Chicken Tractors For Broilers

[bnorth12]

We are thinking about putting together a chicken tractor for broilers next spring, similar to the chicken tractor Joel Salatin uses at Polyface Farms, http://www.polyfacefarms.com/.

The chicken tractors at Polyface are 10'x12'x2', and each houses 70 broilers. Since these are primarily going to be raised for our own consumption I will be building a slightly smaller chicken tractor, probably 8'x8'x2'. Our incubator hold 42 eggs and we usually end up with between 50% and 75% of the chicks coming out of the brooder. So we will likely end up with between 25 and 30 chickens going in the chicken tractor. I'm not worried about only having broilers so both the chickens and roosters that come out of the incubator will go in the chicken tractor.

Normally my wife does more with the chickens than I do but I did some initial planning. If I want the chickens to go in the tractor as everything is starting to green up this is the basic timeline.

Start Incubating: 1 Feb
Start Hatching: 22 Feb
Move to Tractor: 5 Apr
Slaughter: 31 May

This is with 6 weeks in the brooder, and slaughtering at 15 weeks.

Feed

In brooder 1-3 lbs per bird per week in the first 6 weeks.
In Tractor 2.5 lbs per bird per week.

So this works out to 360 lbs of starter feed about $120, and 560 lbs of grower about $180. So $300 in feed and alot of labor for producing 30 broilers ends up at about $10 per bird barring any issues.

I need to find a feed mill in our area that sells in bulk as 4 55 gallon barrels could hold enough feed for all the birds through slaughter.

If this works out I might build a second chicken tractor the following year.

 

[Terri9630]

We use a tractor while they are small. Our tractor is 4x8 and we find that with as few as 10 birds that they get to crowded. Now we start them in the tractor and move them to a 35x35 ft pen.

 

[bnorth12]

We use a tractor while they are small. Our tractor is 4x8 and we find that with as few as 10 birds that they get to crowded. Now we start them in the tractor and move them to a 35x35 ft pen.

Currently our layers are free range. I know broilers, a least the roosters, will not return to a coop every night so that is the drive for a chicken tractor, and moving the chicken tractor once or even twice a day will not be an issue since they will only be in the tractor for a little over 2 months.

Everything I have read about broilers in tractors points to between 1.5 and 3 square feet per bird. 30 birds in an 8x8 chicken tractor is just over 2 sqft per bird. I would never crowd the layers this much, however with the birds we are going to eat the feed conversion should be higher if they have less space, and to keep everything clean the tractor gets moved to a fresh spot every day.

 

[Terri9630]

They will only travel the distance between the food and water. The further apart they are the better. It will help keep them healthier.

 

[Terri9630]

To get them to grow to their maximum you need a high protein feed. We use a 30percent turkey starter the entire time.

 

[Redbeard]

We use these. I have 8 of them. 12x12x2. Half roofed. Home built watering system. Cornish crosses aka the cornish x takes 2 pounds of feed to create 1 pound of meat. Running these tractors and moving them daily helps reduce the feed you need to provide. If you feed your food wet it helps them digest better and also improves feed to meat ratio. If you ferment your feed while moving them daily and run maggot bucket you will see the best possible feed to meat ratio. We did 1000 birds or biggest year. I now have 3 tractors left and i only use them for brooding my beeding stocks off spring. We don't do the standard Cornish x's anymore. Before we stopped with them we had stopped using the tractors, found that the poultry netting was 100 times easier and faster to move. The Cornish x's never got out.

 

[May Woodworth]

Hi, If you make this style, please consider a better roof. One that latches and stays closed. This appears to NOT be predator proof. Maybe they put weights on the roofs at night, I cannot tell from the pic.

 

[viking]

I have been baby sitting a friends gray tom turkey because it had been fighting with another tom at his place. I was using one of the two chicken tractors I built, sadly it was not as secure as the other one, the edges of the screens were just stapled whereas the other tractor had enough overlap of screens that I was able to nail 2 X 2's over the laps which made them much stronger. As you can see in the picture the coyote ( I think) tore the staples out of the outer layer of horse fence and made a round hole in the chicken wire, I'm certainly doing a second thought about how tough a coyote or any other wildlife or domestic dog could be, this guy was nasty.
the turkey was still alive but in bad shape, it looks like he put up a hell of a fight. Anyway, I had the owner put the bird down.

 

[Meerkat]

I have been baby sitting a friends gray tom turkey because it had been fighting with another tom at his place. I was using one of the two chicken tractors I built, sadly it was not as secure as the other one, the edges of the screens were just stapled whereas the other tractor had enough overlap of screens that I was able to nail 2 X 2's over the laps which made them much stronger. As you can see in the picture the coyote ( I think) tore the staples out of the outer layer of horse fence and made a round hole in the chicken wire, I'm certainly doing a second thought about how tough a coyote or any other wildlife or domestic dog could be, this guy was nasty.
the turkey was still alive but in bad shape, it looks like he put up a hell of a fight. Anyway, I had the owner put the bird down. View attachment 3638 View attachment 3639

Thats a shame. We have pens they go in at night while they free range all day. Our pens are predator proof except a snake will get in now and then.
Wild birds were eating the feed so we put chicken wire on top of welded wire on top and sides. Plus cattle wire on bottom.
It was a little hard work and expense but once done no more problems with preditors.

At the time we are resting the ground and pens so no chickens for past couple years. Plan to order more next few months. This time only about 4 hens.

 

[greg_r]

I use tractors for my meat birds. 8x12x2. I put up to 30 birds in each.

My layers free ranged until recently. Coyotes have gotten bad here. I keep my layers in tractors now. 4x8 A frames. I keep a dozen ASA Browns 3 to each tractor and move the tractors aound my garden on a regular basis.