Raising Chickens

[Jacob_Marley]

In my earlier post I mentioned using a “chicken tractor” (Images of Chicken Tractors) ... a mobile chicken coop you can drag to new areas of ground periodically.

Has anyone here ever used one (or known someone else who used one)? ... if so, did it work well ... Positives? Negatives?
It seems like such a convenient idea.

 

[Subsailor]

In my earlier post I mentioned using a “chicken tractor” (Images of Chicken Tractors) ... a mobile chicken coop you can drag to new areas of ground periodically.

Has anyone here ever used one (or known someone else who used one)? ... if so, did it work well ... Positives? Negatives?
It seems like such a convenient idea.

This is very similar to my old one, I raised chickens, pheasant and bob white quail in it (not at the same time, different birds, different years). I moved it all over my yard and the birds did very well. My yard benefited as well. Mine was a drag around the yard type - no wheels, but being PVC it was pretty light.

 

[Kirkwooder]

In my earlier post I mentioned using a “chicken tractor” (Images of Chicken Tractors) ... a mobile chicken coop you can drag to new areas of ground periodically.

Has anyone here ever used one (or known someone else who used one)? ... if so, did it work well ... Positives? Negatives?
It seems like such a convenient idea.

I use them all the time. I brood all my replacement hens, meat birds and everything in them. I use them for my meat birds from start to butcher. I love them. They make manure management nearly non existent, and the birds are protected and have fresh grass to feed on constantly. That cuts down on the cost of feed.

 

[RoughandReadyRanch]

In my earlier post I mentioned using a “chicken tractor” (Images of Chicken Tractors) ... a mobile chicken coop you can drag to new areas of ground periodically.

Has anyone here ever used one (or known someone else who used one)? ... if so, did it work well ... Positives? Negatives?
It seems like such a convenient idea.

Got a set of birds in one right now. Like others posted, they are pretty handy. Just make sure you know you predator risks. Stubborn coyote dug under my friends tractor and tore apart half his meaties in one sitting. eating only the prime parts of its choosing. Just google Salatine or Poultry Profits to see the tractors in action by the master himself.

 

[Homercidal]

I think the tractors are pretty cool, but I don't think my friend is going to want to go that route. I'd consider it for up to 4 birds and if my property were outside the village limits. I have plenty of grass and bugs and things. My yard is also very wet most of the year. Grass grow quite well, but it might be too damp to be good for chickens' health.

 

[fletchergsmith]

Here's some pics of my backyard coop. I've got three hens and did have one rooster but I was crowing every morning at 3 so it had to go. My town has an ordnance only against nuisance animals and being in a fairly quiet neighborhood my rooster fit the bill. I'm lucky enough that my cat acts as a guardian to them and keeps all the neighborhood cats at a fair distance. I'm not so sure that works with other predators but we have not had any problems yet. On the other hand my brother just had three half grown chicks eaten by my fathers cat. Hopefully a mean rooster will keep that cat away in the future



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[Homercidal]

Here's some pics of my backyard coop. I've got three hens and did have one rooster but I was crowing every morning at 3 so it had to go. My town has an ordnance only against nuisance animals and being in a fairly quiet neighborhood my rooster fit the bill. I'm lucky enough that my cat acts as a guardian to them and keeps all the neighborhood cats at a fair distance. I'm not so sure that works with other predators but we have not had any problems yet. On the other hand my brother just had three half grown chicks eaten by my fathers cat. Hopefully a mean rooster will keep that cat away in the future



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You know, in some places of the world, cats are meat too...

Just sayin'

 

[DrunkleJon]

You know, in some places of the world, cats are meat too...

Just sayin'

From the Epic picture/Meme thread.

 

[fletchergsmith]

Well in this part of the world that cat has a job. Keep the rats, and by that end also snakes, away from the house and coop also. He just needs to learn that chickens aren't food, I'm working him now hopefully with now more casualties.

Ps that pick is hilarious


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[Yellowirenut]

coyotes, minks and possums are the problem in my area.
The minks will tear off the head and just leave them lay...wont even eat them.
My cousin was having a chicken die every night. Same thing, head popped off.
her son stayed up late one night and saw what was happening. It was sneaking into the coop threw a gap in the floor boards. I think he went overboard using a .357

 

[Kirkwooder]

I think he went overboard using a .357

In what part of the mink's demise did the .357 fail?

Better that than bear hunting with a BB gun!

 

[Bigcorona]

I think I have a new use for a STC-1000 controller (new to me anyway). I replaced the temp probe with a photo resistor, and it works great on sensing light and dark. I am going to use it with a linear actuator, a couple relays, and a couple limit switches to build an automatic chicken door. The delay on cool should even work to keep the door from opening as a result of lightning. :rockin:

 

[fletchergsmith]

I think I have a new use for a STC-1000 controller (new to me anyway). I replaced the temp probe with a photo resistor, and it works great on sensing light and dark. I am going to use it with a linear actuator, a couple relays, and a couple limit switches to build an automatic chicken door. The delay on cool should even work to keep the door from opening as a result of lightning. :rockin:

Sounds pretty cool but what about cloud cover or slow moving chickens can you adjust the light sensitivity to keep from shutting chickens out of there coop in event of a thunderstorm or a few minutes after dusk. I know my chickens what till it's nearly completely dark to go in there coop by them selves, and they always get caught unawares by thunderstorms and hide out under whatever is close until there's a break in the rain to run to the coop.

Hop it works for you, if so I may just steal that idea off you.


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[Homercidal]

The photoresistor should be able to be tweaked for dark, compared to cloudy or shady. The lightning preventor is a good option. I wouldn't have thought of that.

A 1-wire network device should be able to do this, or an Arduino for that matter. There are many different technologies that could do it pretty easily. An STC-1000 is not one that would have come to mind for me. I've got 2 extra that I planned to give to my friends who someday going to be building ferm chambers or kegerators. Maybe I could spare one to play with...

 

[Bigcorona]

Update on the coop build.

Mostly done. Need to add some hardware, and paint or stain the coop. Chicks are in. It was like the Keystone Cops last night when I was trying to wrangle the chicks back into the coop.

Way more than a weekend build, but the chicks look happy. Hope to see some eggs in September.

Automatic door is still a couple weeks off.

 

[fletchergsmith]

Nice that green roof is awesome. Might think about the deep liter method I've heard good things but won't work with my limited space. Looks like plenty of space to make for some happy and productive birds.


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[KindofBlues71]

Very nice coop! Mind if I ask what your total build cost was?

 

[Bigcorona]

It is hard to say how much it cost. Really my wife's project. I am sure she made at least 6 trips to Home Depot, Lowe's and McCoy's. A large part of the wood was recovered at no cost. New we purchased:
1 sheet of 3/4 inch plywood
9 sheets of 1/2 inch plywood
12 2X4s
2 4X4 posts
2 rolls of hardware cloth ~ $100
1 door ~ $40
Miscellaneous hardware <$100
5 packages of shingles.
1 small piece of linoleum 6X6
5 bags of cement

I do not expect to make it up in eggs.

 

[bleme]

When I was in 1st/2nd grade, we live on 2 acres that the city had grown around. I took care of 3 dozen chickens. My family used all the eggs it wanted and I sold the rest in about an hour on Saturdays. That paid for the food and I got to keep what was left over. Seemed like a million bucks at the time.

 

[Bigcorona]

"It was like the Keystone Cops last night when I was trying to wrangle the chicks back into the coop."

For the last 4 nights the chicks have all climbed up into the coop on their own. This is very encouraging. Looks like they are going in before it is completely dark. That will make it easier to make a functioning automatic door.

 

[Homercidal]

"It was like the Keystone Cops last night when I was trying to wrangle the chicks back into the coop."

For the last 4 nights the chicks have all climbed up into the coop on their own. This is very encouraging. Looks like they are going in before it is completely dark. That will make it easier to make a functioning automatic door.

Really, chickens naturally want to go back to their roost at dark. Or can easily be trained to go there if they don't find a more comforting location somewhere else.

As far as my friend's go, I don't think this is going to be a project they will tackle this summer. My friend wasn't totally against the idea of setting up a coop inside the pole barn. The alternative was that his daughter wanted to house horses in there...

 

[Jacob_Marley]

We kept chickens when I was a kid, now in my early 50's oddly the past few years I've decided I'd like a "Gentleman's Farm" as a hobby ... some chickens, a cow, and a few goats and sheep, fruit trees and some misc crops. A far cry from the financial world where I've worked most of my life.
I think tv shows like "Victorian Farm" and "Tudor Farm" really put the bug in me. (ok, that and I have a thing for Ruth Goodman from those shows ... but I digress.)
In a fit of historic desire I went and went and purchased a "companion membership" at Greenfield Village yesterday ... and visited their cows, chickens and goats etc on the Firestone Farm located there. For those of you not in S.E. Lower Michigan, Greenfield Village/Henry Ford Museum is basically an open air museum ... FWIW here's a peak inside http://thehenryford.org/village/historicdistricts.aspx

Anywho ... I live in a nice, large 1892 house near the Detroit River ... now I really wish I'd bought something with some acreage though too. I can't have livestock where I live.

 

[Vetter]

Anywho ... I live in a nice, large 1892 house near the Detroit River ... now I really wish I'd bought something with some acreage though too. I can't have livestock where I live.

Your place sounds cool. In the 80's when I lived in Troy, we use to take a boat down to the Detroit river and cruise it all the time. We actually launched in a bad part of town (Not far from the use to be Rennaisance Center), but there were plenty of beautiful areas along the river, would be really cool to live by the river, and watch the shipping go by.

 

[Jacob_Marley]

found on Craigslist-Free ...

16 laying hens for free near Clarkston, MI ...
http://detroit.craigslist.org/okl/zip/4505397222.html
This is current a/o 3pm on 6-5.

For 16 laying hens I reckon the value is $250 to $300 (?).

Just in case there are any chicken-fence-sitters from S.E. Lower Michigan reading the thread who have been considering getting into it.

 

[AlCophile]

Happy to have found this, and will recommend it to my neighbors, who THINK they are raising chickens, but are actually raising FOX, using chickens as feed.

 

[KindofBlues71]

For 16 laying hens I reckon the value is $250 to $300 (?).

What the what? That's $15-18 per hen! We have a Barred Rock and a Rhode Island Red that were $3-4 each at a day old.

 

[fletchergsmith]

That day old thing is the difference adult hens, already laying, cut out the whole raising aspect, raising their value.
That said I wouldn't pay that much, quite often people change there mind and no longer want there chickens, and are willing to give them away for nearly free.


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[bleme]

What the what? That's $15-18 per hen! We have a Barred Rock and a Rhode Island Red that were $3-4 each at a day old.

So they aren't 50 cent any more?

 

[Jacob_Marley]

That day old thing is the difference adult hens, already laying, cut out the whole raising aspect, raising their value.
That said I wouldn't pay that much, quite often people change there mind and no longer want there chickens, and are willing to give them away for nearly free.


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Yep. Before the ad was pulled, it said that the chickens were about a year old. Not being an experienced chicken-pricer I just poked briefly online and saw a couple entries of other adult hens for sale in the $15 to $20 range.

 

[Bigcorona]

Finished the automatic chicken door controlled by a STC-1000. It took a couple weeks longer than planned due to feature creep. Decided to put in a solar panel and battery for power. This meant I needed a 12V STC-1000. Using a photo resistor to collect light level in place of the temperature probe. Had to put a 3.9K resistor in series to keep the STC from thinking the temp probe was shorted in high light, and a 120K in parallel so the STC did not think the probe was missing when dark. So far works great.