Yet Another Chick Update... A Chicken Tractor in the Future?

 The chicks are four weeks  now. I  had to look back at my posts to be sure since the chicks hatched. They are almost fully feathered out...just a little tuft of fluff on their heads and chests now. They are huge compared to when they were born, but too small to go into general population. But they need to go somewhere. They have stayed away from the heat lamp for a week now. In fact, I've turned it off. They're ready to go somewhere else.

I had thought to move them into the "hospital/quarantine" pen, but they'd quickly outgrow it. I decided to keep these birds separate from Mel's flock. I think I've got four hens. It's still too early to tell. While the blurb on the chicken enclosure says four to six chickens, from experience it's more like two and even then, the birds are crowded than we like. I'll use the eggs from these girls for homestead use. 

Mel calls them "mutt" chickens because they are Rhode Island crosses. Personally,  I think they are unique and beautiful. The variation of the colors of the Barred/RIR, and the laced feathered Americana/RIR are striking plus the ones I haven't figured out yet. Their coloring awakens the artistic gene in my soul. I wish I could show them to you. I wonder how much an effect the RIR genes will play with the egg colors and sizes, but that's four to five months away. 

I do have a line on a used computer that I'll be checking out this week though if not, I'll be buying another thumb drive. Thumb drives are really cheap these days. I remember when they first came out and how expensive they were. Computers too, but even the cheap ones are beyond my reach right now. I miss my pics on my posts, don't you? It's hard to replace or buy anything when you're broke all the time. Sigh! But I digress.

I was thinking of a way to house my new chickie babies and keep them separate. I could just let them free range throughout the yard, but they'd have no protection from predators. I could build them a small coop and run. I started looking online for designs that I could build. Mel is too busy with her own flocks. All the authorities say 1 1/2 to 2 square feet per bird, I'd rather have 3 square feet per bird in their run. A 3x8 run was doable, but I'd need a 8' square coop at a minimum. What if it were mobile? That way my chickie babies would have the luxury of being free range, but have the protection from predators. Now there's an idea...a chicken tractor.

THE PROBLEMS

It would have to be lightweight enough for me to pull. There in poses a problem. I have a hard enough time walking with one bum leg. I can push or pull the garden cart with no issues. I can lift 45-50 lbs of feed with one working hand and arm. but dragging the same amount of weight is problematic. Whatever mechanism I build to pull with, it's got to be waist high, 3' for me. So a solid wood contraption is out. It would be too heavy. The coop alone could almost be that heavy.

I've got another issue too. I found another broody hen! I thought I was missing one the black Australorps. 😏She's sitting on three eggs in the barn/workshop. When I went to check the eggs, they are full, heavy, and one even was chirping. So it looks like three more chickie babies are about to be born. This will make eight babies. So I'm revising my estimates. Sigh! 

In revising my estimates, I've got to know how many hens I have, but need to house them somewhere between 4 weeks to 13 weeks old to allow them to grow out. Hmmm, I could use the old chicken coop. Of course I'd have to rebuild it. The constant rains and winds have pretty much destroyed the seven-year old coop anyhow. Half the roof caved in while we went through the storms spawned by Hurricane Sue when it hit us. It's been a bad year for rains and hurricanes coming from the Gulf where we are. It has either smacked us from the Gulf or sideswiped us from the Atlantic. Not to mention other rain storms.

I think we'll do another pallet coop, but smaller. Yes, I'll have to involve Mel. If we turn the pallets longwise up, we just need to break apart a few pallets to have board and batten side walls so we wouldn't need additional plywood. I can fashion a new roof from the old sides. Two pallets for each wall, four pallets covered with reused plywood for the floor to keep the varmints out. Plus the wood frame of the current structure to do the roof. We also have the tin from the outdoor rabbit hutches to do the roof. Unlike the previous coop, I'll paint this one. The new 6x6x4' hen house should be big enough to last for a while. I can even reuse the branch roost and laying boxes from the old coop on the new one.

Pre bunny barn and chicken coop n run

If the law of averages holds up, of the eight chicks, 50% or four will be roosters. These will go to freezer or canner jar camp. For our homestead of two adults, four hen would supply our needs perfectly. It will allow me to bake goodies to my heart's content and have an egg breakfast once a week not counting other egg use breakfasts. Any more than four hens would be too many. So if I use the number of four hens and possibly a rooster, for protection, I'd only need a tractor for five chickens at most, right?

So, I'm right back where I started from in number of birds. I've got pressure treated 2x4 pieces from another project on the homestead. If I split them that's half the weight. Or, I could use PVC or electrical conduit to build a tractor. Now the shape could be either hooped or squared. I'm thinking rectangular so everything will square up and be more sturdy.

You may ask why not just use the refurbished coop and run for the chicks on a permanent basis? Well, I look at it this way. I had five hens of Mel's flock go broody this year and they were less than a year old. Usually, once a broody chicken, they'll always be broody trying to hatch out more chicks. I'll need that grow out area each year whether they are the colorful egg layers or not. I can see them hatching out the purebred flocks too for the types of chickens that do not go broody. We'll just swap out eggs. It will keep Mel from having to buy new chicks as they age out of laying prolifically about 2-3 year old. We'll have a built in incubators as nature intended them to be. I don't intend on having anymore "mutt" chickens. 

That also means that Mel will have to decide on the purebreds she intends on raising for breeding and raising for her farm this winter. Though there's always the Rhode Island Reds and readily available, she's also got her heart set on Barnevelders. Although Sussexes wouldn't be a bad choice either. both of the latter are dual purpose breeds and vary in rarity. So chicks and pullet/cockerel sales would be more desirable. Who knows, she might choose both. The egg sales enable us to buy a month's worth of feed for the birds, we have and build a new coop and run every two months towards progress towards the future. So the first batch of chickens are now self sustaining. Wohoo!

So the chicken tractor for my new chickie babies will be a split level 3'x8' there will be space underneath the coop for an automatic chicken feeder and waterer. While Mel prefers the nipple waterers, I prefer the cups like I use for the quail. I'll be making it out of the leftover tin from the rabbit hutches for roof screwed into the PVC frame. The sides will be made of leftover political (vote for me) signs. Total weight is about thirty pounds. I'm recycling all the previous rabbit cages' cage wire to protect their free range area. Why not make it 4x8? Because I want it to fit over my rows in the garden each fall after the last harvest. The chickens will pick over what's left and fertilize it for the next spring. A hefty layer of compost and hay will follow the the chickens, and then the garden will be put to bed for 6 months. The walkways between the rows will get their pass of the chickens to gobble up the weeds/ leftover plants before new wood chips are added in the spring. There will be a slight overlap of the garden beds but no worries, I usually don't plant within 6" of the walkways unless it's flowers later in the season.

Will I put wheels on the chicken tractor? I dunno yet. If it proves too heavy for me to move safely, I will. I'm thinking big wheels like the front wheels of a tricycle rather than small ones. We've got some pretty uneven terrain on this homestead. I've even considered an adult bicycle wheels. Considering these are large birds apposed to bantams, the lift shouldn't be an issue. 

There is minimal chance for them to escape. But these birds will be trained to the sound of my voice and come when I call them too (just like the others) if they do. The other chickie babies we raised were no problem getting into their area. All it took was me walking into the run and they followed me. They were clambering all over themselves to see who could be the closest to me. All except Big Red, the rooster, that is. He still gives me a shovel handle distance just in case I've got a shovel or stick handy. It was just a question of me getting out before they did, but I did have a can of scratch grains for that eventuality.  Ya gotta love well trained chickens.😜

Hopefully, I'll either have a new (to me) computer or a new flash drive for pictures of the mobile coop and run with the chickie babies in it soon.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Cockeyed Jo