Hi everyone!
After years of saying “no”, my husband finally relented and on our 15 year anniversary told me I could have chickens. Well, I wasn’t about to let that opportunity pass me by, so I went out to a local farm store and purchased five chicks the following weekend. Had I thought about all the things I’d need for them and what type of coop I wanted? Yes. I had put hours and hours of research into that. Did I have any of those things when I brought them home? Well, I had the brooder and all the things the chicks would need for their first weeks of life. But I did not have a coop.
No matter, I had plenty of time to buy one (right?). Well, apparently not, as the options I wanted had long lead times. So, I contracted someone locally to build one and they ended up getting Covid followed by several family emergencies that derailed the timeline. Having a fairly travel intensive job, I needed at least a good temporary solution fast (the babies were in my garage and were getting big and messy; they had to go!).
So the weekend before heading back on travel I scavenged around our house and found that I had just enough cedar from old garden beds to build an A Frame chicken tractor. The tractor was intended to be an immediate temporary solution, but I figured I could also place it over my garden beds for controlled tilling or use it as a chicken hospital, time out space or brooder for future chicks down the road.
I had no plans and just figured it out as I went, looking at several tractor examples first to make sure I had accounted for the basics. With about six eight foot boards, I was able to make a 4x6’ tractor with two 3’ roosts. Not ideal for five grown birds, but five chicks would works just fine. I also connected an old dog crate to the opening to offer a bit more space while still being enclosed.
In total, it took about a day, spread over two. And despite being terrified that it would be insufficient for winter, it worked perfectly. I’d move the tractor every day or two and the girls would free range most of the day. I moved the girls into the tractor at 7-8 weeks. This was October. And as often happens, we had an early storm with temps in the high teens/low twenties. I was terrified it would be too cold for them, but it was perfect. The peak is roughly 4 feet high and when the girls huddled together, the air would stay fairly warm. One half was open on both sides, and I did throw a tarp over it on particularly cold and windy days to close off most of the open area and add just a bit more insulation.
The one thing I can’t do easily that I had initially hoped I could use the tractor for was to put it over my garden beds. It is much too heavy to lift on top of the raised beds and too wide to fit through our fence. Had I not been trying to just build something quick with what I had on hand, I would have designed it with weight and more portability in mind. But for what I needed it for, it served its purpose far better than I could have hoped and cost nothing but my time.
Here are some pictures of the final project:
After years of saying “no”, my husband finally relented and on our 15 year anniversary told me I could have chickens. Well, I wasn’t about to let that opportunity pass me by, so I went out to a local farm store and purchased five chicks the following weekend. Had I thought about all the things I’d need for them and what type of coop I wanted? Yes. I had put hours and hours of research into that. Did I have any of those things when I brought them home? Well, I had the brooder and all the things the chicks would need for their first weeks of life. But I did not have a coop.
No matter, I had plenty of time to buy one (right?). Well, apparently not, as the options I wanted had long lead times. So, I contracted someone locally to build one and they ended up getting Covid followed by several family emergencies that derailed the timeline. Having a fairly travel intensive job, I needed at least a good temporary solution fast (the babies were in my garage and were getting big and messy; they had to go!).
So the weekend before heading back on travel I scavenged around our house and found that I had just enough cedar from old garden beds to build an A Frame chicken tractor. The tractor was intended to be an immediate temporary solution, but I figured I could also place it over my garden beds for controlled tilling or use it as a chicken hospital, time out space or brooder for future chicks down the road.
I had no plans and just figured it out as I went, looking at several tractor examples first to make sure I had accounted for the basics. With about six eight foot boards, I was able to make a 4x6’ tractor with two 3’ roosts. Not ideal for five grown birds, but five chicks would works just fine. I also connected an old dog crate to the opening to offer a bit more space while still being enclosed.
In total, it took about a day, spread over two. And despite being terrified that it would be insufficient for winter, it worked perfectly. I’d move the tractor every day or two and the girls would free range most of the day. I moved the girls into the tractor at 7-8 weeks. This was October. And as often happens, we had an early storm with temps in the high teens/low twenties. I was terrified it would be too cold for them, but it was perfect. The peak is roughly 4 feet high and when the girls huddled together, the air would stay fairly warm. One half was open on both sides, and I did throw a tarp over it on particularly cold and windy days to close off most of the open area and add just a bit more insulation.
The one thing I can’t do easily that I had initially hoped I could use the tractor for was to put it over my garden beds. It is much too heavy to lift on top of the raised beds and too wide to fit through our fence. Had I not been trying to just build something quick with what I had on hand, I would have designed it with weight and more portability in mind. But for what I needed it for, it served its purpose far better than I could have hoped and cost nothing but my time.
Here are some pictures of the final project:
