This is a chicken tractor...
Today is moving day for our broiler chickens to their new home. Dan constructed an 8x8x2 chicken tractor where they'll live out the rest of their lives. Prior to today, they've been living in a brooder (a small enclosed area with heat lamps to keep them very warm). However, part of the point of raising our own chicks is so that they can forage to eat fresh grass and bugs. Factory chickens never have this basic opportunity. Here are our 20 Cornish Cross broiler chicks going into the tractor...
The beauty of a chicken tractor is that it's fairly lightweight, so it can be moved by hand. (No tractor involved, dispite the name.) Half of the the tractor is chicken wire to allow for ventilation and the back half is covered to provide shade and refuge from rain. The lid opens up so we can get in and out. Each day or two, after the chicks have had time to dine on everything available in their 8x8 area, the tractor is dragged down 8 feet, where the chicks will dine on fresh grass and new bugs for a day or two, so on and so forth. Hopefully the chicks will have a happy, healthy life and we'll have a tasty dinner.
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