If you are not familiar with the term “Chicken Tractor”, its basically just a portable chicken run so that chickens can be moved around to eat fresh grass, much like a tractor mowing a yard. We had originally planned to allow the chickens to free range in our backyard. That lasted for a couple weeks….right up until we lost 6 chickens to a family of Georgia Red Foxes. The chickens seemed so happy free-ranging so we hated to leave them locked up in the chicken coop and attached run with no access to fresh grass. That’s when we decided it was time to design and build a “Chicken Tractor”. Continue reading Homemade Chicken Tractor: a mobile home for hens
Category Archives: Chickens
Homemade Chicken Coop
We have been planning to raise chickens for many years and finally decided this is the year to turn the plan into action. About 2 months ago Bethany picked up 20 chicks from Tractor Supply. We raised the chicks in two plastic bins (10 in each bin) with one heat lamp for each bin. Our plan was to build a homemade chicken coop the next weekend and move the chicks outside as soon as it was ready. I studied 100’s of pictures of coops on Google Images and noted the pros and cons of all the different styles/features. I then drafted a design for our coop using Google SketchUp. Here is a picture of the final version in SketchUp: Continue reading Homemade Chicken Coop
Homestead Master Plan
For those of you that have been following our build process, you know that we purchased land for our dream home a couple years ago. We have been slowly working towards making our vision a reality. Part of that process was taking what was in our heads and getting it down on paper. We received the help of many people in helping to take a vague idea of our vision and slowly turn it into an executable plan. Two key people stick out as key contributors though. The first is Casey Norris with Lady Slipper Rare Plant Nursery and the second is Doug Bork with Elements Landscape LLC. Continue reading Homestead Master Plan
Raising Chickens
Raising chickens is something my wife and I have wanted to do for quite some time but our current neighborhood has a no chicken policy in the covenants. We were first introduced to the idea of raising chickens by two different co-workers and friends of mine back around 2008. Both of them were raising chickens in their backyards and taught us a little about the basics of raising chickens. Our interest was heighten this summer when we visited my sister in VA. My sister’s family raises chickens in their backyard and our kids got to spend some time interacting with them. It seems like everywhere we go we bump into people raising their own chickens or selling custom chicken coops. Even Williams Sonoma sells chicken coops now! Continue reading Raising Chickens