Comments on: The $5 chicken tractor

By: Getting Started with Chickens | The Thrifty Mama™

Getting Started with Chickens | The Thrifty Mama™ — Sat, 22 May 2010 01:23:39 +0000

[...] The $5 Chicken Tractor [...]

By: Lara

Lara — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 05:32:29 +0000

We have a buff orpington who tries to go broody every day but she’s such a sweetheart that I can pet her and massage her into getting off the eggs. (For several months she insisted on roosting inside Neil’s tool box and I’d give her a “chicken massage” each night.) She goes and eats and then gets back on the next eggs that appear. I’m assuming by your description that most broody hens are not so charming?

By: teri

teri — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 04:33:27 +0000

Wow, eggs every day – I’m jealous! Our banties have been busy going broody all summer, so while we’ve had brief periods of egg abundance, for the most part we’ve counted ourselves lucky to get one a day.

While I do love our girls, I’m contemplating adding in some less broody breeds (perhaps even a couple of full-sizers) to up our egg supply.

By: Lara

Lara — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 01:58:55 +0000

Thanks guys.

We’re going to be moving up to that cabin after all (did we mention it at the wedding?)and I’m starting to look in to guinea fowl among other things. We got our birds from McMurry, by the way, and I would go with them again in the future.. very healthy happy chicks and excellent layers so far. Our girls are laying just about every day.

By: teri

teri — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 21:30:07 +0000

And also, when re-integrating, it helps if they’re near enough to see and get used to each other, but fenced so they can’t fight, for a few days or even a week or two. Though if your garden beds are near enough to each other you may not need this step…

By: Peter

Peter — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 21:09:33 +0000

Wow Jay, that site makes me want to place an order, thanks!

Lara – we’re far from experts, but have observed that acclimating new chickens takes a while and works best when they are in a big enough space to avoid each other if they like, and it seems to be the same process when some are separated temporarily…so i guess you’d want a big pen of some sort for the reintegration…

By: Lara

Lara — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 21:01:39 +0000

I also like this a lot. I’m wondering how the flock would do if we put them in several tractors to make new beds and then brought them back together again later.

By: Jay Solis

Jay Solis — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:51:48 +0000

Dude, this is sweet! I love the use of the lawnmower wheels.

I can use something like this in my backyard. I spent 3 days preparing a small area for planting new flowers and I have another small area to go. I can totally build one of these, minus the cool wheels because my lawn mower is brand new. All I need now are the chickens. I can check the farm in town, but if that doesn’t work out, there’s always this:

http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/