Avian Aqua Miser: Automatic, poop-free chicken waterers

Homemade chicken tractor: part IV

Chicken tractor door constructionIn my last post, I showed how Mark made the roof of the chicken tractor.  Next step is a door.

We've learned the hard way that it's very handy to have a door in the chicken tractor big enough to get a whole person inside.  Mark framed up the door out of red cedar branches and covered it with green plastic netting.  He added a board to the side of the tractor so that the chickens would have room to stand up under even the shallowest part of the door, then framed around the door and hinged it in place. 

While he was at it, Mark cut a circle in a sheet of cardboard to make a handy mount for our automatic chicken waterer.  Stay tuned for the next installment of our construction series.


This post is part of our Introduction to Chicken Tractors series.  Read all of the entries:





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Predator Protection?

I'm interested that you don't put mesh on the floor of the tractor. I have two tractors, one with a mesh floor and one with no floor. I prefer the latter because the chickens can scratch properly, however I'm concerned about predators (specifically foxes here) being able to dig underneath and gain access.

What are your thoughts on this? How do you stop predators digging in?

Comment by Darren (Green Change) — late Tuesday afternoon, January 19th, 2010
comment 2
We're really lucky to have a dog who patrols the perimeter constantly. We keep the chicken tractors close enough to the house that they're within her territory, and have never had any predator troubles. Which is really nice because it lets us get away with things like completely open bottoms.
Comment by anna — Tuesday evening, January 19th, 2010
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