Other uses for your chicken tractors

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Chicken Tractor PlansWe’ve already looked at chicken tractors, what they are and how they can be very useful where there is not enough space for a large chicken coop.

Why Use Chicken Tractors in The First Place?

But chicken tractors have another really important use in your productive garden.  Are you a chicken keeper who also likes to grow some vegetables to feed your family?  If you are then a chicken tractor can be a great addition to your vegetable growing activities.

Chickens are very good at eating all sorts of plant material including the remains of your vegetable growing.  After you have picked your lettuce or spinach there is always some leaves left over that you don’t use.  If you have a few chickens in a chicken tractor then you can place the tractor and chickens on the area of the garden that you have just harvested.

The chickens will really enjoy eating these left over plants, and it will add lots of variety to their diet.  Chickens are very good at cleaning up areas where there are unwanted plants or vegetation.  This could also be an area where there are lots of weeds. The chickens will get busy eating all the leaves and stems and then scratch out the roots and seeds and turn the soil over.  Chickens are expert cultivators in their search for small insects and grubs in the soil.  Thus they reduce the population of insects that may become a nuisance to your next crop of vegetables.  Insect or insect larvae are a very high protein addition to their diet.

But besides clearing the area ready for a new crop of vegetables they also fertilize it for you.  They are very good at turning waste vegetable matter into rich manure for the next crop of vegetables.  Of course you can also use your tractor in your flower garden as well, just imagine what the flowers will be like with all that manure.

The portability of the chicken tractor gives your chickens another use besides laying eggs.

Another advantage of having chickens in a tractor is the rich variety of food that they will have access to.  The quality of their eggs will improve tremendously, which in turn means that the eggs that you harvest will be a lot more nutritious for you and your family.

A further advantage of having a chicken tractor is that the chickens will never get bored.  As you will be moving the tractor every day or two there will always be a new area for them to peck and scratch, this is like chicken heaven.

If you are raising chickens and they are still small, then a chicken tractor is ideal for them.  They will be protected from predators in the tractor but have the advantage of adding fresh greenery to their diet.

Finally, by using a chicken tractor you can greatly reduce the amount of bought in feed that you need to buy, thus saving you lots of money in your food production system.  Chicken Tractors really are a win/win system all round.  Enjoy your chickens as they work non-stop to bring you an amazing food, the egg.

Chicken Coop Plans – The Art Of The Chicken Coop

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I don’t do a lot of chicken coop plans book reviews – and I’m not likely too – but this one jumped out at me so I thought I’d have a closer look and share what I found.

It’s the cover that first grabs you – but that’s what covers are supposed to do! I thought it looked like an unusual approach to chicken coop plans and worth looking further.

What I discovered was this guy called Chris Gleason: woodworker, chicken keeper, DIY expert – who has written a number of other books as well – all from practical experience. This is the kind of hands-on guy I like – someone who rolls their sleeves up, perfects their plans themselves, then unleashes them on the chicken-keeping world!

You don’t just get an excellent range of different plans (seven) but also how to save on materials by recycling, how to make sturdy but attractive chicken coops, some interesting bits about chicken keeping from other people and even some egg recipes!

The nitty-gritty of the chicken coop plans is all there in step-by-step detail, making this a recommended book for both the experienced chicken keeper looking for something a bit different and those new to chicken coop design. As I write this, the book is  available from Amazon at around 30% off the normal retail price.

 

Plans For Chicken Coops – What Tools Do You Need?

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So you’ve decided you’re going to buy some plans for chicken coops and build your own hen house – great idea. It will save you lots of money and give you a tremendous sense of satisfaction.

If you’ve got some woodworking or DIY experience and a nice shed full of tools, nothing can stop you!

On the other hand, if you’re new to all this but still want to have a go – and why shouldn’t you – there are a few tools that will make putting your chicken coop plans into action a lot easier.

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Plans For Chicken Tractors – A Great Space-Saving Alternative

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If you’ve got a smaller yard or garden then perhaps plans for chicken coops isn’t what you should be looking for – you should probably be concentrating on something designed specifically for the purpose: plans for chicken tractors.

Now if you don’t know what a chicken tractor is (and I’ll admit I hadn’t come across the phrase until a few months ago) it is nothing to do with some kind of motorized buggy for hens! In fact it’s a smaller chicken coop with wheels and quite often a set of handles.


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Plans For Chicken Coops Extras – Top Tips For Nest Boxes

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Unless you want to be looking around everywhere for your eggs, including nest boxes in your plans for chicken coops is an excellent idea. You’ll find some designs – like small portable chicken tractors – often have them already built in, but others leave the choice up to you, or give various options. Following these tips should help you decide which are best for you.

What you want is a sheltered area that your chicken are comfortable to lay in. By sheltered that means even inside a chicken coop it should be a separate boxed off area, shaded if possible to make it darker and again, if possible, away from roosting perches – you don’t actually want the hens to sleep in there because they’ll likely make a mess. 12 inches square is a good size – so your birds can actually stand up if they want to. Bigger is better if you’ve got the space.

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Plans For Chicken Coops – A Comfy Nest Box Or Not?

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When people are looking for good plans for chicken coops, one of the things that comes up is nest boxes. That’s not somewhere for your chickens to sleep – they’ll be perfectly happy roosting on a perch – it’s somewhere convenient for them to lay their eggs. Chicken will lay eggs just about anywhere though, so do you need nest boxes to be part of your chicken coop design or not?

Let’s look at things from the chicken’s point of view. She’s not laying eggs for you at all –  she’s laying eggs to make more chickens! If you don’t take the eggs away, she’ll sit on them and try to hatch them. She’ll stop laying completely. So from her point of view she wants somewhere where she thinks the eggs will be protected – hidden from predators – and warm.

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Plans For Chicken Coops – Concrete Bases?

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I was looking at a couple of other plans for chicken coops websites the other day – as you do – and noticed a number of chicken coop designs were resting on poured concrete bases or slabs.

Plans for chicken coops with concrete bases can prevent predatorsI wondered whether this was a good idea or not. Mine have always been on the ground – with the roosting area raised so at night my birds are out of harm’s way.

Don’t get me wrong – I can see the obvious benefits in keeping predators out of your hen house – always a good idea – but there are a couple of things I’m maybe not so keen on.

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Plans For Chicken Coops – Three Often-Missed Essentials

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When you’re looking for plans for chicken coops there are a few considerations that are obvious: space so your hens aren’t cramped, protection so they’re safe,  and light, because light conditions regulate their laying. There are few other things that are often an afterthought, but are a vitally important part of good chicken coop designs.

The first is air flow. Ventilation if you like. If you’ve ever been passed a big commercial chicken farm, chances are you knew it about half a mile before and some considerable time after. Now I’m as big a fan of chickens as anyone else, but if there’s not enough air flow provided by your chicken coop plans, those ladies are going to smell. Hey, it’s not their fault, they perspire like the rest of us and they’ve got a need to go to the toilet too! Sadly chickens can’t get out a can of air freshener so we have to give them all the help we can. Of course in winter you still want them to be snug and warm so in an ideal world you want designs for chicken coops that incorporate vents or windows that you can open when it’s hot. It’s best to have these on a side that isn’t into the prevailing wind. Those ladies like a refreshing breeze – not a nasty draught up their… feathers.

Second, perches. Chickens will perch pretty much anywhere, so you might wonder why you need to consider perch position when checking out plans for chicken coops. Actually the point is to encourage them not to perch anywhere they like – because they’ll invariably choose places that you don’t want – like feeders, water bowls, nest boxes. You might not think that’s a problem, but to put it delicately, chickens don’t move off their perch to go to the toilet. Anything underneath gets covered in droppings. If you keep chickens, dropping are something you’ve got to get used to but you don’t want them in the feed, water or nest boxes if you can help it. No solution is perfect, but this will minimize the problem. A final point about perches – make sure there’s plenty of space for everyone otherwise you could get “pecking order” problems.

Third, nest boxes. You’ll be amazed the number of chicken coops I’ve seen without nest boxes. Sure, the birds will lay in straw on the floor, but if they don’t have somewhere they consider “right” to lay, and they’ve got access to the great outdoors, they’ll go and lay in a barn, or hedge, or under a car… They don’t need fancy individual “nests” (although you can if you like), it’s sufficient to have boxes that can take several hens so long as they are deep enough (four to six inches) and filled with wood shavings or straw. It’s unlikely your hens will sleep in them – they normally prefer to perch – but they should be discouraged from doing so because they’ll dirty the eggs. It’s not a major problem, just better avoided.

So there you go, a few details when you’re looking for plans for chicken coops that will just make sure the job is finished off nicely and those lovely ladies are as happy as could be. Happy hens give tastier eggs you know!

Plans For Chicken Coops – 4 Top Tips To Make Your Hens (And Your Own) Life Easier.

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Maybe you’re thinking of getting some free plans for chicken coops, maybe you’re going to buy some, maybe you’re going to draw up your own. In either case there are a few simple but important things you can sort out that will make life more pleasant for you – and your hens too!

1. Let’s look at fence design. Whether you’re considering chicken coops with runs, or just the general fencing of the area where you’ll keep your hens, a strong fence or enclosure is vital for their safety. Sadly there are lots of beasts – and a few birds – that will happily make a meal of your chickens or their eggs. Don’t spend ages on the hen house then short cut the fence.

2. When you see chicken coops on sale there are generally two types – big boxy ones and small portable ones (often called chicken tractors). If you’re going to have more than three or four birds you probably want a coop with a nice tall ceiling – because you’re going to have to go in there yourself sometimes. Low ceilings can be a real pain in the back! If you’ve got a dozen birds, walk in chicken coops really are recommended.

3. Think about light. Do the plans for chicken coops you’ve chosen allow for plenty of natural light? If they’re kept in the dark too long, not only will your birds’ health suffer, they won’t lay many eggs. Hens lay less eggs in the winter time mainly because there’s less light. Some people even put electric lighting in their coops. If you’re doing that, make sure you get an expert to do the wiring. If you wouldn’t wire up your house, why would you attempt to do a chicken coop? It’s the same electricity and it’s just as deadly if you get it wrong!

4. Plans should give you lots of useful info about design and construction, but think about finish too and build with care. Some wood treatments are downright poisonous. Also, make sure screws and nails are properly driven home and points don’t come through. Your birds could get a nasty injury and sooner or later you’ll reach in without thinking and tear your hand open. Just because it’s a hen house, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take time to do the job properly. Watch out for sharp wire ends as well. Cut them off or bend them over so they’re not going to hurt you or your chickens.

That’s just a few ideas for chicken coops that should help you in the decision-making process, and in putting things together. Personally I would choose a professional set of plans for chicken coops simply because it’s likely the designer will have spent time and effort ironing our potential problems – so you don’t have to! Any of the folks over on the right are worth checking out – and not just because they advertise here!

Used Chicken Coops For Sale – Moneysaver or Bad Idea?

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If you live in a rural area like I do it’s not uncommon to see used chicken coops for sale. They’re usually not a lot of money – nothing like buying a new hen house – and you might think about them as a viable alternative to building a chicken coop yourself.

Then I started thinking about used chicken coops a bit more, so here are a few pros and cons.  This is just my opinion of course, but you might want to consider it all the same – if you disagree, by all means have your say 😉

So, first thing you’ll get if you choose a used chicken coop for sale should be a sizable cash saving. It’s possible that you’ll get a better coop than you might have built yourself – although I doubt it if you pick up some good chicken coop plans.

Next… there’s what? Here’s where I run into trouble. I can’t really think of another positive reason for buying a used chicken coop. OK, money’s important, but honestly, that’s about it. Can you think of anything else?

On the not so good side, there’s finding one that suits your needs. No point seeing a used chicken coop for sale and driving over there, only to find it’s really too big or too small. Worse, that it’s in poor condition – some people will try and sell all kinds of junk.

Let’s say that you’re lucky though, the coop is good. How are you getting it home? Have you got a big enough truck? Does it needs to be dismantled and reassembled at your place?

Hold on. You’re not going to make your own, but you’ll take someone else’s apart, move it and put it back together again? That’s starting to look like false economy to me.

The more I think about it, the less good the idea of choosing a used chicken coop for sale seems to be. Even if you find a good one and can get it home relatively easily, do you know it’s clean? Really clean? If there are ticks, lice or other unpleasant beasties lurking in there you’re going to have real problems. On balance, I think I’ll stick with building my own!