What is a chicken tractor?
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Chicken Tractor: Mobile shelter for raising poultry out on pasture.
A chicken tractor is a floor-less mobile shelter used to raise poultry on managed pasture. The daily movement of the shelter allows for proper management of the soil health, which in turn effects every part of the farm.
No matter what type of farming you take part in, one fact is universally true, the health and vitality of your farm products and the people who consume them are intrinsically tied to the health and vitality of the soil in which they grow. If you are what you eat, you are what you eat eats. We eat chickens, chickens eat grass, grass eats sunshine and soil. Raising pastured poultry outside in movable shelters is better for the soil, the animals, and the people.
Benefits To Raising Chickens in Chicken Tractors
Raising chickens in a mobile chicken tractors adds a lot of benefits to everything and everyone involved. For people there is a healthier and more delicious end product. A chicken raised on grass will taste above and beyond anything you will ever get out of a barn, organic or not. Livestock raised with diverse and natural diets are also going to be more nutritious. Nutrition which they pass on to the people that eat them.
Raising chickens in these pasture shelters is also better for the soils. Chicken manure is high in nitrogen, a key plant food. Too much nitrogen and it kills the grass, while the right amount can encourage life to flourish. Keeping the birds moving along the pasture allows for their manure to be spread out and the correct amount to be applied to feed the soils. That also benefits the chickens because each day they move off of yesterdays’ doo doo. Imagine taking a dump and then being forced to lay on it for the rest of your life. In a barn system chickens have to do that, on pasture they are always moving onto new ground.
Raising chickens out on pasture and mimicking more natural systems is also better for the farmer. Fresh air, no manure build up, tangible benefits from purposeful production methods, niche marketing benefits, and a passionate community involved in the farms’ success are all benefits pastured poultry producers experience from raising birds in this way.
Methods For Raising Chickens On Pasture
There are all types of chicken tractors out there. Your only limits are going to be your resources, your imagination, and some core fundamentals that chickens need to survive and thrive. When you are starting to build your first chicken tractor there are a number of things to consider.
• How many chickens do you want to raise in a year?
• How many meat chickens will fit in each chicken tractor?
• How many egg laying chickens fit in a chicken tractor?
• How often you move each chicken tractor?
• How big of a chicken tractor will you need?
You will strike a balance with your chicken tractor design. You want something that works for you, that works for your budget, that works for the chickens, and that works for the soils. Good designs get used and cared for, bad designs can burn people and give farming this way a bad name. Always remember that this has to be enjoyable and pain free. Not every day raising chickens is going to be a walk in the park, but raising birds out on pasture can be one of the most rewarding decisions you will ever make.
How to get started with raising chickens for meat & eggs out on pasture:
I have published three workbooks to help you get started raising chickens for meat and eventually growing your homestead into a business if you want to.
Pastured Poultry Packet #1: This book helps you determine the cost FOR YOU to raise one broiler chicken.
Stress-Free Chicken Tractor Plans: walks you through everything you need to know to build your first chicken tractor.
Pastured Poultry Packet #2: Helps you with marketing your grass-fed chicken and eggs