How to make a portable chicken tractor to improve your garden | DIY Projects | Gardening Australia

Описание: Hannah shows how to harness chicken power, with a neat chicken tractor! Subscribe 🔔 http://ab.co/GA-subscribe
Chickens are wonderful garden companions, providing eggs, manure, eating scraps and they’re pretty good company too! Their constant love of eating and scratching up soil for grubs and slugs can be harnessed to help the garden, with a well-designed chicken tractor.

A chicken tractor is a portable pen that can be moved around the garden to control where your chickens feed, scratch and poop. It’s good for the chickens as they get to roam outside their usual home and get a good feed. And it’s good for the garden as they help improve and prepare the soil for new plantings by adding nutrients and lightly turning over the soil. They can also lend a hand in areas where you need help with maintaining weeds.

Fresh chicken manure is very strong and can be harmful to plants. But as the tractor moves around regularly, there should only be a small amount in one place which can be dug into the soil, or shovel excess into your compost system.

Key design features:
A covered section to provide shelter from sun and rain.
Include a perch for the chickens to rest off the ground.
A comfortable size for a few chickens is at least 1m2.
Tailor make the size and shape to fit neatly onto your garden beds.

Materials:
Chicken tractors can be made from a range of repurposed materials. Hannah constructed hers with timber and polypipe for the frame, chicken wire for the main covering, and an old fabric sign for shelter. The main material considerations are weight – you need to be able to lift and carry it around; and security – it shouldn’t blow over in the wind and the chooks shouldn’t be able to escape!

Chickens should only stay in the tractor during the day. At night, they go back to their predator-proof home to stretch their wings.
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