Chicken Tractor

We purchased 3 Ameraucana/Easter Egger chickens at the flea market over the weekend. I am excited. I can't wait to see if we get blue or green eggs. We believe 2 are hens and one is a rooster. They told us all 3 were hens but we'll see soon enough.

They've in a cage right now so we decided they needed something bigger. So we started a chicken tractor yesterday. We drew out plans first for an 5'L x 4'W x 2'H tractor with a coop that adjoins. The coop is 3'D x 4'W x 4'H with a sloped roof reduced to 2' in the back. We purchased 12 2'x105", 3 pieces of OSB, 4 hinges, 2 hook latches and got busy! Here it is in the rough, bottom and the top done.

Here is the base and run top together. The back is the coop in the works.

This is the coop started. We will put a small chicken door in the front.

Enclosing the coop. We were going to put a hinged roof on and a hinged door on the back for egg collection. However the back seemed a bit low for a door so we opted to use the roof instead. But the whole roof seemd a bit big just for egg collection so we decided to make half the roof as a door.

This is where we stopped Sunday. 3 1/2 hours and we were wore out. Its been pouring all day today so we haven't had a chance to continue. We're going to paint it with exterior paint when we're done too.

We're downsizing the goat herd more. I put up 3 more goats for sale. Julie, Bushfire and SunShine. I'm trying to get under 20 does right now. No fun downsizing though.

Chicks will be hatching Wednesday. I do hope they arrive again on Thursday. That would be ideal. Ha! That's the hatchery we ordered from. We picked up another brooder today and are going to get busy prepping that on Wednesday for the chicks arrival. I need to set-up a new space for them too.

That about does it for us today. Always lots of fun going on on a mini-farm!