Chicken coop tractor updates

| October 11, 2013 | 25 Comments

My Grub Gizzard and Gill Facebook Page contains detailed images of my chicken tractor and updates: https://www.facebook.com/grubgizzardgill I made some updat…
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Category: Poultry Coop

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  1. Arin Waichulis says:

    most of the time chickens like to lay there eggs in dark spots. The 5 gallon buckets are translucent.. and the sun lights up the inside of the ducks…so advice would to spray paint the outside of the buckets so its dark inside the nest.

  2. Grub Gizzard says:

    Sure. Please check my Facebook page for pics. There are 2 albums containing pics of my chicken tractor. Please check the Description in this video for my Facebook Page as YouTube does not allow links in comments.

  3. Shelly Caref says:

    Scott, can you show different still views of the house? What are the dimensions and for how many chickens? Can you also show how the wheels are attached. Thanks Shelly Caref, scaref@gmail.com
    Ecuador

  4. Grub Gizzard says:

    Thanks for writing. They all lay in the buckets just the way they are, without paint.

  5. Grub Gizzard says:

    One of these days I might, but since all of them have been laying in them the way they are for the past year, and the 2 new layers I got recently lay in them as well, I’m not finding any motivation to paint them :)

  6. Grub Gizzard says:

    Actually, they all probably have been zapped at one time or another, but it’s not a harmful shock – just a corrective shock. Once they have been zapped, they know not to go near it, which helps keep them inside the fence!

  7. Soham B says:

    i hope your chickens r nt zapped by that

  8. meme zim says:

    Since chickens like to lay eggs in a dark peaceful place you should put the nesting box in the darkest spot in the hen house… i would paint your nesting boxes BLACK

  9. Johano Fiera says:

    I like the idea with the buckets, maybe cover the buckets on the outside. It seemed like the chicken didn’t want to go inside in the video, because the bucket looked like it had a flood light in it… maybe it was just checking if the lights are out yet? :)

  10. Grub Gizzard says:

    Details / links in the video description. Thanks!

  11. Brad Gray says:

    nice set up.. I like that fence. may I ask where you purchased it?

  12. Grub Gizzard says:

    Probably $300 for all of the materials of the coop itself, and another $375 on the electronetting.

  13. cmb8w says:

    Would you mind me asking how much you think you spent on the entire coop system? I love the design and would love to look into building something like that :)

  14. Talia Brown says:

    oh ok

  15. Grub Gizzard says:

    Sure! They look just like every other egg on the inside.

  16. Grub Gizzard says:

    I was also under the impression they wouldn’t use them unless they were dark, but I ran out of time and noticed they use the buckets as nests w/o painting.

  17. Catharine S says:

    It seems too light in the nesting buckets. I would paint them black on the outside. My hens lay in the darkest part of the tractor.

  18. zach meechan says:

    green eggs are possible too, and its the same as a normal egg on the inside exept for the “fact” that homegrown eggs taste better, and yes you can eat them they taste like brown eggs or white eggs

  19. Talia Brown says:

    nice. can you eat them? are they nice? what do they look like inside? (so many questions!, im so curious)

  20. MrFakit says:

    filmed with a 5 gal bucket

  21. Grub Gizzard says:

    As a friend who raises show birds tells me, there is no official type of chicken called an “easter egger”. I don’t know – I’m not a purist nor show birds, so call them what you’d like. The official name for my blue-egg breed is ameraucana.

  22. Grub Gizzard says:

    Update: I built the dusting box in hopes that they would use it instead of digging up the yard. No matter what I placed in the dusting box, they still prefer to dig up the yard and I’ve never seen any of them use the dusting box for its intended purpose, so I turned it into a crushed granite box.

  23. Grub Gizzard says:

    The coop is not heated or insulated, so the buckets didn’t make much or any difference. They huddle together in the winter and did great. It was a normal Michigan winter with a few days below zero, but not many. As for moisture – not a problem at all.

  24. Grub Gizzard says:

    I have 10 hens and all of them use one of the 3 boxes. Yes, it is brighter in the buckets than the rest of the coop, but it doesn’t make a difference. At least not with my girls :)

  25. TheOnlyKateslate says:

    At first, could not make out what you said you add to the sand box for dust baths….diatemacious earth? …..and then I google what I think I heard…. and find it is diatomaceous earth….used as a marker in livestock nutrition experiments.

    Great information. Thank you very very much.

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