Chicken Tractors: Your Key To Bringing Home The… Eggs.
Let’s face it, in terms of simple pleasures, it’s hard to top a batch of eggs freshly collected from your own backyard. And if you thought having chickens was restricted to country living, think again. Many urban areas allow for small farm animals, such as chickens, to be kept in peoples yards… providing they’re not left to run rampant over your neighbors property!
Having animals is a wonderful way of reconnecting to where our food comes from. It also guarantees you won’t be ingesting any of the harmful hormones and chemicals routinely used in the meat and dairy/egg industries. By having our own chickens (or bees, or dairy animals…) we can reduce our global footprint by contributing less to the fuel consumption and unsustainable practices of mass food transportation and production. If you have a garden, chickens can be an incredible asset by providing amazing free,nitrogen rich fertilizer as well as acting as a natural bug repellent!
In terms of managing chickens, the chicken tractor is definitely among the more exciting and multi-purpose alternatives. At first glance it might look like a regular coop, but the key difference is that the chicken tractor is mobile. By building a frame with wheels on the bottom you can roll the
coop from place to place to allow your chickens to “clean up” and/or fertilize the space of your choosing.
Chickens will eat just about any bug in the garden, as well as many weeds. They also love scratching up dirt,
and are often used as the first preparation for garden beds. Not to mention the daily egg supply, entertainment, and deep listening skills that chickens provide.
Designing your garden beds to be the size of your chicken tractor, or vice versa, makes the process that much easier. Chicken manure is high in nitrogen and is thus an excellent addition to most gardens. A chicken tractor can be a good way of making life interesting for the chickens, by giving them frequent changes of scenery and new turf to scratch around in, while still allowing control of what they scratch up and where they “fertilize”.
When constructing your chicken tractor, remember to provide adequate shade and rain protection! Simply having a wooden frame with wheels covered by chicken wire will not provide for all the chickens needs. Some designs include one side of the tractor covered in corrugated metal or other materials. Others simply put a crate on its side, facing away from the sun, where the chickens can nest and be protected from direct rays. You must also make sure they have a water source, which can be as simple as putting a bowl or bucket inside the tractor, or can involve building in some more aesthetic, high-tech feature. If you have the space, add on an easily detachable chicken run for when you don’t need/have time to move them for a while. Experiment!
There are a variety of tractor designs available on the internet and in permaculture gardening books such as “Chicken Tractor: The Permaculture Guide to Happy Hens and Healthy Soil,” and others. Remember to check your city’s codes on animals before purchasing chickens. Most importantly, have fun with your design and your new avian companions! Happy gardening!
Tags: chicken-tractor, chickens, eggs, home, Uncategorized
Aug 06, 2008
When my parents were kids in the 1930’s it was still common for people to raise their own chickens and raise their own vegetables. Living off grid and being self-sustaining were not considered odd or unusual back then, it was just the way things were.
Aug 06, 2008
I just finished our chicken tractor a couple of months ago. We bought an old hay wagon and built a chicken coop on top of that. We have four walls and a roof, but a couple of large windows that can be opened for ventilation, a small ramp door for the chickens to go in an out as well as a larger, people-door.
He have a handful of cattle too so we move the chicken tractor around the pastures behind the rotation of the cattle. We also have a long stretch of electric chicken fencing that we use to fence of an area around the chicken tractor so the chickens don’t wander all over the property.
Aug 06, 2008
This is pretty cool, back in the day people were self sufficient, and lived off grid long before it was “Hip” Back then it was just a way of life, I love how people are really trying to get that back, not your typical progression of sorts, but a move forward in terms of sustainability. With all the salmonella scares, hormone laced beef, etc……this makes more sense. People should try to do this, or support you local organic farmers at your local farmers market
Aug 06, 2008
Love this idea!
You are so right about needing to remember where our food comes from and what better way than to grow it yourself… To know that the hens were not traumatized in horrible tiny airless cages with no natural light or fresh air, just a never-ending demand for eggs, helps with the ethical dilemma. Another plus is knowing that your hens have not been medicated or fed chemically contaminated feed.
Now to go check our city’s codes, and get the hubby on board. lol!
Aug 06, 2008
I would love to have chickens, both for the eggs and fertilizer for my organic garden. Unfortunately they would have to be kept in something very substantial as we have coyotes, cougars and big raccoons. My friends have given up trying to keep their chickens alive. Sigh.
Aug 06, 2008
I kept chickens for eight years. (I’m out in the country too far for cable TV.) They taught me so much. I had arakaunas so the eggs were blue. I took eggs to the Chinese doctors where I went for acupuncture. They were very appreciative of these great eggs with huge orange stand-up yolks. Scrambled eggs, muffins, pancakes–all tasted so wonderful! And the chickens were too much–funny, industrious, brave, and very much a part of the dog, cats, and humans family.
I also compost, and the chickens were the best for taking food waste down to a level where it quickly contributed to the health of my soil. They eat everything!
Get some hens today…and a rooster if you can, so you’ll have more chickens next spring. I live in a canyon and the roosters begin calling early, when the first car headlights flash down the road. I wouldn’t miss that sound for all the world now.
Aug 10, 2008
Any thoughts on keeping chickens in climates where it gets cold and snowy in winter?
Aug 11, 2008
cool. makes ya think.
Aug 11, 2008
A note to Fiona G…
I have gotten chickens for the first time, and live in southwestern Wisconsin, where it can be cold and snowy..I think I can keep these 11 hens inside the coop most of the time, and perhaps hang a light bulb for heat as needed…my coop is only 4 by 6 feet or so, so I hope it will be large enough for the “girls” to over-winter. They will be just 6 months old at the first snowfall…and should be laying eggs in 2 months! I’m not sure about the chickens but i think the winter will be easier for me!
Does anyone have an idea for keeping the drinking water from freezing? what about a bird bath heater?
Aug 13, 2008
I have a very small ornamental pond and a large pot with a lotus. I keep both unfrozen in CT’s winters. The first with a live stock water heater, the other with a “pond” heater. Check out ornamental pond equipment dealers.
Aug 16, 2008
mm . . fresh eggs, YUm!
Dec 25, 2009
How long do you spend a day coming up with stuff like this?
Jan 05, 2010
that is a goos idea.We should learn from the author.