Chicken Tractor

The chicks are fully feathered now and ready to move out of the pen in the garage where we've been keeping them since they outgrew their brooder tub.  Here's what they look like now.  I'm  guessing they might be what you'd consider early teens in human years.

A "chicken tractor" is a movable pen with an enclosed box (coop) built into one end of it that serves as a roosting and nesting area.  It is not quite finished in this picture, but enough so that you can see what I mean.

There are I-bolts on each corner of the bottom frame on the front where a chain will be attached allowing us to move it to different locations using the Gator.  The front pen will be totally covered with chicken wire.  The pen is tall enough for us to stand upright in and there is a gate to allow easy access.  Here's a better picture of the gate.

There is a little hinged door that lifts up to allow entry to the coop and a ramp leading up to this opening.  We will close the door and secure it at night to ensure no chicken-eating critters can get in if they were to dig under the pen frame.

The back side of the coop also has a hinged door we can lift to get to the eggs in the nest boxes.  Here it is closed.

Here it is open.  The nest boxes are the 3 partitions in the middle and will look more "cozy" once they have some shavings in them.

The floor inside is covered with a stiff wire mesh that will allow droppings to drop through to the ground and make for easy cleaning.  But, at the same time, the wire is strong enough to keep predators out.

Tom should be finished with it in the next couple of days and we'll move the chicks into their new home.  I anticipate they will stay here until the weather starts cooling this fall when we will move them in with our old girls.  I've been reading about the problems that can occur when new chickens are introduced to established flocks.  Apparently, there really is something called a "pecking order" that has to be worked out between the hens.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it is not a long process and that nobody gets hurt!