26' chicken coop and tractor

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Grumpy521

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So it's finished enough for the birds to be in it. I just need to source four more kids bicycle wheels and install them all. It will eventually have eight wheels attached to spring loaded caster frames.
 

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That is so big you could claim your are chicken free-range.
I have seen chicken tractors advertised and wonder why they are so expensive. Some are $500 and more. I don't understand.
I do free range them. This is so I can occasionally direct them to eat and poop in specific areas. The, "commercial versions" are so expensive for the same reason a lot of other stuff is, yuppies and hipsters. I mean even at my COUNTRY feed store, they're selling tiny little chicken coops for $400 that I could make for fifty.
 
That is so big you could claim your are chicken free-range.
I have seen chicken tractors advertised and wonder why they are so expensive. Some are $500 and more. I don't understand.

I understand what your saying but it cost money to stay in business. Mostpeople use to build their own so seller hadto sit on stock till it was sold, Toay probably have more city slicker types who wil pay someone who knows how to build things.
 
Looking good, a lot of weight though for me and my situation. How are you going to turn something that long? Are you going to paint?

A year before I decided to get chickens I stumbled into a bargain. A lady I know had health issues and had to change her life style. She a big barrel racing horse she couldn’t see after anymore and wanted me to take him. She also had dog kennels where she used to board and train dogs. I didn’t want the horse but did want those kennels. I think I agreed to take the horse if she’d sell me the kennels for $50. There were about 20 kennels made from 10ft x 6ft chain link fence panels. Problem… they were sitting in a poured concrete slab.

There was no electricity down there either. I took a trailer, generator and a Sawzall and cut the panels off at slab level. Afterwards the panels were 10ft x 5ft 9inch tall.

I built my first tractor using chain link fence panels, it was 10ft x 10ft. I didn’t use wheels but made skids. I used pressure treated lumber... 4 - 2x4x12’s to make the skids and two 2x4x10ft for cross pieces. For a roof I used a tarp. It worked great. I connected a 1/8 inch aircraft cable to the front to pull it with. I’d move it with a tractor, sometimes with that big horse I traded for. I had the tarp secured really well. At the start of 27apr2011 tornado outbreak I had 70mph straight line winds that morning. The tarp on my chicken tractor acted like a sail. The wind blew my tractor about 50ft across a pasture which ran over and killed most of my chickens.

A year or so later I built a pen. I used the chicken tractor as a side pen, still use it for that. It’s handy for sittin’ hens or small chicks I want to keep separate from the rest of the chickens.

Anyway, you can see in the pics how I used the fence panels and the tractor that sits against my pole barn. I used panel parts to put a peaked roof on my current coop and the tractor. The main coop and tractor are built exactly the same except for skids.

Anyway, maybe you or others can find something useful or something to avoid with what I came up with.

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Looking good, a lot of weight though for me and my situation. How are you going to turn something that long? Are you going to paint?

A year before I decided to get chickens I stumbled into a bargain. A lady I know had health issues and had to change her life style. She a big barrel racing horse she couldn’t see after anymore and wanted me to take him. She also had dog kennels where she used to board and train dogs. I didn’t want the horse but did want those kennels. I think I agreed to take the horse if she’d sell me the kennels for $50. There were about 20 kennels made from 10ft x 6ft chain link fence panels. Problem… they were sitting in a poured concrete slab.

There was no electricity down there either. I took a trailer, generator and a Sawzall and cut the panels off at slab level. Afterwards the panels were 10ft x 5ft 9inch tall.

I built my first tractor using chain link fence panels, it was 10ft x 10ft. I didn’t use wheels but made skids. I used pressure treated lumber... 4 - 2x4x12’s to make the skids and two 2x4x10ft for cross pieces. For a roof I used a tarp. It worked great. I connected a 1/8 inch aircraft cable to the front to pull it with. I’d move it with a tractor, sometimes with that big horse I traded for. I had the tarp secured really well. At the start of 27apr2011 tornado outbreak I had 70mph straight line winds that morning. The tarp on my chicken tractor acted like a sail. The wind blew my tractor about 50ft across a pasture which ran over and killed most of my chickens.

A year or so later I built a pen. I used the chicken tractor as a side pen, still use it for that. It’s handy for sittin’ hens or small chicks I want to keep separate from the rest of the chickens.

Anyway, you can see in the pics how I used the fence panels and the tractor that sits against my pole barn. I used panel parts to put a peaked roof on my current coop and the tractor. The main coop and tractor are built exactly the same except for skids.

Anyway, maybe you or others can find something useful or something to avoid with what I came up with.

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That looks like solid work. 26' is long but it will turn once I have the hitch bolted to it. It will eventually have nice tin on both roofs and will be painted. I have an old school arr projecter so I plan on projecting and hand painting signs on the sides like Maxwell House and Pep Feed.
 

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