Curious if anyone out there has one and has used it with any success on uneven ground? For anyone who isn't familiar with chicken tractors, it's just another way of saying "mobile/portable chicken coop". The idea is to be able to let the chickens scratch for bugs and grass and then move the entire coop to another patch of grass to prevent over-grazing. Our yard was recently pasture, so lots of divots, mounds, slopes and barely any level ground. Wondering if anyone has used any kind of fencing or design that is suited for unlevel surfaces.
We have one, I would say that it won't work unless you put wire on the bottom of the coop. We built our coop and it will drop onto level ground just a bit. But if it is too much difference you just get a hole. If you have any kind of animal that will dig for chicken dinner, then they will get in. I would go for one with the bottom covered in welded wire or something like that. It will keep the big things out, and let the poop out, while letting the grass in. Honestly in our experience the tractor thing doesn't really work all that great. Because we still have to clean it out, and unless we move it every day it kills the grass. We are going to build a regular coop in the back, when we get time.
That is our dilemma, too. We currently have a small coop (re-purposed outhouse building) and run. We can only afford to build one or the other. Permanent coop might win out since our only level area is being used as a garden.
Ours isn't a tractor per se, but I suppose it is fairly easily moved. We have it on fairly level ground but it certainly isn't flat. So my hubby took a bunch of split logs and wedged them around the sides to sort of seal it up. I was skeptical but it has worked for several months already.
I've never heard them called that! We've never used one for the simple fact (other than money and our number of chickens) but we considered it in addition to our non-mobile coop. We thought we could rotate the chickens that got placed in it...but our whole property is gently rolling. We just didn't think it would work.... hubby researched it quite well and it just seemed more trouble than it was worth. So we have a permanent pen for them.
That's what I was a'thinkin', too. Guess I'll just have to nail down the location. I hate commitment. :lol:
Hehehe we choose a place on the edge of our property for smell reasons LOL But we have up to 50 chickens at a time sometimes so....and we're hoping to get into selling baby chicks in the next year or two...
