A Chicken tractor is one of my armory to being a lazy gardener. Why work so hard digging, weeding, mulching when there's help around. Yes, my little helper are the chickens. They scracthed, weeds and fertilize, an instant no dig garden. The chickens I kept are a mix of a rooster and hens (Australorp, Isa Brown, White Leghorn, some cross breds) total of 12. The chicken tractor has a 6 meter diameter, very light weight and I normally moved around myself just by dragging if just very short distance. This chicken tractor is perfect for me for the following reasons;
The Chicken Tractor In Action Video
- Light weight materials used make it easy for 1 person to move around.
- It can keep large number of chickens. Max is 15.
- A DIY chicken tractor design. 1 person can do it but I have little help from a cousin anyway.
- 6m area diameter is ideal garden bed size and chickens has good roaming space.
- The perched inside of up to 1-1.5m high is good chicken protection from foxes in case they get in.
- Go on holiday for at least a week and no need to worry about them. I devised a chicken feeder system made of a 12 liter water containers.
- My number 1 reason is I don't need to clean. I just moved it around. We have a fixed chicken house and was left dirty by previous owner, didn't ever I use it to house chicken. With the tractor, I don't have problem with dusty mites or scaly legs chickens so far.
We lived in a coastal area and it is very very windy most of the time. The chicken tractor have withstood the strong wind conditions and days of rain. The chickens lay their eggs on an old lawn mower catcher as their nest. There are 2 but they only used one nest even they can be overcrowding. I saw 4 of them one time in the one nest.We sell the excess eggs or give to family members.
After moving the chicken tractor, the area where they left off is ready to be planted with vegies, fruit trees or whatever. Watching the chickens is quite relaxing. Very nice to watch how the plants grow too from where the chicken tractor used to be.
Have a look in the video here on how I use my chicken tractor. Hope it can give any inspiration into a sustainable living endeavor or a backyard chickens project? Just in case, I got the chicken tractor design (see video on this page if you haven'y yet) from "The Permaculture Home Garden" by Linda Woodrow. This book is also recommended by my Organic Gardening teacher. Although we got one already.
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