After swearing to not raise meat chickens again, we decided to have another go. Only this time instead of raising the Cornish X, we went with a more traditional breed, White Rocks. Yes, they take longer to grow out, but we aren't running a meat factory. Our purpose, and likely most people raising meat chickens in their back yard, is to raise chickens without chemicals or antibiotics, and to allow the chickens access to grass and bugs.
So we bought 25 chickens at the local Tractor Supply, put them in the large stock tank that we have as a brooder, and got ready for meat chickens, part 2. The 25 chickens outgrew the brooder fast, so I set up a portable dog kennel in the barn until they feathered out and could go outside. In the meantime, I started on a chicken tractor using only what we had laying around.
My idea was to build a 10x10 moveable pen, half covered with metal roofing and the other half in wire. I started with two 10' treated 4x4 posts, cut the ends at an angle so that they worked as skids. I then ripped a couple of treated 2x6 and 2x8 into 8 foot long 2x2s. I couldn't dig out enough 10' pieces, so our pen wound up 10x8. I some of the 2x2s into 2 foot long pieces for the sides, with 5 pieces down each side and 2 on the front and backs. I then too 5 longer pieces built the roof supports, connect the uprights from side to side.
We had some extra roofing material in the rafters of the barn from when it was built. I cut several 2 foot long pieces and screwed them to the sides and back. Then cut 5 foot long pieces for the roof. We had some welded 1x1 wired that I wrapped around the sides and front on the front half of the pen. Then took some chicken wire we had laying around and attached it to the top. For an access door, I cut a 2'x2' square in the top of the chicken wire and wired a screen window to the frame. Then I realized that I needed access to the roofed area to put the food so that it wouldn't get wet, so I cut some wire and took a loose piece of siding and just lay it on top.
So we wound up with a rather sturdy moveable pen and it cost absolutely nothing. Everything was already on our property, including the nails (we have 5 gallon buckets of nails from the previous owner). All of the wood came from when we tore down the old deck, and the roofing/fencing was in the barn.
Here is the final result, with 25 chickens enjoying the grass and fresh air.
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| Chickens in moveable pen |
This specific pen is kind of heavy and moving more than the 10 feet that we move it every 2 days, is pretty tough. The 4x4 posts on the bottom are the main weight issue and in hindsight, they could probably be replaced with 2x2s or 2x4s to cut the weight drastically. If we stick with this pen, we'll likely end up drilling holes in the back to attach wheels when we need to move it.
Our chickens are extremely happy and with the grass & bugs, they are only going through 1 gallon of feed every 1.5 days. If everything continues to work out well, we have already discussed raising another 25 or 50.
