Ok, this new cattle panel design is interesting. I’m curious to how it compares to the other in weight. I’d cut down on the overhead roofing, I think, which would save a bit of weight. The chooks need SOME shade down in the south, but not all shade. The ones with just roofing on the center are better, but I’d shift it all to one side instead. Lower roof is better wind protection.

I’d probably build some real roosts in there too though I’d scratch my head over that a bit. Something light like dried pine sapling trunks (1″ diameter or so, probably need replacing annually) or if I felt like spending some $, wooden broom handle replacements.

Right now still running my two 2x4x8′ pvc and hardware cloth tractores, with half covered and sided with roofing. I tried using plastic tarps, thick ones, for that, but the sun did them in in less than a year. And they fall apart in messy fashion. And a stray dog tore one up fast (try that with metal roofing, mutt!). I put a nest box (milk crate with one end cut out a bit) in one and tied that to one side and top with cable ties (used cable ties to secure the hardware cloth too) and they have held up pretty well. They are in their second year now and only real issue is some of the cable ties need replacing now and then. Nice and light. But I run 5 full-grown chooks in them at most and move them twice a day. The door is one 2×4′ section of the top. I ran a 2×4 piece across top to provide some support on each side of the door and use one with some hooks in it to hold their water and feeders. (I also ran a 1×2 across the bottom in the middle to add a bit of support two.) That way can move them easily without having to fiddle with those containers MOST of the time. Occasionally they knock them off hooks (usually it’s when I have multiple roos in one tractor.)

My only real complaints with these are how many birds I can pack in and that I can’t get into them to catch the birds (though a right-sized landing net allows that.) They are nice for things like segregating some hens and a roo I want to breed. Or raising a batch of chicks once they are feathered. So I expect to always have some. I can also move them through my new wider garden walkways if I like. The aren’t good on my raised beds, though, because I didn’t make those wide enough. Live and learn.

Enough with the chicken tractor dissertation!! :p

I applaud your decision to use a heritage breed (or whatever you call the non-hybrids) instead of Cornish Crosses. Everyone I know who raises broilers swears by Cornish Crosses, and I’m always like, yeah but what do you do if the hatchery suddenly has no more chicks available? What if the post office stops delivering? Sure you have to spend more time growing them out so there’s a bit more input financially, and there tends to be more dark meat and smaller breasts, but you have the security of knowing you can keep breeding more instead of relying on having to buy chicks multiple times a year. Personally I’ve never grown the C-monsters. Their inability to reproduce offends my sensibilities…like Monsanto terminator seeds. I mean to each their own, but I’ll take the old-school sustainable option over technological systems that require perpetual external inputs.