Chicken Tractor with first-class lever action

**CharlesWaugh** · Sep 28, 2020, 07:14 PM

I wanted a chicken tractor that would be easy to move, hold 6 chickens happily, and not cost a mint.

I found some 20" x 10" tires on craigslist - big turf tires with a large surface area so it wouldn't sink into the wet ground that is Oregon's curse about 13 months a year (I'm rounding up a bit on the months).

I then had to figure out how to get them to work super easily, without making me grunt when moving the thing.

Hmmmm . . . it had to be all-but-balanced on those tires when in the 'ready to move' position.

Aha! Use a lever that I could step on. Stepping is the easiest motion to add force (my dead weight), and it allows travel over a reasonably long distance (I can step up onto a 30" tall desk with no big problem).

So, I have roughly 70 pounds (less than half my body weight so I don't fall over jumping up and down on the lever end) and it can travel roughly 24" (to leave room for the thickness of the lever, etc.)

I ended up with a bout a 5:1 ratio, so I could easily lift up a 350 pound coop, and more if I put more weight on my foot, and even more if I was willing to lift a bit on the handle of the coop when moving it.

It took me a while in my CAD system to convince myself it would really work the way I wanted, and when I built it - IT WORKED AS ADVERTISED!
[deep gratification]

It moves quite easily - even on wet ground.

The chickens are happy, I am happy, my wife is happy, the eggs are happy, the trees and the grass are happy, the clouds are happy!

Happy, happy, happy!

**racer-john** · Sep 30, 2020, 07:20 AM

[QUOTE=CharlesWaugh;167239]I wanted a chicken tractor that would be easy to move, hold 6 chickens happily, and not cost a mint.

Wher's the video????

**Jon** · Sep 30, 2020, 01:28 PM

racer-john - you should be seeing the video player in his post. If not, try another browser or check your settings.

**Charst** · Oct 2, 2020, 01:41 PM

Nicely done. I like it - although I don't own chickens...

**marksbug** · Oct 4, 2020, 05:16 PM

mine just roamed the yard. but I do like yours a lot.looks like somethen I wooda built.

**CharlesWaugh** · Oct 4, 2020, 06:39 PM

Marksburg -
I showed you mine.
Now show me yours!
: - )

**marksbug** · Oct 4, 2020, 08:01 PM

I nolonger have any chickens...saddely. all the kids are grown and moved away.and the chickens got eaten before the last kid left and I was away racing( NHRA top sportsman drag racing outa state) Im not sure what got them, but I made some velvet lined caskets for them and there are in the pet cemetery. they had a nice enclosure,I think it was a racoon that got in. I had taught the silkie to call my daughters name. we couldent bare to replace them.they were also inside chickens that sat and watched tv with us as well as do tricks for my daughter.like laying on thier backs while on top of my daughters head....now that would for sure be one nice kentuckey derby hat!!! ,I miss they way they would sit on your shoulder and put their pecker in your ear and fall asleep. and we miss the fresh eggs too. but now my other daughter up in Memphis Tenn with my grans kids has chickens, I sent them the vid link. it wouldent be hard for them to add wheels to the home they made for the chickens. that daughter & her husband are DR's in tenn, the youngest is a us diplomat in kosovo...I wonder is she can have chickens over there as pets..but she now has the dog she has wanted her whole life..and a cat too. I do have pics somehwere with santa clause holding the chickens for thier christmass pictures.and wearing poncho's...the chickens not santa .

**CharlesWaugh** · Oct 4, 2020, 08:57 PM

Marksburg,
Wow, what a story and I'm sorry for your loss.
Pets of all types are dear to us.

I'm a portrait photographer and I have done two books of people and their pets.
Only one person brought in a chicken. Another brought in a parrot. But no ducks!

We got given these 6 chickens about 4 months ago. We had had ducks for a over a decade before that, but the raccoons, the coyotes and the eagles got 'em. Yes, eagles, like BALD eagles - they live down by the Sandy River near our house.

We didn't have problems for many years, but then our two outdoor labs, who lived with the ducks, got old and died, and then predators moved in.

So a couple years ago we gave away all our duck stuff and when our friend said we'd get 6 of his chickens, we had to (we got to!) build the tractor.

We have the chickens in the pen b/c of the predators. My wife just came in from shutting them up in their overnight coop.

BTW: We should race sometime - my 1996 Jag Vanden Plas does the quarter mile in x.xxx seconds (deleted due to national security concerns).

Cheers!

Charles