{"id":6816,"date":"2020-08-01T22:36:22","date_gmt":"2020-08-02T03:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/?p=6816"},"modified":"2020-08-02T20:22:28","modified_gmt":"2020-08-03T01:22:28","slug":"chicken-tractor-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/?p=6816","title":{"rendered":"Chicken Tractor Design"},"content":{"rendered":"

I want to build a secure run for our chickens — something we can move around the yard. I’ve seen a lot of A-frame chicken tractors — I assume people use the triangular shape instead of a rectangle because there’s less material for a given footprint and, thus, the tractor is lighter and easier to move. Chickens aren’t that tall, so they can use most of the “knee wall” section of the tractor. But I thing it will be nicer to be able to use 100% of the footprint. Since 5′ hardware cloth seems quite rare, and there’s no reason to have a run that’s higher than 3′ … I’m designing this around 3′ sections. The vertical walls will use one length of 3′ hardware cloth. The top will have two “sections” of 3′ hardware cloth.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The run will be a wooden frame covered in 1\/2″ mesh hardware cloth<\/a>. The frame is put together as shown in https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uSvpYh5OBYU<\/a>. I plan on using 2×4’s to build the frame, stapling the hardware cloth to the frame, and then using 1×2’s over the edge of the hardware cloth to ensure sharp edges won’t snag or cut anything. The screws holding the 1×2’s onto the 2×4’s will provide additional security.<\/p>\n

On each corner, I need two 3″ long screws and another two screws for the board along the top. That’s 28 3″ long screws. I’ll need a bunch of fencing staples to hold the hardware cloth and some eighty 1.5″ long screws to hold the 1×2 to the 2×4’s<\/p>\n

I need just over 50′ of three-foot-wide hardware cloth (10′ + 10′ + (2 x 10′) + 6′ + 6′ = 52′). Since I’ll need some to secure the coop too, I’ll probably just get a 50′ roll and a 20′ roll. I need 5x 10′ long 2×4’s, 4x 6′ long 2×4’s, 4x 3′ long 2×4’s (cut from 4x 10′ long 2×4’s) … which is nine 10′ long 2×4’s. I also need nine 10′ long 1×2’s to cover the ends of the hardware cloth. And maybe some handles on the top 6′ board to make carrying the thing easier.<\/p>\n

I need to research a non-toxic paint or sealant, and we’ll have a chicken tractor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I want to build a secure run for our chickens — something we can move around the yard. I’ve seen a lot of A-frame chicken tractors — I assume people use the triangular shape instead of a rectangle because there’s less material for a given footprint and, thus, the tractor is lighter and easier to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1066],"tags":[1070],"class_list":["post-6816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chickens","tag-chicken-run"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6816"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6827,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6816\/revisions\/6827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}