How To Build A DIY Chicken Tractor That Will Last: Our Chicken Tractor Story

Are you curious about the journey behind our DIY chicken tractors? In this post I am going to share with you why we decided to design and build our own unique chicken tractor for our backyard hens. Lastly, I'll share with you how you can get your hands on our chicken tractor build plans so you can build one for your backyard or homestead!

My very first flock of backyard chickens clocked in at seven beautiful hens. After researching and reading as much as I could on how best to raise laying hens, I decided to let them free-range because pastured chickens are the happiest and healthiest. 

Why? Being able to forage for bugs and grubs allows them a diverse diet, lots of sunshine, and never ending entertainment. Keeping hens on grass also provides us the healthiest eggs possible thanks to their higher beta-carotene, choline, and omega-3 levels. It was win-win in my book. 

So after a few weeks of free-ranging my very first flock, imagine my dismay when I came out to check on my girls and found feathers and blood everywhere. My heart sank as I did a headcount and found two of my girls missing. A hawk had been through my flock and thus began the conundrum that most backyard chicken owners face. Do you let your hens free-range and take the risk of a predator attack or do you keep them cooped up and safe and limit their diet and their happiness?

I choose to risk it, but it came at a cost that didn’t just concern my hens’ safety. It came at the cost of my peace of mind. Since I worked from home, I was able to keep an eye on them, but my anxiety for their safety kept disrupting my day. I checked on my hens every 30 minutes, doing head counts, or calling them over for treats. While the constant monitoring definitely improved the relationship I had with my hens, it was starting to wear on me. I’m sure as a fellow chicken momma or papa - you’ve felt this same anxiety and responsibility for your backyard flock.

I decided I needed to find a solution that would keep my hens safe from predators, but would also offer them the benefits of free-ranging on grass. What I needed was a mobile chicken tractor.

When I started researching chicken tractors I quickly realized three crucial things:

1. If I wanted to purchase a chicken tractor ready to go for my flock of 8 hens, I was looking at forking out over $800. I started backyard chickens to cut costs, not splurge. Buying some sort of chicken tractor brand new was not an option for me.
2. The chicken tractor designs I found online were ugly. Plain and simple. They used things like plastic tarps (that tore in a matter of months, warranting spending more money over time) or were basically backyard eye-sores that I know my neighbors would not appreciate. I wanted something beautiful and built to last, but I was coming up empty handed
3. The mobility of the the chicken tractors I was finding was extremely questionable for a 135 lb female like myself. I wanted to move my flock every day to a fresh patch of grass. I didn’t want something bulky that was supposed to be pulled on sliders. I wanted easy and efficient mobility but I kept coming up short.

My wonderful husband watched patiently as I continued to get more and more frustrated, all the while letting my flock free-range. Then, I lost two more hens and a rooster to a pernicious hawk. I was at the end of my rope. I admitted to him in tears that I might as well throw in the towel completely. I wasn’t cut out for owning hens because my heart couldn’t take losing them nor could it take keeping them cooped up like prisoners for their own safety. 

He then sat me down and asked, “What would you build if you could do it completely from scratch?”

I thought for a moment and told him to get me a pencil and paper. Then, I started to draw out what I saw in my head. Using his decade of experience as an engineer, he helped me design the basic idea I had. We talked through all the basic predator scenarios we had encountered and how best to mitigate them with our design. We also talked through my daily workflow with feeding, watering, and gathering eggs and made further design tweaks that would make my life as a chicken momma a heck of a lot easier. 

Using this pencil and paper design, my husband went to work on CAD and drafted the designs within a 3-D model. A trip to Menards and one Amazon order later - we set to working building our very first Mobile Chicken Tractor. The build took us about 20 hours in total and we learned a lot along the way, making further tweaks to the design so that the next build would be even easier.

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Welcome to the Mini + Medium + Mega Mobile Chicken Tractors!

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The Mini Chicken Tractor

• Flock size: 4 - 6 hens
• Nesting Boxes: 1+ (sized to fit three hens at once)
• Dimensions: 6’W x 8’L x 5.5‘H
• Total Materials Cost: $350 - $450
• Build Time: 20 hours

This Mini Chicken Tractor was perfect for our small flocks of 4-6 hens before we upgraded to small-scale farming. On our homestead we used this mini as a chicken ICU for injured hens or for our pullets (our youngest hens). It's perfect for suburban backyard chickens.

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The Medium Chicken Tractor

• Flock Size: 6 - 10 hens
• Dimensions: 6’W x 10’L x 5.5’H​
• Nesting Boxes: 4
• Total Materials Cost: $400 - $500
• Build Time: 22 hours

This Medium Chicken Tractor we built is  my go-to for our flocks of 6 - 10 hens. I love moving it around our backyard, letting our hens "mow" our grass and clover (and eat all  our ticks too!). This size is perfect for hobby farms and suburban backyard chickens.

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The Mega Chicken Tractor

• Flock Size: 15 - 20 hens
• Dimensions: 8’W x 10’L x 7’H
• Nesting Boxes: 4
• Total Materials Cost: $450 - $550
• Build Time: 24 hours

We actually built two Mega Chicken Tractors for our small farm! We house 15-20 hens in each tractor and move them one full  space a day on our 3-acre pasture. I love this tractor because it makes our farm's pastured egg operation efficient and easy. They are beautiful to look at too - customers love them!

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In creating our very own chicken tractor design, we solved multiple issues for ourselves...

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Thanks to the galvanized steel fencing, our hens were safe from aerial predators like hawks, owls, and eagles. We have yet to lose a single hen inside these tractors in the last five years.

The roosting area is protected from below. The roosting area is accessed by a ramp that operates on a pulley system to keep the hens shut up safe at night. We live in a wildlife corridor that has everything from coyotes to weasels to raccoons (some of our neighbors even claim mountain lions but I doubt that!). Again, it’s been five years and we have not lost a single hen.

The building codes where we live are extremely strict. By building a mobile structure, we were able to circumvent the red tape so many landowners are faced with when they want to build a coop for their hens.

The timeless A-frame design is absolutely beautiful. The corrugated metal roofing will never rust and the wooden frame is treated with an eco-stain that prevents it from molding. This eco-friendly stain is non-toxic for both the soil life and our hens. We wanted to build it once and have it last.

The unique wheel design we came up with makes the structure easy to move on a daily basis as well as be maintenance-free. We have yet to see this wheel design for a chicken tractor elsewhere online. This has been the biggest godsend as a woman who, while strong, doesn’t have to throw her back out pushing the tractors across her backyard!

​By moving the tractor once a day, we gently fertilize our lawn while not killing the grass. To keep our chicken’s manure from burning the grass, we sprinkle a little PDZ powder (an organic-certified mineral that binds to excess nitrogen) over the previous tractor spot after moving it. Our lawn is healthy, lush, and green!

The design has both front and back access to the tractor. This makes feeding, watering, and routine vet-care so much easier on us. The design also has exterior nesting box access, which makes the chore of gathering eggs a breeze. 

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After building three of our very own chicken tractors, we kept getting asked for the plans. We realized other chicken owners would benefit from our unique and durable design, so that's why we created the Chicken Tractor Build Plans.

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My engineering-inclined husband set to work on computer aided design (CAD) software and 3D modeled the entire design.
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The build plans come as a downloadable + printable PDF and come with all the information needed to get started:
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• A materials list with links to specific items you'll need.
• 40+ pages of step-by-step instructions with detailed diagrams, drawings, and pictures.
• A bonus section with tips and tricks we implement to make the tractor work to our benefit.

 A single tractor will take on average 20 - 24 hours of construction time based on skill level. While most of the tractor can be built solo, a second set of hands will definitely make a handful of steps much easier.

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The Mini Chicken Tractor Build Plans

• Flock size: 4 - 6 hens
• Nesting Boxes: 1+ (sized to fit three hens at once)
• Dimensions: 6’W x 8’L x 5.5‘H
• Total Materials Cost: $350 - $450
• Build Time: 20 hours

This full-color 45+ page PDF is instantly emailed to you where you can download it and print it off.

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The Medium Chicken Tractor Build Plans

• Flock Size: 6 - 10 hens
• Dimensions: 6’W x 10’L x 5.5’H​
• Nesting Boxes: 4
• Total Materials Cost: $400 - $500
• Build Time: 22 hours

​This full-color 45+ page PDF is instantly emailed to you where you can download it and print it off.

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The Mega Chicken Tractor Build Plans

• Flock Size: 15 - 20 hens
• Dimensions: 8’W x 10’L x 7’H
• Nesting Boxes: 4
• Total Materials Cost: $450 - $550
• Build Time: 24 hours

​​This full-color 45+ page PDF is instantly emailed to you where you can download it and print it off.

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The Multi Chicken Tractor Bundle

Can't decide what size is best for you?
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​Download all three build plans for the price of two.

​Includes the Mini, Medium, and Mega Mobile Chicken Tractor Build Plan PDFs sent immediately to your inbox.

​​All three full-color 45+ page PDFs are instantly emailed to you where you can download it and print them off.

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To date, over 300 chicken tractors have been built using our build plans!

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If you would have told me five years ago that my anxiety and worry would end up helping more than just my own chickens, that the solution we came up with would end up helping flocks around the world - I wouldn't have believed you. I am so grateful to be able to share these build plans with other chicken mamas and papas all across the globe.

​Got questions before you purchase the build plans?

Don't hesitate to reach out and ask us!

CONTACT US

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