What the Heck is a Chicken Tractor?

I have been so bad  about updating my blog.  I know that I need to set time aside a couple days a week to keep readers in touch with Bear Creek Acres. I am really trying to turn over a new leaf!

Really!

 Ages ago, I said I would explain chicken tractors.

Better late than never my Mom always said!

We raise our meat chickens out in the fresh air and sunshine.  They  are able to forage for fresh grass sprouts and other tasty items.  They also are fed an all natural (no antibiotics, no hormones, and  no animal by-products) chicken feed and lots of fresh water.

 Raising a bunch of chickens produces a bunch of  manure, and in conventional (supermarket) chicken houses the chickens live in an enclosed building with no access ( or nearly impossible access ) to the outdoors. I’m told they never feel a breeze nor see the sun nor eat a blade of grass. 

It is certainly easier to raise chickens in confinement.  There is no danger of a huge rainstorm drowning the chickens, the producer can control the heat, and there is no danger of a predator killing all their birds.

But that’s not how we want to raise animals,

 and that’s not what we want to eat.

So, we raise our chickens out on pasture and have small portable huts called chicken tractors for their shelter.

We start the little chicks  in our tiny brooder house. Once they get too big for it and the weather is accommodating they get moved into the tractor.

     There are lots of designs for chicken tractors. We read about them in books and online  - and then Shannon, my husband, decided what would work for us. Shannon and our son, Jack, have built 3 - with slight modifications each time. There is always room for improvements. Some farmers have an enclosed outdoor run connected to their huts that the chickens have access to, and they move it to clean grass regularly.

For now, since we have had no trouble with predators, we allow the birds to free range. Until recently we had no predator problems. Right now we are leaving the dogs outside to work the midnight shift and keep the fox or whatever it is scared off.  We’ll see if this works out.

The birds still free range all day, but they have guardians at night. It seems to be helping.

 Each morning we go out and open the door to the hut and out pour the chickens! They love being outside. When they have all run out, we (it only takes one person since our tractors are nice and light) drag it ahead 12 feet to clean ground, move their feeders and waters up as well and prop open the door to the hut.  During the day we make sure that the feed is flowing properly in the feeder and refill their water as necessary.  In the evening we herd any chickens that haven’t already tucked themselves into bed and shut their door. Depending on the weather and the forecast we adjust the tarp that covers their hut to either keep them warm, or cool, or dry. 

Since this is such a healthy way for the chickens to live - no competition for food or space and they are living in such clean surroundings - they don’t need to eat medicated food like conventional chickens.

When planned properly, the chicken tractor system can eliminate the need to spread petroleum-based fertilizer on hay fields along with cost and effort to spread fertilizer or manure with a tractor! The chickens can fertilize a farmer’s hay field for them by naturally spreading their own manure as they move across the field with their chicken shelters.