A chicken tractor with handles for moving
If you followed the links in our last post on Bear Butte Gardens you saw photos of the chicken tractor Michelle and Rick have built to house their organic chickens in 2014.
A chicken tractor is a movable chicken coop and attached fenced yard that allows chickens to stay outside most of their lives, a big contrast to the mega-barns in which most chickens sold in the US are raised. Tractor life for a chicken is more humane, more healthy, and more sustainable than the industrial-chicken-big-barn method. While letting chickens run free may work in some areas, chickens in tractors are protected from coyotes and the neighborhood dog. Tractor life gives chickens fresh air, sunshine, greens, insects, chicken feed, water, a clean environment, and shelter from rain, snow, and too much sun.
Industrial chicken barns where birds are confined in tiny cages or debeaked and allowed to run around–competing with tens of thousands of other birds for space and access to food and water. No clean air or green grass here.
Most chicken tractors are made of wood and have wheels. You can see photos of various tractor designs here.
The other farmer we know who uses chicken tractors is Lyn Miller of Harmony Enterprises in Chadron. Being a welder by trade Lyn makes his tractors out of metal, which he says is more durable. Each one is 12 feet long, 10 feet wide, and two feet high. Sunlight reaches the chickens through a wire mesh opening in the top and through the mesh sides. The closed part of the top provides shelter from the elements.
Lyn moves his tractors every day. He says at first he “bribes” his chickens with a little grain to make them move, and before long they understand that they are going to a better place and make the move willingly.
Lyn delivers at the Black Hills Farmers Market in Rapid City on Saturdays starting in June. He will take orders any time. Call him at 308-760-8052.
For more information on local chickens, click here.
