Friday, December 13, 2013

The Results of Our Chicken Tractor Trials

Here is our third chicken tractor (pictured above). This might be our best one. 
First I spent $200 on one made of pressure treated lumber with a sheet metal roof. 
The second one was $150 out of PVC pipe, also with a sheet metal roof. It ended up being too light weight for some of the wind here, although Juan did raise and sell 25 of a different breed we were trying called Turkey Chickens. 
This third one cost me $15 worth of chicken wire and the rest of the materials were free from the farm. 
It may not last as long, but it was easy to get materials and cheap to build. Both are important when planning a project for our students!  It will probably be the model the men are the most comfortable with. We have settled on Broilers for the breed of chickens that take the least amount of time and investment for the biggest profit. Those were one of the breeds in the first trial we did. 
The 40 chickens we started in this coop (all Broilers) will be food for our students this January. 
I just vaccinated all of them myself since the batch before this all died after the store said they had vaccinated them and clearly didn't. That will be something else we implement with the students. Behind the chicken tractor (in the first photo) you can see the corn that is growing well - also food. Please keep us in your prayers as we are trying to get everything done and ready for this first group!

1 comment:

  1. Looks good! We're hopefully building a coop soon with some friends on their land, so I'll be referring them to your post.

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