Chicken Tractor Goes Live 6/21/14

Ams/_jTn8-0VE5k/s1600/WP_20140622_065.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">

Our DIY Chicken Tractor

I won't pretend to be a master builder. I would have never been able to accomplish this quality of work without the generous guidance and assistance of my Uncle Scott. He also supplied a lot of the wood and other parts - and of course all the tools! 

Bottom Enclosure

This is the frame of the bottom enclosure. On one end is a set of tires on a rod with a lever. When you flip the lever it jacks the coop up off the ground. Then you lift from the other side and easily wheel the tractor across the lawn. I can lift it by myself!

From the Bottom Up

Here you can see my very favorite part of the coop... the ramp! I'll go ahead and let you in on a secret, it is the only part of the coop that I made all by myself. The men did most of the heavy lifting. The ramp goes from the lower enclosure and up into the coop. At night we will lift the ramp and it will close off the upper coop to keep the hens safe from raccoons and other predators.

Upper Level

Here are some shots of the upper level of the coop. We put on a separate section for the nesting boxes with a lid so we can open it and easily access the eggs. Four nesting boxes should accommodate about 12 hens. We are building the coop for 10 hens so it should be plenty of space. We are installing a perch on the left side for them to roost on. You can see them installing the coop on the lower enclosure. They attached it at just enough point to make a solid sturdy structure but keep it easy to remove for transportation.

 

Painting

It turns out painting is hard work. This is where I helped out the most. Emjay and I painted for days! In order to waterproof the wood we put two coats of primer on before we even got to the colors. Scott had some primer that he let us use.

We painted it a pale green with a dark magenta trim. Two coats each time!

 

Roofing

We decided on plastic roofing with space left between the roof and the coop. We figured this would give the chickens plenty of ventilation, keep the rain and wind out, be easiest to clean and would keep the tractor from getting too heavy.

Fencing

We added plastic coated wiring to fence in the lower enclosure. 

Doors

We decided to add two doors for the lower enclosure so that any part of it could be accessed. We went back and forth on where to put the door and finally decided making the whole top a door would give us the most flexibility. 

Final Product

Finally, we added a PVC gravity feeder that we made out of PVC pieces and put their waterer we previously made for their old enclosure. We put bedding in their nesting boxes, moved it out to the grass and put the hens in!

Our goal was to get the hens in their chicken tractor by summer... and with perfect timing, we finished it on the first official day of summer! 

Happy Father’s Day

Happy Rooster’s Day 

In honor of father’s day I thought we could take a look at how to introduce a rooster to your flock. Right now we have just hens but I hope to one day add some boys to our flock. I am always nervous about predators and feel like a bigger, tougher rooster would be a great addition to our flock’s safety. I’ve also heard that having a rooster around can ease the atmosphere of the flock as they no longer have to be on the lookout all the time. Finally, there is the added bonus of new chicks! I would love to experience this whole process the natural way.

So how do I do it safely?
I have heard stories of aggressive roosters and of hens ganging up on a rooster pecking him aggressively. As much as I would like to add a rooster, I do not want to risk the safety of my hens or put a rooster into a hostile environment.

Choose the right Rooster
You want an older, more mature rooster. A younger rooster is an easy target to an established flock. Find a rooster with an easy going attitude that won’t be a threat to your hens but one that is older and can become a dominant member of the flock. Choose a friendlier breed that will be easy for you to handle and check the rooster for good health.
Before you bring the Rooster home, ask to visit him with is current flock and make sure he is: 
 - Older or similar in age to your flock
-  An easy going rooster that respects his hens
-  Comfortable with people and allows you to hold him
-  Is in good health

Keep your Flock Safe – Quarantine
 Advice on how long to quarantine varies. In my opinion, the longer quarantine the better. I would recommend at least two weeks to assess any new additions to your flock. Keep them in an isolated area where your flock is not able to get to. Even if the new addition looks healthy, it could be carrying something your flock isn’t used to. While they are in quarantine watch them closely for signs of illness or parasites. Many flock raisers recommend 30 days to give time for symptoms to show. This also gives them time to acclimate to the environment. It will be easier for them to take in their new home first and their new family later.

Neutral Territory with Distractions and Obstacles
A separate enclose with plenty of space should be used for short introductions. Provide distractions, such as chicken feed, to keep their attention while they share the same space. Use plenty of a special treat that will help take away the stress, enough of the treat that they don’t feel they have to fight over it. Give them obstacles so they can avoid unwanted attention if someone starts to pick on them. Let them socialize for short periods of time under supervision and remove the newcomer if anyone is too aggressive. There is a fine line between letting them figure it out and letting it go too far. Let the socialization periods become longer as everything goes well.
What is your plan if something goes wrong:
-have extra enclosure to separate chickens
-gloves to help you grab on to an aggressive chicken
-first aid kit to treat any wounds

Take the leap!
When everything looks well you have to take the leap and leave them alone for the night. Generally a mature older rooster will take dominance over a flock of hens smoothly. Aside from some pecking you shouldn’t have too much trouble. If you notice anyone getting picked on you have the extra encounters to separate them.

Please tell me your stories - what was it like when you brought your rooster home?

Burning Egg Shells

Happy Friday the 13th!

Did you know that it is bad luck to burn eggshells on Friday the 13th?

The superstition says it will burn the hens nether regions and she will never lay again!

So skip the eggs today - you don't want to carelessly burn a piece of egg shell and burn your poor hens bottom!

Throwback Thursday

Chickens have been a prominent part of the everyday home throughout history. While they are seen as a farm animal by many, some of us understand that every home should have a chicken coop! We have learned a lot through this process and overall I would recommend it to anyone! You really do not need a lot of space and they are easy to maintain. Our hens are very low maintenance - its just the chicks that we have to monitor closely. While reading up on different breeds I have seen a lot of interesting history.

Here is a look at our history. Our original babies on day one! I can't believe how much they have grown.

Happy Easter from our Easter Eggers!

Our First Easter - 2014

The hens are doing great. Here you can see four of our Easter Eggers (Spider, Helen, Seraphina and Ayden) and one Buff Orpington.

We put up a board for them to perch on and hid tons of fun treats for them to try out. We also found that the Easter Bunny had left us some surprises! Not only did our Easter Egg hunt reach all the way to the barn but we also found some new friends!

BUNNIES!! 

We got two male Flemish Giants to room with our chickens. They are super sweet and Caleb has named them "Alhe" and "Rombi". They are very friendly and curious. They follow around our hens and sniff them while the hens run away! Then when the bunnies aren't looking the hens creep up to investigate. Too cute! Talk about a happy Easter.

Baby Wyandottes

The babies are doing great. We haven't noticed any poopy butt. They are getting some real feathers in now. We took one of the chicks out to explore and capture some adorable Easter photos.

Puppies

Baird and Nemo are my two Labradors. They have decided that they are part of the hen care routine. They follow us down to the barn and watch everything we do. Baird likes to hang back and keep guard. He is a little nervous about the chickens. Nemo is more hands in - or paws in I guess. He likes to help round up the hens and check that each hen is still in fact a hen. We will see how they get a long with the bunnies!

More Bunny Pictures

Because you can never have enough bunny pictures on Easter....

Happy Easter from all of us!

Update 4/13/14 - 7 Weeks Old!

Seven Weeks

Tomorrow they are seven weeks old. They've really accepted their new place as home. Now they explore the entire inside enclosure. They've got tons of space and obstacles to climb on. They gotten used to the freedom and aren't as eager to come to our hands. I spent a lot of time chasing them around!

Leg bands

Our plastic leg bands arrived. We have five colors - white, yellow, green, pink and purple. They are hard plastic and you slide one end into the other to lock them on. We put one of each color onto each Buff Orpington so we will be able to tell them apart better. Bromley is wearing the pink one. We put one of each color on the Leghorns and then put two bands on the 6th Leghorn. We soon found out that the smallest Leghorn with the green band is too small for the bands and it fell off. For now she will be bandless. For the Easter Eggers, since we can tell them apart so easily, we put white bands of them and I am planning to write their names on them. We figured they should have bands too.

Treats

This week I gave them a little spray millet from my hand each time we went down to check on them. I'm trying to reinforce the super friendly hand fed chick behavior they were showing previously that they kinda lost over the last week. Moving outside has given them a little more spunk and a little less dependency on us. They still go crazy for our hands when they know food is involved. They are able to swallow the balls of spray millet whole now. They have grown so much! I've noticed they peck a lot harder now too. We bought them a little planter of wheat grass and they devoured it. I wasn't sure how much they would like it but they ate it all up! We gave them a dandelion - the whole plant and roots and they really enjoyed that. I gave them a whole pot of vegetables and they spread them all over their enclosure and then eventually ate them all  up. We even caught some live worm and slugs from around the yard and watched them go crazy for those. I am having a lot of fun introducing them to new treats.

Petrie 

After banding our chicks I decided to check the Leghorns for the one with the enlarged tummy - Petrie. Being marked with her own color would help us check her stomach each time we checked on the chickens and monitor any changes. When I flipped them each over to check which one was Petrie I couldn't figure it out. We checked all six Leghorns and determined that it is most likely the purple banded one. She has the lowest and largest tummy but really doesn't seem abnormal anymore. It was a great feeling to see that the tummy has turned out normal!

Waterer

The feeder we made is working great. We have it hanging off the ground and the chicks climb up on it and enjoy the set up. The waterer however does not work as planned. It isn't weighted right so we have to keep it sitting on something and the drinking area will overflow if too much water is put in. For now it is working fine to hold water but we will need to remake it if we want the low maintenance of a gravity flow waterer that hold a lot of water. Being on the ground mean it gets really dirty really fast. When we make a new waterer we will use the current one for food too and the new waterer will be able to hang of the ground to keep poop and shaving out of it.

New Babies

Our two new babies are doing great. They are down in the barn with the 7 week olds. They are now over a week old. They are in a small enclosure up on a table with a heat lamp and a mesh cover so that the bigger chicks can't pick on them. We have let them down to meet the older girls and some of them are really interested in the babies and will peck at them. Until they get bigger we don't really trust them alone together. The chicks do just fine with being pecked at and just kind of move away but we don't know how far the older girls would go if we weren't there to shoo them away. The babies are soooo little! They are eating and drinking fine. We have decided to name them Winona and Andromeda. They have been so easy breezy compared to the big batch. So far we haven't noticed any poopy butt!

Progress Pages:

Spider
Meeko
Ayden
Seraphina
Helen

Buff Orpingtons
Brown Leghorns 

Silver Laced Wyandottes

 

Update (4/5/14) - 6 Weeks Old

Week 6 updates

It's been a busy couple weeks. We've moved the chickens out of the house, added 2 more chicks, and built a safe enclosure for them to live in in a garage. We are glad to let you know that all chicks are still healthy and growing rapidly. 

New place

We secured their new place inside of a barn with wood, fence, bird netting, and more than our fair share of zip ties. It's been a long couple weeks making sure everything is set up and safe for them. We brought down the heat lamp to ease the transition and made a suspended waterer and feeder to make maintenance easier on us. For now we are keeping them on the ground to get them used to it. 

New threats

Suddenly we realized that putting our chicks outside is scary! What about rats? We are looking at getting a rooster to protect the hens from a potential rat issue in the garage. We put down roofing over most surfaces and are looking at putting rat traps in but so far it hasn't been an issue. We are slightly less afraid of other predators for now until we open up the outside area.

New chicks

We picked up 2 Silver Laced Wyandottes from the local feed store and are getting 2 more Golden Laced Wyandottes to add to our flock. 

New treats

We have started buying the biggest (and most disgusting) mealworms/worms we can find and they are absolutely going crazy for them. We added a scratch block that hasn't been given much attention. We're sure they'll enjoy it once they figure out it's food though.

Progress Pages:

Spider
Meeko
Ayden
Seraphina
Helen

Buff Orpingtons
Brown Leghorns 

Silver Laced Wyandottes