Livestock Nice Chicken Tractor/Greenhouse design.

AlaskaSue

AlaskaSue

North to the Future
Very cool! Went to the vid on YT and saw that he does have a link in the description to buy the plans for this.

(And wow, I had no idea a turkey could weigh 45 pounds!)
 
W

Wildwood

Veteran Member
That's pretty impressive but I'd like to see hardware cloth cover the whole exposed area instead of only coming up part way. I'm sure he's used it long enough to work out the kinks but I'd be afraid a chicken could fly up there and get out unless he clips their wings, which I'm not a fan of, or some type of predator could get in like a coon.
 
S

summerthyme

Administrator
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I'll have to get pics of our two that we built to use for our pastured meat birds. Want be for awhile... they're buried in snow at the moment!

Ours aren't movable by hand, and they are completely covered on top... DS wants to out a very low-geared motor on them so they move continuously... maybe 6 inches or a foot per hour. Moving them is a chore... one person on the tractor, one or two inside with a broom to keep the dumb things from crowding the edges and getting a broken leg.

But it's amazing... about 6 weeks after we've moved a group across a field, you can see the much darker green grass in the path!

Our biggest issue is water. We have hydrants installed in several fields (and plan half a dozen more this Spring), but running a hose across the ground in the summer results in water that's too hot for them to drink. One of us goes up a couple times a day with a few pounds of ice cubes and puts them in the float watered, but we need to solve that issue. I'm thinking of buying some "pool noodles" at the dollar store, slicing them lengthwise and sliding them over the hose for insulation...

Summerthyme
 
Satanta

Satanta

Stone Cold Crazy
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summerthyme said:
I'll have to get pics of our two that we built to use for our pastured meat birds. Want be for awhile... they're buried in snow at the moment!

Ours aren't movable by hand, and they are completely covered on top... DS wants to out a very low-geared motor on them so they move continuously... maybe 6 inches or a foot per hour. Moving them is a chore... one person on the tractor, one or two inside with a broom to keep the dumb things from crowding the edges and getting a broken leg.

But it's amazing... about 6 weeks after we've moved a group across a field, you can see the much darker green grass in the path!

Our biggest issue is water. We have hydrants installed in several fields (and plan half a dozen more this Spring), but running a hose across the ground in the summer results in water that's too hot for them to drink. One of us goes up a couple times a day with a few pounds of ice cubes and puts them in the float watered, but we need to solve that issue. I'm thinking of buying some "pool noodles" at the dollar store, slicing them lengthwise and sliding them over the hose for insulation...

Summerthyme
Click to expand...
You might find Noodles large enough to push the hose thru without slicing. There is also pipe insulation tuing that might work but it is usually black or grey for what I've seen-more cost effective if you need to cover a lot of hose.
 
pauldingbabe

pauldingbabe

The Great Cat

Polyface Designs: A Comprehensive Construction Guide for Scalable Farming Infrastructure: Salatin, Joel, Slattery, Chris, Rhodes, Justin: 9781733686617: Amazon.com: Books

Polyface Designs: A Comprehensive Construction Guide for Scalable Farming Infrastructure [Salatin, Joel, Slattery, Chris, Rhodes, Justin] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Polyface Designs: A Comprehensive Construction Guide for Scalable Farming Infrastructure
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Description Product Description

A comprehensive how-to manual of Polyface Farm’s signature designs--with tips, tricks, and a half century of lessons learned through trial and error Have you wondered how to build the Polyface broiler shelter, or the dolly to move it, or an Eggmobile, Gobbledygo or Shademobile? For folks getting started, folks adding enterprises, or folks wanting a cheaper bootstrap way to build portable livestock infrastructure, Polyface Designs has all the diagrams and do-it-yourself building specifications. Joel Salatin wrote the text and Polyface former apprentice and engineer extraordinaire Chris Slattery did the drawings. Ultimately practical, the book includes how to build a corral, a home-made head gate and even how to select the right axle for your project. Square footage requirements for the deep bedding hay shed and area advice for pig pastures make this the definitive repository for a lifetime of Polyface experimentation. A massive volume, its 568 pages are in full color and beautiful enough to be a coffee table book even though you’ll use it in your shop. Don’t let the cover price scare you; one building tip can more than save the price of the book.

About the Author

Joel Salatin and his family own and operate Polyface Farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. The farm produces pastured beef, pork, chicken, eggs, turkeys, rabbits, lamb and ducks, servicing roughly 6,000 families and 50 restaurants in the farm’s bioregion. He has written 14 books to date, is editor of Stockman Grass Farmer Magazine, and lectures around the world on land healing and local food systems. Polyface Farm operates a formal apprenticeship program and conducts many educational workshops and events.

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Love, love, love Joel Salatin and Polyface Farms. All of his books are well worth the money!
 
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