A chicken tractor is a moveable pen designed to allow chickens or other poultry to range freely on pasture while still keeping them contained in an enclosure. I got the idea of using them from the great Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms and have successfully used a chicken tractor to raise broilers for three years. I have also raised several flocks of turkeys in a turkey tractor.
The chicken tractor is fairly easy to build by one person. Using only scrap lumber and materials I had on hand, I built one tractor for broilers and one for turkeys. Each of the tractors was eight feet wide by 16 feet long. The height depended on the type of bird each would house. The chicken tractor was about two feet high while the turkey tractor was three feet high. The height of each allowed room for the birds to stand upright and provided space for me move about inside of them. Of course I had to crawl around.
The tractors were framed in 2"x4" or 2"x6" lumber (whatever was laying around) and covered with chicken wire on all sides and the top. The bottom rested on the ground and was open. For the chicken tractor, I left an opening on top of one end so I could feed and water the birds and be able to catch them when it was time to process. Sometimes I had to crawl in and chase the birds around until I could nab one. (The first few were easy to catch, but the birds quickly caught on that something was not right and would run away.)
On the turkey tractor, I fashioned a sliding door on one end since the turkeys were much larger and harder to handle. That door allowed me to open or close it from the inside as well when I had to crawl in to catch a bird for processing. Also, both tractors had partially solid roofs made from scrap roofing metal (I never throw away building materials) to protect the birds from the weather and to give them shade. They still need access to direct sunlight as well and it was up to them if they wanted to stand in the rain or get a suntan.
Birds were placed in the tractors when they were at least six weeks old and the outside temperature was consistently above freezing. Each day I would move the tractors by using a hand truck to lift the front end a few inches and then pulling it 16 feet so the birds were on fresh ground. Of course the place they occupied the day before was grazed and covered with their manure. When moving the tractor you have to be very careful not to catch a bird's leg under a moving side or the back end. It's tricky the first week or so, but after that the birds become acclimated and will gather in the center of the pen and walk along as it moves. Unless one is not paying attention or decides to break from the pack you should not have an issue. If a bird does get caught it typically will result in a life ending injury. Just move slowly while facing the pen.
After moving the tractors, the birds were given fresh water and mash. Even though they are grazing on pasture they may still need to be fed. The amount of supplemental grain needed will depend on the quality and quantity of pasture grass available to them. To reduce the feeding, you may need to move the tractor more than once a day. You will probably not be able to use a section of pasture more than once in a season. Since broilers are usually butchered at 8 to 16 weeks, depending on breed, you should not have a problem running out of space unless you have a very small pasture.
I had both of my tractors going at the same time, 12 weeks for broilers and 24 weeks for turkeys. They were in a pasture of about five acres so I never ran out of clean ground for them. Of course, as I got farther away from the barn I had to haul water and feed greater distances. Carrying water 100 yards is not that much fun. The two tractors required about 15 gallons of water a day combined. I did not use my farm tractor preferring to carry buckets instead.
I no longer use chicken tractors so I created a large fenced-in pasture for my broilers and one for the turkeys. They worked great for those three years and I'm glad I tried that particular process. There are several reasons why I stopped using them though. The first is having to haul water so far away and in the heat of summer sometimes more than once daily. Secondly, my pasture is not golf course smooth. Pulling a heavy structure on rough ground sloping slightly downhill is hard enough. Pulling it back uphill is no fun at all. Having to crawl around inside the tractor to catch the remaining birds was no fun either. After the last batch I knew I was finished with tractors for good.
The tractors were built sturdily, but after three years of being dragged back and forth over hundreds of yards they began to become fragile. Also, they were starting to attract the attention of the neighborhood predators. I had some varmint try to break through the wire a few times. That was enough for me to decide not to rebuild my aging pens and move back to a fenced pasture model. The flocks have enough ground to browse for their short lives so that process works better for me. And since the pens are close to the barn, I can water with a hose.
Overall, I think the chicken tractor method would work for a homestead with a small flock of broilers or turkeys. The birds really seem to enjoy being on fresh grass everyday, they get plenty of green food and bugs to eat and they are relatively safe. If I were to try this process again, I would put wheels on one end of the pen to make it easier to move and use a larger gauge wire to better protect from predators. Hauling water would be done by machine without the need to carry buckets by hand.
I'll end this post with a funny story. I raised Blue Slate turkeys in the tractor one year. We frequently have Great Blue Herons come by to rest or graze. One day a male Heron landed in the pasture and saw the Blue Slates in their pen. The Heron walked right up to the tractor surprised to find a large group of birds that looked almost exactly as he did. That Heron stayed next to the turkeys for three days before giving up hope of finding a potential mate. I'm sure the turkey hens were glad they were on the inside safe from the would be Lothario.
I have been homesteading for more than 25 years starting part-time while working 12 hours a day in the "real" world. Transitioning to a full-time homesteader about a decade ago, I now work 24x7x365 and consider this a great improvement to my life.
