{"id":23,"date":"2012-06-20T14:44:55","date_gmt":"2012-06-20T19:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/?p=23"},"modified":"2012-06-21T11:09:29","modified_gmt":"2012-06-21T16:09:29","slug":"chickentractor1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/2012\/06\/20\/chickentractor1\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicken Tractor #1 – Where Construction Started"},"content":{"rendered":"

After rewinding to the start of our little hobby farm,\u00a0we now come to the current year\u00a0– the year of the first\u00a0CHICKENS!\u00a0 Since hubby was learning to post on the blog and discussed that we are\u00a0currently working on chicken tractor #3, I thought I’d add some chicken tractor photos.<\/p>\n

What is a Chicken Tractor?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A chicken tractor is a moveable coop.\u00a0 Some chicken tractors just have a “play yard” – aka a “run”.\u00a0 Others have both a run and an attached coop.\u00a0 And still others are\u00a0just a coop and the chickens\u00a0free range without fencing.<\/p>\n

We went with the full coop\/run chicken tractor.\u00a0 The tractors allow the chickens to be “pastured”, meaning they have access to fresh grass\/dirt\/bugs, without being left in the open to get killed by predators.\u00a0\u00a0And there is less work than having to move the chickens every morning and night to\/from their coop and play yard.\u00a0 We just open the chicken door in the mornings and at night, the chickens get in their coop and we just shut the door.<\/p>\n

Chicken tractors are\u00a0also a plus because they don’t stay in one place long enough for the chickens\u00a0to rip all the grass up.<\/p>\n

Choices, Choices – Blueprints and Building Plans<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you’ve ever researched chicken housing, you know there are tons of different styles.\u00a0 After researching in books and online, looking at free building plans as well as blueprints for sale, I concluded I wasn’t going to find any plans that had everything that I thought I wanted.\u00a0 And buying\u00a0ready made housing was not an option.<\/p>\n

The chicken tractors available ready made were either too small for our needs, didn’t have what we were looking for, were\u00a0too poorly built, or would cost a small fortune to have shipped to us.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for me, hubby does his best to make my ideas a feasible reality and the drawing of chicken tractor plans commenced.\u00a0 It came out pretty well.\u00a0 We’ve changed things along the way and we will probably change building as our needs and wants change, but so far, these tractors are turning out quite nicely.<\/p>\n

And we’re off…<\/strong><\/p>\n

This first tractor is large – total size 8×8 feet with a coop that is\u00a04x8x6+ feet tall (large enough for us to get in and stand up).\u00a0 The coop portion sits 2 feet off the ground, allowing the chickens room to get under it as part of their “run” space.\u00a0 We knew it would be heavy and would require being moved by a vehicle or the tractor or riding mower.\u00a0\u00a0No problem, right?\u00a0….. ha ha ha<\/p>\n

Note to self: bigger , wider tires are better<\/strong><\/p>\n

We thought it was doing fine until it rained a little and the pasture got soggy.\u00a0\u00a0The thin tires on the tractor bogged down too much with the weight of the coop.\u00a0 Hubby actually broke some of the framing boards of the run\u00a0while he was moving it.\u00a0 After repairing the damage, hubby made some changes to it that these photos don’t reflect – mainly the addition of larger, wider\u00a0tires (meant for trailers\/riding mowers\/etc)\u00a0mounted on a 4×4 post “axle” on the back side.\u00a0 Now the coop looks like it has racing tires.\u00a0 Hubby\u00a0likes the new tires so much that he is considering\u00a0making another axle assembly\u00a0with the wide tires\u00a0to replace the smaller front tires of this chicken tractor.\u00a0 Many thanks to Northern Tool and Equipment<\/a> for having a fine selection of\u00a0DIY trailer supplies that includes axles, spindles, wheel hubs, etc.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The beginning – the floor and one wall framed<\/p><\/div>\n

Framing choices<\/strong><\/p>\n

For framing, we’re using 2x3s – commonly found in mobile home construction – to decrease the weight of the chicken tractors.<\/p>\n

I spaced the floor joists at 16 inches.\u00a0 Just because you don’t think you’ll ever have to get inside a chicken coop – even a small tractor coop – think again!\u00a0 Your floor should be able to support a human unless the tractor is so small that you can easily<\/strong> reach across it, into a corner,\u00a0when standing outside.<\/p>\n

The wall studs are set at 24 inches since this is not a human house and the walls have no need to support a heavy asphalt shingle\u00a0roof.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Insulation – not just for cold climates<\/strong><\/p>\n

The outside walls are\u00a0panels of\u00a0rough sided wood siding.\u00a0 Inside the walls, between the studs, there is metallic-backed foam board insulation.\u00a0 That leaves some space for an air pocket between the foam insulation board and the interior wall – which is the least expensive “tile” board they had.\u00a0 It is water resistant if the edges are sealed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

All framed in with a black marble vinyl floor.<\/p><\/div>\n

Ventilation – more is best\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The roof is “plastic” corrugated roofing panels with a ridge cap that keeps out rain but is not air tight.\u00a0 Underneath the roof is open, allowing air to flow up under the roof from the outside for coop ventilation.\u00a0 The\u00a0outside and inside air\u00a0can escape under the ridge cap.<\/p>\n

There are several windows as well as vents near the floor to allow for more airflow and ventilation.\u00a0 The windows have storm flaps and the frames allow for clear acrylic panels (“plexiglass”) to be inserted – letting\u00a0in light in\u00a0while keeping out cold wind.<\/p>\n

The vents are lightweight plastic that\u00a0can be closed if needed – normally used for A\/C\u00a0ducts in houses.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We are building these chicken tractors utilizing many homebuilding principles rather than just throwing scraps of something together like many people do.\u00a0\u00a0This is\u00a0mainly because we don’t want to have to replace them any time soon.\u00a0 Since they will be\u00a0moved around the pasture, they are going to be subjected to stresses that stationary coops would not experience.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Hardware cloth, for predator safety, covers all ventilation openings – including under the roof.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The people door.<\/p><\/div>\n

Stay tuned for photos of\u00a0the completed (almost) Chicken Tractor #1.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After rewinding to the start of our little hobby farm,\u00a0we now come to the current year\u00a0– the year of the first\u00a0CHICKENS!\u00a0 Since hubby was learning to post on the blog and discussed that we are\u00a0currently working on chicken tractor #3, I thought I’d add some chicken tractor photos. What is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[33,34,27,179,36,35,30,29],"class_list":["post-23","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chickens","tag-chicken-coop","tag-chicken-houses","tag-chicken-tractor","tag-chickens","tag-diy","tag-habitat","tag-pasture","tag-run"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/tractor1-door-in-sidinglogo.jpg?fit=336%2C448&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2wWew-n","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60,"href":"https:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions\/60"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}