Chicken Tractor Building
I've been putting off posting about the "chicken tractor" or backyard chicken coop, till I had drawn up the plans properly for people to reference, with how busy things are in the spring, I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon :(
I had in mind this coop was going to be for 2 - 3 exotic Bantams, I ended selling it on Craigs List and decided to focus on the chicken Mc Mansion for the entire flock. The idea was for it to be an ultra portable coop for backyard chickens that could be moved around to semi free range the hens and mow the lawn while being easy to clean 100% predator and rodent proof. It's 6ft long by 4ft wide and 3 1/ft high, the enclosed coop uses 2ft of the 6ft length. 2 access doors, one on the coop to allow cleaning and egg collection and one 4ft door on the side to allow the chickens to free range if wished. The coop door was basically one entire side of the coop, hinging on the frame of the construction, with two shaped over lapping metal caps on the roof.
Being my first coop it took 4 - 5 days and approx. $120 to build. Any gaps between doors and hinges were filled with marine insulation strip, kind of important to make it draft free as possible when temperatures up here get down to minus 30f! The nesting box divider and perch slide out for easy cleaning and the coop floor was covered in smooth lino, again for easy cleaning. The great thing about the small size of the construction is that a single 60watt bulb would be sufficient to take a bit of the chill out the air in winter.
For anyone who interested here's the basic chicken tractor plans in zip archive format.
