dalthauser

I woke up Tuesday morning and immediately checked on the chickens. To my utter dismay they'd knocked down the brooder wall during the night and spread litter and chicken poop all over the room. Total disaster. They are too big to stick in a rubbermaid container for any length of time, so I decided now is as good a time as any to build a "chicken tractor" for them. I figured I could put them in it while I clean the room and shampoo the carpet.

I got what I needed from Home Depot. 1/2" PVC pipes, connectors, and chicken wire. Total bill $45.00 (and there is left over chicken wire and connectors). The only thing I had to go on is a picture from a chicken forum. It was very much like using Tinker Toys. Fun. Well, until it came time to get the chicken wire on it...... All in all it took about 3 hours to complete because of my lack of skills (and the fact I was doing it alone). With help it would have only taken about 30 minutes. It's not entirely sturdy (later I will glue the joints in place, and it's incomplete (I still need to make end walls and a door) - but it's a good temporary pen as long as I'm around to supervise :-)

Once I got the first hoop up - I knew I could do this. Until then I really wasn't sure if what I had in my head was going to work.

Chicken wire is frustrating to work with. I have many wire holes in my fingers.

Complete for now. I'll finish up another day.

This first pic taken after about 3 minutes when a couple actually would leave the carrier. This was the first batch. I had to bring them in two batches because the carrier isn't big enough for all of them.