Portable Chicken Coops are Easy and Great Fun to Make

Chicken tractors, or portable chicken coops, are small structures for your hens that you can move easily around your backyard or garden.  These have a number of advantages:

• Very cheap and easy to make

• Easy to clean

• Take up very little space

• Free fertilizing for your garden (the hens do it bit by bit for you as you move the chicken tractor around)

• Constant source of bugs and new vegetation for the chickens (good for tasty eggs)

• Easy to move chickens into the shade (hot weather) or shelter such as a garage (cold weather)

• Predators are confused by a constantly moving hen house

• Use as temporary housing for the hens while you clean out or repair their fixed coop

Size is the chief drawback. Portability means that they can house only 3 or 4 chickens sensibly.  Typically each hen needs about 4 square feet.

Typical chicken tractors are 3 or 4 feet long, 4 feet wide and 3 or 4 feet high, usually with an apex or triangular cross-section.  Usually they do not have a floor. Wheels or skids can be fitted for easy movement.  You can make a chicken tractor in a few hours, using cheap wood and chicken wire – you might have some or all you need already lying around in your backyard!  A DIY portable coop will cost much less than a ready-made item, and you will be able to customize it exactly to your own requirements.

As your flock of hens grows, you could use your portable coop as an extension of the full-size hen house. 

Once you have decided on the DIY route, the next step is to get a good set of chicken tractor plans. This is essential before you start.  Portable chicken coops are more than just a few pieces of wood nailed together, even though the whole process is very straightforward.  The coop design will depend on a number of things, such as the breed of chickens and your backyard environment.  These and other factors will determine your choice of materials, size of wire mesh and so on. 

Please do not be misled by offers of ‘free’ chicken tractor plans on the internet – these are usually garbage and could lead to an unsound hen house.  It is absolutely essential to use good chicken tractor plans and get expert instructions from designers with experience in breeding and keeping chickens.  Check that these include comprehensive lists of materials and tools needed for assembling the portable chicken coop – it is so much easier to get things right before you start to build.

We have plenty of good ideas to help you choose and build the best portable chicken coops for your particular circumstances – see Build A Chicken Tractor on our website. You will find lots of professional tips, not only for building chicken coops, but also for choosing and rearing chickens, the sort of food they need, what can go wrong (and how to fix it) and much more.

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