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  • From: Lucy Goodman <goodows AT infinet.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Reality testing: Building Permits
  • Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2004 08:02:25 -0500

click on the link under my name at the end of this email to get to my website where I have some pictures of our chicken tractors. we have 2 types (plus a nonmoveable coop for layers we used to have). One is a rather high square box shape and the other is a quonset shaped tractor made out of some 60bu pig feeders we got at an auction about 7 years ago (7 feeders all for $7.50!). the higher square tractors have become brooder tractors over the years because they are high enough to hang a heat lamp in without burning the chicks.

All our tractors have pop doors so the birds can get out during daylight hours and freely come and go in and out of their tractors. We put a fence (either woven wire horse fence or plastic snow fence or for the tiny chicks chicken wire) up to contain them and keep predators from getting them. we also have two dogs who do a great job of guarding the birds from ground and sky predators and do not kill the chickens if the get out (not a real problem with hybrid meat birds, can be a big problem with layers as they are smarter and much more active).

when we first got chickens we kept them in the tractor all the time and than one fine late summer morning we decided to prop up a corner of the tractor and 25 pullets and cockerels came pouring out flapping and very very happy. after that day we bought a fence to put around the tractors and let them roam. After a year of doing eggs in a tractor we build a coop for the hens and gave them about 1/5 to 1 acre of space to run around in.

we move the tractors by dragging them (they weigh under 50 pounds) and we move them generally once a day but they can stay put for up to 2 days if necessary as the birds are not in them much during the day so there is not the manure build up that you will get from confined birds.
Chris O'brien wrote:

Dave,

I really enjoyed going through your website. Like you, I was very impressed with Salatin's techniques and ate his books right up. There is an organization down this way called The Land Stewardship project and I am thinking about taking their Farm Beginnings classes.

I have a question for you about pastured poultry pens. I will be just starting out this year and I would like to get started on a very small scale. I was thinking about just a couple of cows (on about 6 acres of rotated pasture) and 50 or so chickens along with some free range layers to help out with the horse pastures. Anyway, about the pens. Have you experimented with those pens? Have you tried going with smaller pens or a different way of moving them or anything other than what he talked about?

Lucy Goodman
Boulder Belt Organics
New Paris, OH
Check out the Boulder Belt website:
http://www.angelfire.com/oh2/boulderbeltcsa
"There is no way to peace---peace is the way."
A.J. Muste





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