August 2011 - Chicken tractor part 2

Cladding the tractor

So on this the second bit about the tractor we built, we have managed to clad the one side of the "house". We used builders plastic for the underside and for waterproofing purposes, and then we recycled our feedbags for the outer cover.

This seemed to work very well, and for the front and back we just used builders plastic and planks. We had some old boxed which fit perfectly, and so we used these for the nesting boxes.

The nesting boxes

On the back end we made a door for easy access to any eggs and also to clean the nesting boxes. We also put in a second floor for the rooster, and added a nice log with branches on it for him to climb up. So we actually used mostly off cut bits of wood for the whole construction, and bought very little extra, except the hinges and latches for the doors, and the chicken wire, which we actually had from a previous project. :-)

Our building inspector

Gizmo decided it would be a good idea to test the nesting boxes were comfortable, and big enough to actually fit a hen..lol. We then put the doors on and that was pretty much it, construction wise. We places some sawdust in the nesting boxes, and added the three hens and rooster.... or at least what we thought was three hens and a rooster, which actually turned out to be two hen and two roosters.. Needless to say, poor Nandos was beat up by Colonel Sanders (the darker and smaller of the two at the time), and ended up with a featherless neck, poor thing.

The completed tractor, chickens and all.

We subsequently decided to remove Nandos, and add him to the other flock. But this did not go very well either. The poor thing was an outcast, and was just being bullied by everyone, so we slaughtered him.. and I have to add he made a very good chicken curry.. hehe.

We also decided to sell half of our KoekKoek flock, and these were snapped up by a friend of Hazel Mugford, who does Permaculture courses. He was very happy with the purchase, even though it turned out that he ended up with 6 roosters out of the eleven chickens that he bought. These all live in Kirkwood, near PE/Uitenhage now and are part of a Permaculture setup there. :-) I have to also just add that the KoekKoek is an excellent scratcher, and egg layer. But more on that later..

Happy chickens..