Chicken Tractor For Sale
Buy the best chicken tractor for sale selected and recommended by interior designers. By Peyton Robinson.
If you are an urban or home farmer, investing in a chicken tractor for your flock can help keep your lawn healthy and give your chickens ample space for exercise. You can move these tractors around your yard, preventing potentially dangerous waste buildup and allowing your chickens to munch on pests and weeds. Our experts have spent hours testing different chicken tractors to see which offers the best features for chicken owners. Explore our list below to find out more.
Chicken Tractor For Sale
Buying Guide
Peyton Robinson
Interior Design Expert
From fancy feeding stations to designer crate furniture, Peyton knows how to ensure comfort to your furry companion without compromising on the aesthetics of your home.
A ‘Chicken tractor’ is a fancy name for a chicken coop on wheels. That’s not to take anything away from its functionality though. It’s a wonderful addition to any yard and it serves so many purposes in such an easy way. Here are some of the factors to consider when you go shopping for mobile homes for your chicken.
For starters, it keeps the chickens contained, protects them from most predators and ensures that they don’t enjoy a free run, denuding the grass into bare patches.
It can easily be moved to a new part of the yard every day, giving the chickens a fresh patch of grass to pick at.
A chicken tractor keeps the yard fertilized with nitrogenous chicken poop and aerated soil, keeps the neighbor happy and your flower bed free of pesky bugs.
Every chicken tractor can in essence be divided into two sections, the coop and the chicken run.
The coop
The coop will be the part where you house your flock every night. And naturally, it needs to be secure from predators and spacious enough to accommodate all your chicken.
A fully grown fowl will need at least 4 square feet of space per bird, whereas a juvenile or a bantam will need at least 2 square feet per bird.
Cramming more birds into a small coop often results in fights and unruly chicken, both of which can be detrimental to their growth.
When buying off the shelf, you will come across coops with an open floor design that allows the chicken poop to fall directly on the ground. The advantage is that the coop will be easier to clean and your yard receives the fertilizer it yearns.
The disadvantage is that every time you move the coop, the chicken will have to move with it. Also, if a large predator, like a raccoon tips the entire tractor over, it’s curtains for your birds.
A coop with a solid floor keeps the chicken safe even if the tractor were tipped over in the wind or by a predator. Also, you can just push the entire thing to a new area without worrying about the chicken running with the coop.
The run
The chicken run needs to be large enough to allow your birds ample room to move about. The more the space the better.
Large birds need at least 8 square feet per bird. The height of the run is subjective and more aesthetic than functional.
But it needs to be tall enough to allow you to attach a feeder and the water bottle above the ground.
- Since the chicken tractor will be out in the yard, exposed to the elements, hardwood is your best bet.
- Paint it with any water repelling stain with UV protection.
- It will be heavy enough to deter strong winds and break-in attempts by determined predators. The caveat is that it can be really difficult to move it around.
- As a workaround, look for tractors with large caster wheels that move freely on bumpy turf.
- Hardware mesh is highly recommended on the run and on any windows in the coop.
- If you are shopping on a limited budget, you can opt for chicken tractors made of PVC. But they tend to be really flimsy.
Chicken tractors can range from rudimentary to flashy in design. As long as it ticks all the boxes that we mentioned above, you can pick just about anything that fits your budget.
A roofed coop will keep them protected from rain. You also need a large entrance that allows you easy access to your chicken and eggs. The access door needs to be secured with a lock. Vanity features like nesting boxes are desirable but not mandatory.