Once our broilers have fully feathered out and the weather is cooperating they move out to the chicken tractor. On average they spend 4-5 weeks out in the tractor.
A chicken tractor per Wikipedia: A chicken tractor (sometimes called an ark) is a movable chicken coop lacking a floor. Chicken tractors may also house other kinds of poultry. Most chicken tractors are a lightly built A-frame which one person can drag about the yard. It may have wheels on one or both ends to make this easier.
Here at FFF like to repurpose, think outside the box, design things ourselves…and save money when we can.
Our first chicken tractor was a repurposed 16’ trampoline. We can share details as to how we designed it, what worked, what didn’t work and why we changed. Overall it worked well and the only animal we had messing with the chickens was Luna…we often found her in the tractor hanging out.
This year we were planning to build a tractor following the design Ben designed for our greenhouse but the fox issues and then the chicken mansion consumed most of our time so Christina was able to find a walk-in chicken run we could modify slightly and use. If you’ve been following for any length of time you’ve probably seen it. It’s worked out wonderfully and the chickens had plenty of space to spread their wings, and grass to scratch in and bugs to eat daily. We move the tractor daily to ensure they’ve got fresh grass to eat, but also to scratch around and lay in…plus it keeps our grass looking fabulous. You can always tell where the tractors been run ???? This first round we had 20 chickens and 10 turkeys hanging out in there with plenty of extra space. I’m the future we’ve set our max at 50. If we decide to do more, we’ll purchase or build another tractor.
How does this compare? Many commercial broiler facilities have large, stationary, hoop houses. The chickens have limited space to move, no grass and limited-to no sunlight. We’ve read that many houses are only cleaned once…after the chickens leave to be processed and spend most of their lives laying in their own poo. ????
*The information shared is how we at FFF raise our broilers.
*In effort to not upset the media world, f@ct checkers, and have our account suspended we will not be posting photos or information on the commercial world. We recommend you research the buzz words used in advertisements, look at the commercialized facilities & processes, and regulations around processing/butchering, ect
