I think the majority of the traffic to my website has been from my Youtube video of my Ultimate PVC Chicken Tractor. I will answer many of the most common questions and concerns I receive about this chicken tractor.

Question #1:Won’t snakes, weasels, Badgers, Raccoons, and other chicken eating critters get in under the back where the wheels are?

Answer: Snakes yes, everything else probably not. There are not any weasels in my area, badgers are rare. The worst threats in my area in order of danger are Dogs, Foxes, Raccoons, Possums and Hawks. The gap on the back of the coop by the tires is about 1-2″ if you are parked on concrete or another hard surface. I don’t park on concrete, I park my tractor in the grass and the tractor will usually settle to the ground, leaving a very small gap if any.

The chicken wire I use to cover the Ultimate PVC Chicken Tractor has 1″ holes. A small snake could go through that gap as easily as the back. I also think the fear of snakes is extremely overrated, in fact the average snake in the US is more likely to be eaten by a chicken than for that snake to eat a chicken. I have seen chickens eat snakes, but not the other way around. I have kept chickens almost my entire life, and I have never lost a chicken to a snake. If I were dealing with Anacondas I may worry, but of course they are to large to get into the tractor anyway. Worst case in my area is a snake eating some eggs.

The only chickens that are in danger of being eaten by snakes in my area are chicks. It is possible that a snake will eat a chick, but I have not had it happen, there are much worse predators in my area to worry about, like the neighbors chihuahua.

Question #2: Don’t critters dig under the chicken tractor and eat all your chickens?

Answer: No, while it is possible I have never had it happen. I have seen holes dug on the edges of the tractor, but nothing has ever dug enough to get into the tractor. This is my experience, and every place is unique, but I don’t see the average predator spending the time required to dig under the tractor to get to the chickens. There are usually easier meals.

If you have very sandy easy to dig soil, and a determined predator it could happen. To work around this problem if it exists in your area use insulators made for fence Posts and screw them to the edges of your tractor and run wire around the tractor. Hook it up to a nice hot fencer, if the predator is determined enough to get through that be glad he decided on a chicken dinner and is leaving you alone.

Due to the design of the Ultimate,  the tractor can be electrified to stop 99% of predators. The chicken wire is screwed to the edge of the PVC pipe frame and doesn’t touch the ground. Run jump wires from the main chicken wire to the doors, and a wire around back and you have a electrified fortress.

Of course the best method of predator control is a good dog. We depend on our dog to stop predator attacks before they start, and he does a great job.

Question #3: How easy is it to move?

That really depends on who is doing the moving. At 5′ wide and over 14′ long the Ultimate PVC Chicken tractor is a yacht. I didn’t call it the Ultimate because it was an economy model. I am not sure of the weight, but it is heavy. Unless I am going over extremely rough ground I have no problems moving the Ultimate. I am also I very big guy, my wife is much smaller, and my wife can also move the tractor. My wife has requested my assistance when crossing rough ground a few times though.

If you are a smaller individual you might down size the Ultimate or consider a different style like the Original PVC Chicken tractor or the Style II Ultimate (Coming Soon).

Question #4: What do you do in winter?

Answer: While the automatic waterer will freeze and not work, nothing else changes. I keep the chickens in the Ultimate all year. When temperatures stay under freezing I switch to watering in rubber bowls on the fenced in feeding area. I don’t heat my coop, in my area(northern Missouri) it isn’t needed, and is actually a bad idea in my opinion.

Question #5: What happens in high winds?

Answer: Nothing, unless we are talking tornadic activity high winds are not a problem. I have had very windy conditions and none of my PVC chicken tractors have ever had a problem. The run is covered in chicken wire, so wind goes right through. The tractor is not so light that it can blow over. If I ever got winds strong enough to blow the chicken tractors over I have worse problems at that point.

My wooden rabbit hutch on the other hand does catch wind and has blown over twice.

 

 

Question #6: Do you have plans to build the Ultimate PVC Chicken Tractor?

Answer: No, sorry I don’t. I do have a rough list of materials as well as general design practices on the Chicken Page of my website. When I built the Ultimate it was from a design in my head. I never wrote down a plan or diagram. We have kept chickens for years in similar PVC tractors and we kept track of needed improvements. When I built the Ultimate I wanted it to be the Cadillac of my fleet, and every good idea within reason was incorporated.

In the future I will build another Ultimate and keep track of materials and have plans on building it. I need some free time before that will happen though.

Question #7: Why don’t you cover the feed shelf area to protect it from rain?

Answer: If it rains on feed I have in the bowls I just dump the feed on the ground and let the chickens clean in up. The chickens don’t care if their feed is wet. I also don’t feed crumbles or for that matter I don’t feed commercial feed if I can help it. My chickens free range for the majority of their feed, so I don’t have feed in the bowls very often. For those who keep chickens in the tractor all the time and use chicken feed a roof above the feed area is easy to incorporate in the design. As I have already stated though, chickens don’t mind wet food.

 

Question #8: What improvements would you make to the Ultimate?

Overall I am very happy with the design of the Ultimate. Here are a few things I have or may change.

Chicken Safety push bar. Something to push your chickens forward while moving the coop is a good idea. I had a chicken get its foot caught under the PVC frame while moving the chicken tractor and it ended up with a broken leg. I use a piece of 1/2″ PVC in front of the coop to prevent this.

The unfenced shelf on the second side door was removed and deemed unneeded.

I wish I had a better material than plywood siding to make the doors to the coop. I have had some warping with the wood siding. Some type of plastic would be superior although more costly.

I had a suggestion on my Youtube video to add a tank to collect rain water off the roof. While I initially dismissed the idea, after thinking about it I may incorporate it into a chicken tractor at some time.

 

Some Farm Updates

Due to time constraints and trying to put together legible posts my website is always running months behind what is actually happening on the ground at my farm. So here are some quick updates on things that have happened this spring.

 The bees I rescued from the fallen tree have absconded. I did however successfully install my package of bees into a custom Tanzanian top bar hive I built.

We have bought a large incubator and have 10 breeds of chicken, 6 breeds of Turkey, 3 types of quail and geese eggs cooking.

We have added a trio of Midget white Turkeys and will be building a small flock of 20 or so this summer.

We added a pair of Embden Geese.

We added five guineas four quail and three more Muscovy ducks.

I planted an acre of Reid’s Field corn.

I let the cattle graze down one of my fields of Cereal Rye which I will then disc under and plant in Smoke Signals popcorn.

We have planted 150′ of Osage Orange for our living fence project. We hope to get 500′ planted this spring.

We stocked the large pond with Grass Carp and the small pond with Minnows.