Rural Gardening: Considering Getting Chickens - Have Questions, 1 by jasmerr

jasmerr wrote:
Here's one photo...I can't seem to get the rest off the camera.

We built the chicken tractor using instructions we found in an old magazine as inspiration. I say inspiration because it had to be built according to the materials we had here, but the final project will look very similar.

First the base for the tractor is side rails from an old waterbed (waterbeds are great things to watch for on freecycle.org - we built replacement basement stairs with one!). Because the side rails are only 8' long the tractor is 2' shorter than in the magazine, but I think it will be plenty big enough.

Some of the uprights and cross pieces are some 2x2's that we salvaged from a crazy remodeling job the former owners of our house had done. In one of the bedrooms they had framed the ceiling with the 2x2's (already old then) and nailed old barn boards over the framing. While the barn boards looked kind of cool, they covered the walls in old, dried out, dirty cedar shingles - YUCK!

Back to the chicken tractor...the taller uprights and some cross pieces are 2x4's we had here. We had to purchase three sheets of plywood for the house part (not yet pictured), and a roll of 4' chicken wire; we already had a roll of 3' wire someone gave us to use
"someday for who-knows-what". The roof will be made out of tin from the rickety old machine shed that finally gave way under all the snow this past winter. And a coat of raspberry paint, bad color choice my DD made for her bedroom that's been sitting in the basement since we decided NOT to use it on the trim in her room nearly three years ago, will finish it off.

I'll post photos of the finished project tomorrow.

Jody