Has anyone purchased or built a chicken tractor you can actually move?
Yes! It has wheels on a lever to raise the back edge a couple of inches, then it can easily be pulled forward to its new spot.
Here’s a picture of mine, just after the wheels got added, complete with guard kitty:
120905_6900 by Wendy, on Flickr
This is the same concept…
http://avianaquamiser.com/posts/Whee…icken_tractor/
Years ago I used the one in the picture for meat chickens, moving it twice a day towards the end. Right now it has a mother hen and her nine chicks.
The challenge I have with chicken tractors is creating a situation where you can move them but predators don’t dig under them.
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My wife has an Omlet Eglu cube that she found used. It’s great for her small flock and moves very easily, along with its attached run.
Does the cat come with the one pictured?
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So I have built several with varying degrees of success.
As I said, my main issue is that predators can dig under them. Sometimes it’s just for the eggs, but also for the chickens themselves. IMHO a chicken tractor that you can move with one person, that does not have an inner secured area, is never safe for chickens overnight. Learned the hard way more than once.
As soon as you integrate that inner secured area, it’s much heavier. In addition, I don’t have beautiful, even manicured ground like in the pictures - my ground is uneven, so ready made gaps for predators, and also hard to move the tractor around.
Wheels that reach the ground… mean that the coop is above the ground and is again vulnerable to predators.
The options that seem to work for me:
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day use only. That is, I collect the chickens out of their tractor daily and move them into a more secure carrier or other coop. Can be a carrier inside of a larger tractor or pen system … with caveats.
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having the tractor inside a secured electric fence
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a tractor that requires two people to move. Each person gets an end. This works well for me except that I always want to move them in the morning before anyone else in my household is available.
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The other thing that I’ve designed but not built is a system where the wheels are removable. The end of the tractor can be lifted and hooked on to a pair of wheels, then the other end lifted and pushed to where you need to go. Then you take the wheels back off.
The other part of the challenge is that I usually want to move the tractor without having to remove the chickens first, so this needs to be considered.
Every door and port you add to the tractor makes it heavier, but having good doors makes it much easier to remove the birds. The first design I tried had a roof that lifted up - IMHO this is too heavy and hard to manage compared to doors on the sides.
I also think it’s beneficial for a tractor to have an area of solid sides for protection from sun and/or rain/snow and to give the birds a place to feel more secure, so they don’t nestle alongside the wire fence, where predators can reach through and grab them.
I use the chicken tractors to confine the hens to the areas I want them to scratch up, but after something ripped the chicken wire and took a hen I started putting them back in their coop at night.
The Omlet Eglu has been great at keeping predators out. It’s extremely secure with the coop door closed and the run has an apron extending out at the bottom so that predators can’t dig in. It’s a coop meant for small flocks, so it won’t work for everyone. The company indicates up to 13 chickens will be happy in the small run and coop, but we have six in there and think that’s more than enough.
Over the years we have had raccoons climbing on top and foxes trying to dig in. None have been successful, although I knock on wood here…
I’ve had one of these for almost 10 years now. https://eggcartn.com/egg-cartn-classic I love love love it. Chickens are locked up top at night, safe from predators. I’ve never had an issue with anything digging under it, it is likely that our 3-4 dogs never let a predator have that chance. I wouldn’t put 8-10 hens in it, like the website suggests, unless you are letting them free range during the day and only using the tractor as a coop at night. But I’ve had 5 in there 24/7 without issue.
It has withstood every type of weather, it had polyboard sheets to slide on the open sides to close it up in the winter. It stays warm enough that I have even raised chicks and ducklings in it.
It is super easy to move around, even my kids could do it when they were little. I’ve even rolled it into the barn whenever I want to store it out of the weather or not mess with snow in the winter.
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We have built two of them, different styles. The first one is rectangular and has wheels on one end. Top floor is “house” and egg box, ramp down to run below. The second one is an A frame, roof covers the top part, part way down the sides, wire below that down to ground level. That one has no wheels, but we use round bits of pole and place them under each side of it, and they make it roll just fine, then remove the rollers to keep the structure tight to the ground. Egg box at one end, at perch level. Have not had a problem with predators getting in to either one of them. The A frame is the more successful of the two, supplies more grazing area.
Hi, please check out the all-new ChickLift to assist with moving chicken tractors!
https://www.chicklifts.com/?ref=Ksmith81410
There are different ChickLift size options, so you can attach it to various chicken tractors. It really makes moving the tractor quick and easy! Even my kids can do it!
Would a wire fencing floor not work to keep predators out? I’m thinking the sturdy construction type fencing with the rectangular opening about 1.5" x 3" or so. Still open enough to let them forage, but secure from predators large enough to do real damage?
A wire or other floor may not be best for chicken feet all day, or to chicken scratching around needs?
That is why many predator proof fencing has wire extended outside, to keep them from digging.
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A quick google shows there are definitely people who use various types of wire on the bottoms of their chicken tractors and the major draw back is the extra weight of moving it, not harm to the chickens.
Just found this thread.
& HolyShmoly! 
The tractor @moving_to_dc linked to 
$1569 for a tractor that houses 5 hens?
Even with Speshul “watering bucket” included. It’s a standard bucket, that hens will make a mess drinking from… If they don’t also roost on the lip & poop in it 
I did have to laugh at the included advice to move across - rather than straight down - sloping ground.
Mental image of runaway tractor full of hens 
Do not let my housed-in-old-metal-shed flock hear about this, I’ll never get another egg 
