even think I can move it around the yard too, one bale at a time...maybe not every single day though. It would be a great work out... *wheels turning*

 

[big brown horse]

Ok, I know I sound wishy washy, but I'm nixing the straw bale meat bird coop idea. Only because I don't have a truck to haul them home and delivery is more expensive than I want to pay. Living in the country can have it's disadvantages, espeically if you don't have a work truck. :/

I do have a small suv though, so I bought some 2 x 2's and some hardwire cloth and made myself an old fashioned chicken tractor after all. I just have to put the chicken wire and hardwire cloth on. I even framed out a small door so I can actually get in and out. I'm out about $100.00, but I'll use this thing forever I suppose. (I'm guessing once I taste free range organic I'll never go back. That is how I'm justifying it anyway.) It is 8 x 4 and 4 ft tall, 24 square feet, that's just 1 ft shy of what Story's guide says they need up until they are 8 weeks old...which is when they are going to be butchered anyway.

I'm going to put hardwire cloth around the sides, chicken wire on the bottom and top. Cover half with something, a tarp an old piece of plywood, whatever I can dig up. We even have some old (cheap, hollow core(?)) doors under the house that might work. It will be light enough to be moved around the yard without wheels too.

 

[Beekissed]

How much are cattle or hog panels? You could construct a shelter from those for about 30-45 bucks that you could move easily to fresh grass. You could hang nipple waterers off them and even feeders more easily than you could with straw bale~also would make a sturdier structure. Cattle panels and zip ties are just the best inventions ever! They cut easily with a sawsall and bend easily into appropriate shapes, can be broke down quickly and stored flat for later use around the farm.

If you don't have a sawzall, bolt cutters work great! I love cattle panels. Most of my new gates are made with sections of them, lined with smaller-spaced fencing to keep the chickens out or to keep the goats from getting their silly heads stuck. I made a chicken tractor with two arched panels, with sections of panel cut for the front and back with a door. Lined with chicken netting. Worked great until a weasel dug in and massacred 7 of the 19. :/ It was great being able to move it every other day or so. I just put screw eyes in each corner of the bottom frame so I could snap a leadrope to it and give it a tug. I just put the leadrope around my butt and backed up slowly, watching for stuck chicks. I'd go back and forth between the two corners and it took me about two minutes to advance it to fresh grass. The chicks learned very quickly that there were bugs in the new grass and it was not a problem having chicks at the back of the tractor, getting squished, which was my initial worry.

If you cut cattle panels, though, get a file to smooth the cut edges. I was slicing my hands daily and didn't even know how, as it was like a paper cut, I didn't really feel it happening. Then I realized it was always when I went through the new gate in the goat weaning pasture. Five minutes with a file and the problem was solved.

Free, maybe you could modify that tractor with a bottom of welded wire. Something the chickens could still eat grass through but your weasle couldn't dig under. I had such a tractor for my chickens and it worked well for the rabbits as well. It kept everyone from getting run over by the tractor when it was moved, also.

 

[Marianne]

We have small weasels here and they just walked right through the 2 x 4 wire. The carnage they left behind was awful. We ended up putting chicken wire on top of the welded wire.

Glad you got a plan going!