Chicken Tractor or Chicken Tank?

[IndyIan]

Do you have any roosters? They add more excitement as well. At one time we had 3 tractors and 5 roosters and maybe 3 dozen hens that would free range and mingle during the day...
Chicken TV drama on a grand scale!, with love stories, fighting, house swapping, and the rare predation event.
We have our dogs in the pasture right beside our lawn and house so it takes a brave Coyote to scope out our place long enough to realize that the dogs are in at certain times, and hawks never seem to evade the 40 pairs of eyes watching for them, and we have enough low trees and shrubs for the chickens to always have cover near.
Once they get older, if you have a reasonably normal breed, they can do well outside if you don't have ground predators during the day. The difference between grass fed and grain fed eggs is worth it IMHO.

 

[dmccarty]

Do you have any roosters? They add more excitement as well.....

We better not have roosters!

A couple of years back I heard a rooster in the distance as I was working the garden. I heard the rooster a few more times and he seemed to get closer. Eventually I heard a strange noise in the woods that was not a four legged critter or human. Out popped the rooster. :laughing: He was pretty and the family named him Rocky. Of course.

There is a dead end road in the direction I first heard him. I think someone dumped him off. He heard me in the garden so he walked to the sound of humans. He is/was very tame.

He stayed around the house and the next morning he did his morning Rooster right off our bedroom door at Oh Gawd Early in the morning. The door is about 18 feet from my head. That rooster almost went swimming with dumplings.

Rocky headed east over the next day or so and I think he is now at another house. They have a rooster but I don't know if it is Rocky. He sure was a nice bird and very pretty but that wake up call every morning is not for me. :laughing: I don't need that kind of excitement that early in the morning!

I think he is a Rhode Island Red and he would have made a pretty husband to the Rhode Island Red hens we now have.

Later,
Dan

 

[foreman Etexas]

My took a LOT less longer than planned. I figured I had a least two months to build but them chicks where growing, and ARE growing, too fast. I need to fix the gap at the top of the door so the chicks can stay outside at night. The last two nights have been too cold even if the door was fixed.

Is that 1/2 hardware cloth you are using?

Did you bury it in the ground to prevent critters from digging into the coop?

A coworker's family member just lost 40 chickens. A critter, sounded like a weasel, got into the coop through a small hole and killed all of his chickens.

Later,
Dan

Its small metal squares I dug down around 6in. and concreted in,everywhere but the door.I was planning on doing concrete board and bury it were it sticks up cple inches and put another board on bottum of door with another hinge. The chicks are growing fast,and im not that good of a carpenter.

 

[IndyIan]

We better not have roosters!

A couple of years back I heard a rooster in the distance as I was working the garden. I heard the rooster a few more times and he seemed to get closer. Eventually I heard a strange noise in the woods that was not a four legged critter or human. Out popped the rooster. :laughing: He was pretty and the family named him Rocky. Of course.

There is a dead end road in the direction I first heard him. I think someone dumped him off. He heard me in the garden so he walked to the sound of humans. He is/was very tame.

He stayed around the house and the next morning he did his morning Rooster right off our bedroom door at Oh Gawd Early in the morning. The door is about 18 feet from my head. That rooster almost went swimming with dumplings.

Rocky headed east over the next day or so and I think he is now at another house. They have a rooster but I don't know if it is Rocky. He sure was a nice bird and very pretty but that wake up call every morning is not for me. :laughing: I don't need that kind of excitement that early in the morning!

I think he is a Rhode Island Red and he would have made a pretty husband to the Rhode Island Red hens we now have.

Later,
Dan

Yeah, I guess the roosters in the morning isn't for everyone. I can't say I even really notice them anymore but the first month or two with them was an adjustment period! Also its kind of neat to watch all the breeding genetics get mixed up over the generations. We have barred rocks, dark cornish, auracana, americana, and partridge couchin. Some still pure but many many mixes. The couchin hens are excellent mothers and hatch over 90% of the eggs we place under them so when the flock is getting bit old we cull a dozen and then hatch a dozen. I am slowly convincing the wife to place the tractors farther from the house and closer to the barn as 3 dozen chickens do a number on the lawn...

 

[dmccarty]

Its small metal squares I dug down around 6in. and concreted in,everywhere but the door.I was planning on doing concrete board and bury it were it sticks up cple inches and put another board on bottum of door with another hinge. The chicks are growing fast,and im not that good of a carpenter.

Just remember, you are building a chicken coop, not fine furniture!

That is what I kept telling myself.... :laughing::laughing::laughing:

I does not sound like anything is going to dig into the coop! I think I will have to add some armored skirts to the chicken tank.....

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

Yeah, I guess the roosters in the morning isn't for everyone. I can't say I even really notice them anymore but the first month or two with them was an adjustment period! Also its kind of neat to watch all the breeding genetics get mixed up over the generations. We have barred rocks, dark cornish, auracana, americana, and partridge couchin. Some still pure but many many mixes. The couchin hens are excellent mothers and hatch over 90% of the eggs we place under them so when the flock is getting bit old we cull a dozen and then hatch a dozen. I am slowly convincing the wife to place the tractors farther from the house and closer to the barn as 3 dozen chickens do a number on the lawn...

A neighbor that lives near the resident rooster said the same thing, you get used to them.... Not sure I could get used to them.... :laughing:

BUT to be honest, the idea of breeding chickens is interesting to me. So many of these old but great breeds have almost been lost. Including the breeds we have in the coop.

That rooster sure was pretty and had a nice personality....

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

The wifey and our youngest came home yesterday afternoon. When they pulled around to the back of the house there was one of our resident hawks sitting on the ground near the chicken coop trying to figure out how to access some chicken. :licking:

Our youngest likes to sit in the coop with the chickens so there is a small chair in the Chicken Tank. The chickens were hiding underneath and behind the chair. :laughing:

The youngest was asking how we could get rid of the hawk so her chickens would not be killed. These chickens are officially pets. Especially the smallest that the youngest calls "Baby."

Later,
Dan

 

[samhudson3]

Hey Dan,

Nice coop! I've got a wife request for us to have chickens so this is nice inspiration. I'm sure my terrier(ist) will enjoy them as well.

A friend that works down the hall from me just lost 8 out of 10 birds due to a neighbor's dog, I've sent her this link.

I've got the same critters around, don't think you need to worry about the vultures as they only eat dead meat.

Just wondering, did you get your inspiration from CCCC? I live about 10 miles north of town.

Thanks,
Sam

 

[MossflowerWoods]

If a bug gets into the coop, well it is Chicken TV. Fun to watch them around chasing the bug and then chasing the chicken who caught the bug.

Later,
Dan

I call it chicken rugby... we have tons of frogs, and the chicken can swallow a whole frog, but it takes some peace an quiet and a couple dozen seconds or more...

We've had a hen still running around with "most" of a frog in her beak an hour or more later...

we started them young when chicks we'd throw a horn worm off the tomato plants into their pen and it was like a match to gasoline... Off to the races.

Your tank looks awesome. I'm a much worse carpenter that both you and Foreman... I just let mine run around outside all day... I've lost quite a few that way though...

David

 

[foreman Etexas]

I call it chicken rugby... we have tons of frogs, and the chicken can swallow a whole frog, but it takes some peace an quiet and a couple dozen seconds or more...

We've had a hen still running around with "most" of a frog in her beak an hour or more later...

we started them young when chicks we'd throw a horn worm off the tomato plants into their pen and it was like a match to gasoline... Off to the races.

Your tank looks awesome. I'm a much worse carpenter that both you and Foreman... I just let mine run around outside all day... I've lost quite a few that way though...

David

No way could you be worse,I been cutting the same boards 3/4 times before I get it to fit in there. I said heck when I got into this project it was gonna be a piece of cake,well thats been A cple weeks now and I just told the wife today when we was working on it,I thought stuff like this is suppost to be fun:laughing:. She said it is baby to someone that knows what they are doing I came in here to hope to steal some ideas but I take my hat off to you carpenters,it is an art this ole countryboy just aint got:thumbsup: