It’s time for our youngest chickens to move out of their cramped cage and get to work out in the field. I decided to build a Chicken Tractor. Follow along with me in this post to learn how it all came together!

Vision: 3d Model
Because wood ain’t cheap nowadays I decided to hash out some plans in a popular free modelling software called Blender. I was able to set the actual lengths of the lumber to what was available at the store, and came up with 5 different iterations of my design. I ended up with an 8ft x 4ft x 4ft design with a sliding egg door and latched run door. This is what I considered to be the best bang for my buck in terms of lumber.
Parts List
Getting Started
This post is not meant to be an all inclusive guide, but I will give a rundown on the steps that I took to build this Chicken Tractor.
I tacked the base of the frame with two nails per joint. in the future when it’s time to add the hardware cloth, I actually took the first parts of the frame off so I could sandwich the cloth underneath it. It worked well!



Tips
~ Overestimate the wood by a few 2×4’s. They are useful to have around and it’s not the end of the world when you make a bad cut.
~ Try to reuse material. in my case I was able to salvage some hard ware cloth from scraps my sister had left over from another project.
~ We got a solar powered automatic coop door with a remote, so we can look out our kitchen window and see if we need to manually open or close the door!
Final Chicken Tractor

This project was pretty big and involved a lot of planning. Creating the model in Blender first really made it easier to actually build without wasting material. Some final notes I’d like to mention
Final Thoughts
I enjoy doing DIY projects like these even thought they are somewhat challenging. I spent maybe 16 hours total on this build, really dragging my feet a lot of the time. Even though it was challenging I feel I have increased my construction, 3d modelling, planning, and budgeting skills which is the real value in my eyes. I am more confident in these abilities and I can already think of other projects I can do with my strengthened skills. Stay tuned to read about them!