The Cornish Cross and Chicken Tractor Part 2

In part one I recounted the dilemma of pasturing the Cornish Cross chicken and and how a chicken tractor can help with the issue.

After researching and creating a list of requirements for the tractor, I spent the next few mornings walking through the many farm outbuildings that are full of stuff looking for construction materials. The buildings contain some old farm items but mostly random debris that my Dad saved or salvaged from work sites back in the day when he was a contractor. From kitchen cabinets, windows, interior and exterior doors to pallets and wood, there is an endless supply of possibilities - but nothing caught my eye. There was certainly enough wood to construct a light frame and wrap it in chicken wire, but that would require purchasing more wire and, as you'll recall from my list, I wanted to build the tractor as inexpensively as possible.

Finally, I popped into one building I hadn't gone into in a while. The corn crib is a small building and doesn't have much in it besides garden tools, pots and some extra feed containers. But it did contain just what I was looking for - 8 screen windows.

Screens

In their previous life the screens had hung on the front porch windows. They had also spent a summer linked together to form a chicken run for young chicks (not their best performance). As soon as I saw them I knew they would end their days in great glory as a chicken tractor. I set them up along side a building, measured, played with an arrangement and then headed inside for work and to noodle on the best way to transform screens into a chicken tractor.

That afternoon, with roughly sketched details in hand, I headed back outside to begin building. The first order of business was to link two screens, end to end, to form one side. In a happy coincidence my Dad had been over a few days earlier riping cedar boards. The scraps he left were beautiful 1x1's, the perfect size to trim the bottom edge of the screens. The cedar 1x1's ran the length of both screens, giving support to the joint and providing a weather-resistant bottom edge, which will be in contact with the grass. For further strength I also screwed the screens to each other at the butt joint.

Two sides, of two screens each, with cedar 1x1's attached

Once I had all four sides constructed I set them up in a square and joined them at the corners.

All four sides screwed together at the corners.

For reinforcement I added corner braces and a brace from the bottom corner to the top edge. At this point the construction stopped for a few days while I pondered how to attach a roof and what the roof would be made of. Ideally it should be about 50% mesh, for plenty of sunshine, and 50% solid covering, for shade and protection from rain. A door also needed to figure into it. The mesh part was fairly self-explanatory - build a frame, cover it in chicken wire and attach to the sides. But I didn't know what to do about the covered section. We had plenty of old tarps available, but I wasn't thrilled with that option. My Dad suggested tin roofing, which is the roof of choice for Joel Saladine's tractors. Tin would certainly be the easiest to attach and last the longest in the elements, but there was no roofing laying around the farm. However, considering the rest of the frame had been constructed without a penny spent, I figured a few dollars on the roof would be fine.

If any of you have had the pleasure of meeting my maternal Grandpa, you will know that one of his favorite questions is "guess how much I payed for this?" Grandpa Don is a collector and loves to pick up treasures at garage sales or, even better, from free piles! He has several outbuildings full of goodies. Grandpa Don and Grandma Arlene are also incredibly generous. They supply us with a steady stream of pure maple syrup from their sugar bush, gave us several cords of wood last winter, have helped us cut and split wood on their property, have lent us their truck and given us various needed odds and ends for work on the farm. Our most resent visit to them last Tuesday resulted in Chris driving off in their truck, once again lent to us for several weeks, with the bed full of wood and 4 pieces of roof tin.

With the needed roofing supply assembled, Chris and I set about building a frame and attaching the roof. Two pieces of tin covered a little over half of the tractor and one piece was exactly the length we needed. The other piece was a little short, but we decided to work with it rather than cut a long piece. We attached lengths of cedar 1x1 to opposite sides and laid the tin on top. One convenient happenstance was that two of the screens were wider than the other 6, creating one side that was higher than the rest. By running the framing from the tall end to the side opposite a slight pitch was created.

Tin roofing attached.  You can see the slight pitch from right to left.

The final step was to figure out a door local and cover the rest of the roof with wire. Chris had the great idea of combining these two needs and simply making the rest of the roof one big door. This cut down on the amount of framing needed, making the tractor lighter, and resulted in a nice big door for easy feed, water and bird access.  We built a frame, stretched chicken wire over it and attached it with hinges.  Chicken tractor complete!

The "Donald E. Irhke" Chicken Tractor

Lid propped open and 11 chicks getting used to their new home.
Clear view of corner brace (with waterer on it) and side brace. 

All in all we are very happy with the result. One issue I was concerned about was making a tractor large enough for all 49 birds (we lost 2 in the first week so we're down from the original 51) but still light enough to move. We were certainly successful with the first - with an interior of 100 square feet - but the tractor is quite heavy. We've moved it once so far, each lifting a side, and it was a bit heavy for me. I'm confident that a set of good wheels and a rope handle will make the tractor much easier to move, perhaps even by one person. Hmm, I wonder who has a set of old wheels?

Hildy keeping watch over her flock.

[ The "Donald E. Ihrke" Chicken Tractor was sponsored by This Old Farm House, Mike Morgan Salvage and Grandpa Don's Collection]