I Our 17 chicks are currently to young to be out of the brooder over night but we have great warm temps so we are now putting them in a tractor during the day and returning them to the brooder at night.
The tractor is framed form 7.5 foot stud lumber and covered with 1/4 inch hardware cloth. The birds are two different types of red sex link hens, a male sex link (we think but it was labled a pullet by Tractor Supply but was in with all clearly sex linked pullets) and 8 Egyptian Fayoumi. There are 4 standard Fayoumis and 4 that were marked as “cinnamon silver”.
We really don’t have a clue what a “cinnamon silver” is, we are not even 100% sure it is a Fayoumi cross or color phase as I can’t find any info on them. The do appear a lot like the other Fayoumis in growth rate, size and other characteristics, so we shall see in time.
The dimensions of the tractor are 7.5 feet long, 24 inches high and 44 inches wide which leaves 2 inches of over hang on both sides for the oak pallets. This works great for day time use by small chickens that can easily get though 2 inch chicken wire and might strangle themselves with one inch wire. Later it will be converted to my “Quail Mansion” tractors which I have long term plans for.
Note – I stated a 50 foot roll of hardware cloth in the video, what I meant to say was a 25 foot roll.
