22 June 2008

Chicken Tractor, or, Meat Sounds


The chicken tractor is built. It only took a few hours to do, and now we can finally put the chickens to work on something other than breakfast. It would be nice to let them completely free range, but we have neighbors who would think that's a bad idea. What we plan to do is toss the ladies in the tractor every morning and park it on a bare garden bed or under some trees*. After years of neglect, there is a fair amount of bad shit crawling about this place and we, with the chickens' help, aim to improve the situation.

*Have you ever heard the sounds a chicken makes when it eats a really fat grub? Imagine someone eating a raw steak with their mouths open. It may not be as loud, but yeah, it's nasty. I just have to remember that the slurping makes the eggs taste better. Shit, that doesn't help at all.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Okay, now all you have to do is figure out how to get it up here and let the girls work on that overgrown garden patch out back. You know the one. Seriously, it looks great and what a good idea!

Carla said...

Kelly, somehow I knew that was you posting and not Meg. I don't even think about what goes in my chickens in relation to what comes out in their eggs except broccoli and cauliflower.
Be sure to move the chickens every day or their droppings will kill anything it touches. Good grass and bad weeds.
Goodness, look how big your garlic has gotten. When do you harvest it?

Unknown said...

Very cool!

Anonymous said...

lol... I can hear the chickens slurping now. Your posts are great. I've been reading via RSS for a month now. Wishing you luck.

Robbyn said...

chick tractor looks great! lol thanks for the verbal visual with the grubs...ugh :)

Anonymous said...

Eeewww, if you're close enough to hear 'em slurping you're too close! And what do you use to cover the top of the "tractor"?

Anonymous said...

I thought the same thing too when I first saw our chickens slurp down a worm. But I'm so used to it now that I go and gather slugs and other bugs I see laying around for them.

www.mysisterdalesgarden.com said...

what a great job--- looks great.

Sarah said...

That is so awesome...I made the mistake of building my chicken tractor out of solid plywood...Not very mobile. My next attempt will be much more like yours! It looks really light and easy to move. I bet you are going to have some really happy chickens.

Phelan said...

Wonderful job on that tractor.

Unknown said...

Well hello Laurel,
I know the spot you're talking about. If this NCC gig turns out the way we hope it will, getting the tractor to your place will be a breeze.

Hey there CeeCee,
I always think about what our chickens are eating. I like to imagine that if I fed them lots of herbs, their eggs will come pre-seasoned. We have been moving them around, but mainly because three birds in a 4x8 pen will scrape the ground bare if we leave them there too long. You do bring up an interesting concern however. Won't their droppings be good for the grass? I feel like we may have missed something and I hope it doesn't result in us destroying the yard. Thanks for giving us the heads up.

Our garlic harvest will probably go down in a week or so. You know there will be a post for that event.

Hello Michelle Ellis,
Thank you. We're glad you dig it.

Hey Lauren,
We're glad you found us and like the spot. We always love to hear from you all out there.

Howdy Robbyn,
I've been teaching my students the power of objective description and figured that I should practice what I preach.

Hey Ben,
Trust me, you don't need to get all that close to hear it. They aren't exactly lady like. The top s covered with that bird netting stuff you'd put on fruit trees. It's light weight, inexpensive, and tough as nails.

Hi Cathy,
I hear ya. We'll take them hand fulls of grubs and other garden nasties. I figure its making the yolks all the more tasty and healthy.

Hey Miriam,
Many thanks.

Hey there Sarah,
Yeah light weight is certainly the way to go. If it has to be real big because you have a lot of birds then you may also consider PVC skids. I think El at "Fast Grow the Weeds" did something like that with her tractor.

Hello Phelan,
Thank you. If someone has an itch for building, gardening would certainly satisfy.