Winterizing the Chicken Tractor

Chicken coop, barn, and portable fencing (for rotational grazing). 

Note the shade cloth on the chicken coop run.

Many people started raising a few chickens in chicken tractors (portable coops) this year.  We had quite a few of them stop by and take pictures of our portable coop and use those as a basis for coming up with their own designs (that were hopefully much lighter than the one we built!).  Now we are getting questions about how to get chickens through the winter without them freezing. Chickens are pretty hardy, especially most of the heritage breeds that people are choosing to raise this way, but there are things you can to to help ensure that your birds remain safe, healthy, and comfortable this winter.

1. They should have a draft-free coop.  Not air-tight, because they need ventilation, but not drafty.  Our coop has louvered doors next to the nests and two vents, one at the top and one at the bottom of the coop.  When the weather gets below about 25 degrees F, we have cardboard inserts that we install to cover the louvres and an aluminum sliding door that we slide in to cover the upper vent.  The birds huddle together and stay quite toasty.  The coop actually feels warm when I open it in the morning and the birds appeared quite comfortable even when outside temperatures got down into the single digits.
2. Make sure the coop is dry.  Be diligent about checking nests and bedding to make sure they are dry.  We line our nests with hay and I clean the nests daily to make sure they aren't damp.
3. Make sure they have free flowing water.  This is a real problem for some people and I hear stories of taking fresh water to their birds several times a day or building all kinds of insulated water holders.  We bring the plastic waterer in every night and refill it and replace it each morning.  But because of our "greenhouse run", the water does not freeze during the day.  Never has.
4. What is a "greenhouse run"?  See the pictures below.  We have a standard A-frame run, but we cover ours with greenhouse grade plastic and it has "wings" on both sides that can be raised or lowered for protection from wind and rain and for ventilation.  During the summer we usually keep one side down and have a piece of shade cloth on that side to provide shade (see picture at top of post).  When it is brutally hot and humid, we raise both sides.  In the winter we usually keep both sides down all the time.  Solar heating keeps the run comfortably warm and dry and protects the birds from the wind.  Throughout most of the winter, the end door is open to the annex (see the photos) so they can get fresh air and sunshine.  When it is REALLY nasty out, we keep the end door shut.
5. Make sure they have plenty of high energy feed.  Our birds are on fresh ground everyday because we move the coop every morning.  They get scraps from our kitchen and garden and have access to commercial crumble, too.  But when it is really, really cold and nasty out, we also give them a dish of scratch and a morning bowl of hot oatmeal.  Oh, they love the oatmeal.  I know.  That is really spoiling them and they probably don't need it, but they sure do love it! 

And that's how we get our hens through the winter. They appear comfortable and it requires minimal effort on our part.  Below are pictures I took right after we put fresh plastic on the run last weekend.  We used a four year, polyethylene greenhouse film which should give us many years of service.  Note the aluminum flashing on the peak.  We've learned that is a wear point for our system; the first place the plastic starts breaking down, so we covered it with the flashing this time. When we "raise the wings" the hinge is that horizontal wood strip you see running across the center of the side. It folds up and is held in place with a short bungee cord.

Pictures of Our Chicken Tractor

Our chicken tractor with annex. One wing is up so the girls get lots of sun and fresh air.

Many people are building chicken tractors this spring and there are dozens and dozens of plans on the internet about how to build them.  We, too, studied all those plans before we built ours.  We read every university poultry page we could find, followed all the blogs, read all the backyard chicken pages, etc.  We were assured that four to five square feet per bird was more than enough.  We were even more generous.  The total floor space of our original chicken tractor is 40 square feet.  With six birds, that is about 6.7 square feet per bird.  That was fine for pullets, but by the time the ladies were full grown, they were cramped and the pecking and other bad behaviors began in earnest.  Our chicken tractor is very well built and as predator proof as I think you can make one to be, so we didn't want to compromise the integrity of that.  We chose to add an annex that we can pull up to the end door of the chicken tractor.  It doubles the space for our six hens.  They are okay with that amount of space and most of the pecking stopped, but if I had to do it all over again (and we might build another one in a year or two) I would give them even more space.

A view of the chicken tractor with both wings down so the girls have a protected run area and an open area.

A few details about our system.  The original chicken tractor has chicken wire all over the sides AND bottom of the coop and run.  We have lots of raccoons, skunks, etc. in our area and wanted to prevent any of those mammals from digging under the edge of the tractor to gain access.  We later added hardware cloth on the top of the run area because our horse put his foot through the chicken wire trying to gain access to the chicken scratch.  Turns out that was a really good idea because two big dogs got into the pasture one day and threw themselves against the sides of the run.  I don't think the chicken wire would have held up, but the hardware cloth did.  

The annex is just chicken wire on the tops and sides.  The bottom is open so the girls can scratch in the dirt to their hearts' content.  The annex does not provide complete protection; I think a dog or coyote could get through it or work its way under it pretty easy.  But our whole system is within a pasture with a six-strand electric fence, so we feel like the girls are pretty secure during the day and when the fence is on.  Hawks are our biggest concern in the daytime.  At night the chicken tractor is secured; the end door on the run is shut and the drop down door on the coop is lowered.  

The coop part of the chicken tractor has an open area below and roosts and two nest boxes up top.  The original structure was a simple A-frame as you see in so many plans.  But the girls were really cramped for space at night. They all wanted to be on the highest roosts or in the nests and did not use the lower roosts at all.  So we put a dormer on and put the two nest boxes in that space giving more room for high roosts all on one level.  They like that much better.  It also gives us easy access to the nests, the roosts, and the ladies. So when we need to check them for mites or pick up a broody hen and move her, it is easy.  You have to be able to reach your birds!  

Our whole coop area can be accessed for cleaning.  The roosts and nests slide out for cleaning. About every four days, I lower the side of the coop and use a leaf rake to break up any droppings that have accumulated on the bottom wire.  We move the tractor daily.  The nests have flexible plastic sheets in the bottom that are easy to remove, wash, and replace (no wet wood).

Shade cloth on the "sun side" of the coop.

The "wings" on the run area are wonderful.  Both sides can easily raised and lowered.  The usual configuration is one up and one down.  Originally we only put the plastic on the run in the winter; that allows us to give them a greenhouse so they are protected on really cold, windy, or snowy days (without the plastic, they just stayed in the dark coop all day).  But now we leave the plastic on all year round.  Since we can raise and lower the wings easily, we can provide protection from wind and rain by raising and lowering the appropriate ones.  We have a piece of polypropylene shade cloth that we put on the west side of the run during the summer to give them shade.  The run and coop actually stay cooler this way than they did when we did not have the clear plastic on and only had a shade cloth.  The girls really don't like the rain or high winds, so this set up has worked well.

 Chicken tractor open, raised, and empty for spring cleaning. Both wings are up.

This shows all the parts of the tractor dismantled for cleaning.  On the left you see the roosts, the nest boxes, and the waterer support block.

As you can see from the photos, we have a lever system that lets us raise the heavy end of the chicken tractor.  We then have two rings on the other side that we slide a fiberglass pole through.  That is the handle we use to lift that end and move the tractor.  Because of all the additions we've made, the chicken tractor is heavy.  My big, strong son can move it pretty easy and since I am a tall, fairly strong woman, I can, too.  But my daughter cannot move it by herself.  Hubby is creating a plan to put two drop down wheels on the front to remedy that.  

All in all, this set up works great for us right now.  It is very secure and gives year round protection from predators and the elements.  It has stood up through hurricanes, blizzards, and severe summer storms.  We will redesign our next one though.  This one is too heavy and having two pieces is a wee bit of trouble.  And I'm still working on an automatic door opener for those rare mornings when I want to sleep in a little but my conscience won't let me because "the girls need to come out".