Definitive Guide to Chicken Tractors and 13 Free DIY Plans (2024)

What exactly is a chicken tractor?

Simply put, it is a mobile home, much like a caravan, or trailer, which contains everything your chicken needs in her house. It is a mobile chicken coop.

It will contain food, water, a roosting perch, a nesting box, and a nice place for free-range.

This definitive guide will give you the basics before detailing the key things you need to consider when building your own chicken coop on wheels.

Finally, we have 13 of the best chicken tractor plans to suit all flocks and budgets.

Chicken Tractor 101 and Benefits

The idea of the tractor is to keep them penned to avoid damage to the rest of your yard or the neighbors’ property. It just so happens that the tractor is mobile, so you can move them along to the next patch of grass before they destroy the area where they are parked.

Anyone who has had chicken rampage through their flower beds will tell you it is very disheartening to have all your work destroyed in less than 10 minutes, not to mention the little poop patties all over the place.

The neighbors won’t be thrilled either when they have found your hens have re-located the mulch, eaten the veggies, and left little presents behind to say thank you.

The second benefit of the tractor is safety for your hens. A good sturdy tractor will deter most predators with the possible exceptions of the bear, raccoon, and coyote.

The hens can graze in total safety from aerial predators such as hawks and owls.

The best reason for having a portable coop is free lawn services! The hens will nibble off the tips of the grass and weeds and remove any insects and fertilize, all for free!

In fact, they pay you in eggs – what could be better?

If you want your grass to stay in reasonable condition, you will probably have to move the tractor at least every other day or end up with bald spots and a dust bath crater.

Basic Components of a Chicken Tractor

You can break down the basic structure into two separate components: the coop and the run. It is also known as a chicken ark in the UK.

The coop itself is essentially a square box with sufficient space to house your hens. This is where it is important to remember how much space your ladies require: large fowl need 4sq.ft/bird, and bantams require 2sq.ft/bird.

Yes, you can jam more birds in, but it will encourage anti-social behaviors that will be hard to break and may lead to the injury of one or more of your girls.

The floor of the Coop

The floor of the coop, in many cases, is non-existent. Since chickens poop the major portion of their waste at night, the poop is deposited straight onto the ground, which means you really don’t have much to clean up!

Many people, myself included, prefer a solid base to the coop for a couple of reasons (the most important being security). A solid ‘box’ that you can lock your girls into at night is more reassuring to me than an open-plan box.

Should a bear or raccoon tip over the coop, they may shake the girls, but they will still be safely locked up, whereas if the bottom was open, they would be dinner.

The second reason is it makes it a bit easier to move the girls while they are confined.

When moving an open bottom tractor, if the hens are standing on the dirt, they have to get to know the moving routine.

They have to understand that they need to move with the coop.

Usually, it only takes a couple of moves before they get the hang of it, but it is easy to catch some ‘slow toes’ under the structure.

If the coop is boxed, you can pick everything up, move it and then let them out – simple.

Run/Pen Area

Your run needs to be large enough to accommodate the number of hens you have in the tractor. Remember those numbers again; large fowl need a minimum of 8sq.ft/bird, and bantams need 4sq.ft/bird in a run area. More room is always better.

Although your hens are technically ‘free-ranging,’ they cannot run, jump or expend energy other than walking from one end to the other, so a longer run is great if you have space.

The run also needs to be tall enough that you can hang out the feeder and drinker so they can’t poop in it (which they will do if it sits on the ground).

Building Your Own Chicken Tractor

There are a few things you need to consider when you are building your tractor. Your mobile chicken coop needs to be sturdy and well built; this usually translates as quite heavy to move.

If you suffer from back, neck, or other mobility problems, you will need to think long and hard about what you want.

You can, of course, build lightweight tractors, but they don’t come without problems. We will address those later.

Size

You need to know how many hens you are going to put into your tractor. As an example, 4 large hens will need 4sq. Ft space each so that you will need 16sq.ft of floor space. This is a box that is 4ft by 4ft.

This may not sound large, but if you are pulling (or pushing) it plus the run, it will be quite heavy, especially up or down slopes.

Ease of Moving

How easy is it going to be moving your tractor? Almost all tractor plans I have seen have wheels to help with the moving of the structure or can be hitched up to a small tractor or a utility vehicle.

Personally, I would avoid any plans that do not include wheels as you will need Herculean strength to move them!

Some tractors you move similar to a wheelbarrow, others look a bit like a rickshaw, and the huge ones require horsepower – real or mechanical.

Ease of cleaning

The coop will need to be cleaned the same as a regular coop. The access area needs to be large enough for you actually to work through. Some coops have a ‘lift’ side of the coop, which is great for cleaning and egg removal.

Design

At the bottom of this article, you will find a variety of chicken tractor plans which you can build.

Many of the tractors I have seen can be discounted from a security point of view. So many people use chicken wire instead of hardware cloth.

Hardware mesh is a bit costly, but it is better than losing all your hens to a determined predator.

However, that doesn’t mean the design of the tractor is intrinsically bad. You can always upgrade security if you find a design you really like.

It can be effortless to build a basic structure from scratch, and something that makes it even more fun and cost-effective is using recycled items.

This would cut down on the cost dramatically.

You will notice that many of the tractors shown below have used recycled items in quite inventive ways!

Also, remember if you live in an area where the summers can be brutally hot, make sure they have enough shade available in the coop along with ventilation.

Making a Chicken Tractor Secure

We briefly touched on security earlier, but the tractor must be safe and secure for your flock.

The building itself needs to be made from durable materials; it will be outside in sun, wind, and rain, so if it is made from wood, it should be painted for protection.

This brings us to lightweight tractors.

Lightweight is most certainly the best thing for those that have to move the thing, but they can easily be flipped over in a wind storm or other inclement weather, scattering your flock all over the place.

If you are adamant about having a lightweight tractor, you will need to have some system to anchor it into place should the need arise, especially if you live in higher elevations where the wind can be troublesome.

Large predators, too, will have no trouble in dismantling a tractor made from PVC pipe and chicken wire.

Check locks and entry points, too – can you get in easily? If so, other things can too.

At the minimum, any lock should be able to keep out a 3-year-old child. If it fails this test, a raccoon will figure it out too.

Any windows need to be covered with wire mesh or hardware cloth, not chicken wire. Chicken wire is designed to keep chickens in – it will not keep predators out.

The run needs to be covered with hardware mesh also.

Chicken Tractor Plans

Chicken Tracters 101: Summary

The design of your tractor is limited only by your imagination, available space, and budget.

There are several benefits to using tractors for your hens and very few downsides.

If you intend to use the tractor all year round, make sure it is suitably built to protect the hens through the winter months.

Remember, the bigger your mobile chicken coop is, the heavier it will likely be. If you have a riding mower, you could probably use it to move your tractor.

We hope you have been inspired to think about a chicken tractor for your girls, especially if you want to build one yourself!

I will repeat myself here – chickens don’t care if the corners aren’t square or the wood is secondhand. They are pleased to have a house that provides all their needs.

So don’t be afraid of building your own even if you don’t have much DIY experience!

Has anyone built their own chicken tractor? Please send us your photos and stories in the comments section below…

READ NEXT: Why Using Chicken Tractors Makes My Chickens Lay More Eggs

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