Like a lot of folks raising chickens on their property, we had the (rather urgent) need for a chicken tractor. We built a permanent coop for our first flock of free ranging egg layers, but it's being used for the summer by the flock from St. Thomas More Academy. In the meantime, we were purchasing chicks (37 total) for our flock and they outgrew the brooder so quickly, that we had to build a chicken tractor. Immediately.
Isaac and I built this in a few hours. We didn't use any plans, but the design is pretty standard and based off 8' boards and 24" wide hardware cloth (wire fence). The whole thing is as light as it could be for the cost, which was relatively inexpensive. If birds were to stay in it longer than what ours will be, I might add a "second floor" to one half so that birds could roost higher off the ground.
What I think is the best part is the wheel assembly. Most of the tractors I see use small 7" lawn mower wheels. I'll admit that we did as well - at first. What I quickly discovered was that they were almost worthless on tall grass or uneven ground. The frame kept getting caught up on hills or clumps of grass. The problem of permanent tall wheels is that they leave too large of a gap under the tractor for predators to enter.
The solution comes in simply being able to quickly put the wheels on, move the tractor, and take the wheels back off. The last part of our three part video series on the tractor (below) explains the wheel assembly. If you're thinking of making a chicken tractor, and you don't want to use a dolly system to move it, consider this solution.
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