On my small farm I use a no till two row planter. I space my rows 30 inches apart so that my tractors can drive between the rows when I come back to cultivate. The process of cultivating is tilling up the ground between the rows but leaving several inches untouched where the row of plants are.

In conventional row crops they will spray down the field with a herbicide to prevent or kill any weeds from growing between the rows. I don’t agree with that approach and cultivate between my rows to keep the weeds under control. Before the reliance on chemicals everyone used to cultivate.

Enter the PVC chicken tractor that is 27″ wide and 10′ long. The perfect deminsion to fit between my rows.The PVC chicken tractor keeps the chickens right where I want them. Using the scorched earth practice of leaving the chickens in one area too long any weed inside the chicken tractor is toast. As an added benefit the soil is fertilized and areated.

While I will probably not have enough chickens to cultivate all my row crops in this fashion, it is a great tool for the garden and small field. While I have used chickens many times to prepare beds for planting, I think this is an equally good use of chicken power. I have stocked the chicken cultivator with four roosters during the testing phase.

The cultivator I built for testing doesn’t have nest boxes, a roost, or even a door (besides the feed door). I wasn’t sure how well it would work, and almost everything going into its construction was a used or scrounged component. The chicken wire is from the original PVC chicken tractor, which got new wire when it was remodeled this year. The coop is again covered in the vinyl panel from the Original PVC chicken tractor. I spent less than $20 on the cultivator, with all new materials I bet the price would still be well under $100.

The chicken cultivator tractor has all the standard features I build into my tractors. It has the fenced off and elevated feed bowl area with a door to add feed. Eyes and a carabiner clip keep the feed door closed. The chickens are watered using a length of 2″ PVC that drops down into the coop and is capped. One nipple waterer has been added to the center of the cap, and the 2″ tube exits the back of the coop and goes straight up like a chimney, which is used as a water tower. I use a cap as a lid on the end of the pipe coming out the back of the tractor. The tube holds one gallon of water, which will last the roosters a couple days in hot weather.

So does it work? I have tested this design for a month, and have not only been satisfied with its feasability, I am excited about its possibilities. I plan on building several more, and the only question remaining for me is how much ground can one chicken powered cultivator keep clear?

I want to have at least three of these ready for next spring. In the meantime I am going to research if something will work better than chickens, or what breed of chicken is the best at scorching earth.

Since part of my garden gets mulched, I only have a need for the chicken cultivators in the part I plant with the two row planter. One cultivator could probably keep that area clear. I also want to try the PVC Cultivator on some Larger fields outside of the garden.

 

My next post will be a supplies list and general building instructions for the PVC Chicken Tractor Cultivator. I am currently working on the post and should have it ready to publish in a week. I am also going to do a youtube video on the PVC Chicken Cultivator this fall.