Chicken Tractor

So far the chicken tractor has been working out pretty nicely. I've moved it three times, usually leaving it in a spot for about a week. The photo shows a spot after a week of "recovery" and the spot right after I moved it this weekend. The spot before that is mostly back to normal grass.

Moving the chicken tractor is relatively simple: back the lawn tractor up to the front, hook a rope harness to eyelets on each side of the coop and to a hitch on the mower, then slowly drive forward. It slides relatively easy on the skis (loosely attached to the bottom by a single bracket). If I had a little better back and the skis had a bit more surface area it could probably be done by hand ... at least for downhill or flat areas.

Of course you are asking, "What do the Chickens think about it?" Good question. They seem non-plussed at having their coop change locations. One big change over the past week or so is that the Chickens spend most of their time outside the coop during the day. At 5:30 or 6 in the morning I go out and open their house door and there's a bit of a rustling before they come strutting out, all dignified like, to have a sip of water and maybe a bite of breakfast. More and more now I'll also open the coop door and they'll make their way out and start exploring. What does today's modern chicken do? Eat bugs and plants, checks out the compost pile, eats a few more bugs (we have lots of snails & slugs), maybe break into the garden and eat yummy plants (I'm putting up fencing as fast as I can), duck into the woods for some more bugs, take a nice dirt bath and then a short nap or two. Sometimes they'll go back to the coop for their siesta, often they'll settle into the heavy brush at the edge of the woods.

They are always together. Once in a while one will end up on the other side of a fence or bushes and become separated from the others. You'll hear it call out in alarm but the separation is short lived. Sometimes Faith will go out and catch them, one at a time, to have some quality chicken bonding time. You have to see it to believe it, but they both look very happy and serene, her and her chickens.

Then, in the early evening as the Sun dips below horizon, chickens start making their way back to the coop to settle in for the evening. A little food, a little water, and up into the chicken house. There were a couple evenings at first where we'd be out combing through the bushes and woods trying to find missing chickens who had simply put themselves to bed early. The first time I stuck the iPhone into the house door and took this photo.

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