Building Joel Salatin Chicken Tractors. Raising Chickens without a barn.
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- Опубликовано: 11 июл 2020
- I’m really thankful that you guys are watching. More videos coming soon. I’m pretty far behind on editing this chicken growing process. In this video, my siblings and I build four Joel Salatin-style “Chicken Tractors” to pasture raise 300 cornish cross meat birds into. This is our first step into regenerative agriculture. I am super passionate about this.
We have since processed the birds that were in these shelters, and now have a second batch in them now, and the third batch is ordered as well. I’m hoping to do more videos soon, breaking down the price of raising Cornish cross where we are, in an efficient Joel Salatin model. If you haven’t read Pastured poultry profits yet, you need to.
Pastured poultry profits: www.amazon.com/Pastured-Poult...
My Society6 art: society6.com/havendezeeuwart
You can support me here. / havendezeeuw
Follow me on Instagram: @hdezoo
Music: All music was downloaded from the RUclips Audio Library
-Gold in Them Hills by Nathan Moore
-Take It Easy by Bad Snacks
-Lottery by Anno Domini Beats
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Interesting channel name, but what sold me was the socks in flip flops routine during construction.
Those are my safety sandals and safety socks.
Amen
If you ever had a nail go through your foot you wouldnt wear sandals yes its about safety
😂😂😂😒
I've had one nail go through my foot before, but now I know not to step on nails.
Lord I'm 45 in a couple days , all i want is good health and the drive a guy like this has in this video 😁
I'm locally grown and raised, I see these when I head to town. They look really good and it's awesome to see raising pastured chickens taking flight. We need much more of this in the area and I think there is a sail wind bringing it in.
I love how down to earth you guys are and honest
1,000 watched this?! That's insane! You guys rock.
65k!
It's crazy. I can hardly believe it.
120k
Well done!
175k
211,000 people watched this? That’s insane. One year flew by so fast
Great tweaks on the 'original' Salatin design :) We made one following his plans this year, already plan to make the next one a bit more like yours. Nice job!!!
Thanks! I’m glad I could help.
Thanks for taking the time to share, video, and explain 🤙👍
Awesome chicken tractors. These looks great. Wish I would have build a bigger tractor for our chickens
wow, amazing I've never seen anything like this before.
Thank you for the video!! and great fashion statement with your slippers 😜
Enjoyed it. It's great watching a farm boy video, just plain and simple and funny. Wanting to do this type of deal soon. Them Amish sell cheap wood. I should know being a Yoder myself 😆
Glad you enjoyed it
For the water you can get a container with a cap at the top and a tap at the bottom, you close the tap at the bottom and fill the container with water, then you close the cap at the top so no air can get in, you place the container on top of the cage and run a piece of hose from the tap to a cup on the floor, open the tap and the cap gets water for the chickens to drink and stop, as the water gets consumed air will go up the hose and some water will fall in the cup, it will be automatic water feeding, all you got to do refill the container.
I’ve made 3 of these now. Kept working on the design to refine it. Got it down to a few ripped 2x6s for the bottom and ripped deck boards for the top. Ripped 2x4s for all uprights. No diagonal bracing. Used hardware clothe like you did. Very light and doesn’t sag.
I would cut back on material for sure if I were to do it over again. After I pulled them for two summers, I decided they are heavier than I would like.
As Joel Salatin says: they’re not pigs or cows, they don’t need heavy a built structure. You’re just keeping lightweight predators out. If you look at what he uses they look like they might fall apart at any moment lol
I can hear my daddy now, “cover them toes up before you lose them!”
A friend of mine made a really similar coop out of an old truck bed cover.
Ha! Those are my safety sandles.
When we have the rains here in southeast Texas that really stands, we shove hay or straw under the tractor wall, then move the tractor forward about halfway, and the chickens immediately crawl up on the hay out of the water. Works for us.
That’s doesn’t sound fun.
@@hdezoo any concern about uneven ground or holes in the ground creating access points for predators to get in under the walls?
For sure. I keep some wood scraps on the shelters to shiv in any divots, but our pasture is quite level. I rarely have to patch a hole with scrap wood. It I was in an area where there were weak points every day, I might enclose the shelters with electric netting for extra protection.
@@hdezoo thanks for sharing your video 👍
Thanks for watching!
Very cool!
Brilliant!
I just bought the books... looking to make the move. Great vid
Thank you!
awesome men, your work is inspiring!
Thank you!
Big respect for u no matter what who say
Absolutely fabulous
Thank you!
@4:11 "ill edit out all the bad parts" hilarious
It takes more acreage but I love raising chickens like this! Super easy and it's a lot cheaper to start if you already have the acreage. I use this type tractor in the cooler months and the Suscovich model tractor in the warmer months
For sure. After raising chickens this way, I would never raise them in a barn.
What is the social watch cage system look like and how many chickens
Interesting build, good idea
Thank you, and thanks for watching.
I love what you guys do, keep up the good videos.
Matthew Craft thank you!
Love the water system.
Pat Burgard They worked ok for this summer, but they started falling apart near the end of our third batch of birds. We'll be doing a different watering system for next year.
I will keep watching and see what you come up with 👍
Nice work ! Just subscribed. Who would downvote this ? I always want to meet these people and smack them. Looks great guys. really nice.
Thank you!
Chinesium, Kungflu, darn I cannot think of the third one right now. I love those. I noticed some differences I believe on your build. But like he says. He’s not telling you how to do it. Do what works for you.
very informative and helpful
I’m glad you think so!
Huh. Interesting build, although after referencing Joel Salatin's design in the title I was hoping you would talk more about what changes you made and why. Also whether or not you made the dolly to move those tractors and whether or not one person can move them with the heavier wood. I also didn't notice any mention of where you're located, but I did recognize wood sorrel in the grass, which reminds me of my youth in Maine.
Anyway, guess I'll have to check out the next video, and see if I can find answers to my questions there.
Love those construction boots, lmao comfort 1st, I would have started with saw-horses :-)
Haha, I like to live life on the edge!
New sub! Love the content! 🙏🏻
Thank you so much for watching!
We’ve tried both and my wife and I lean more heavily towards the A -frame style. These are nice because you can hold more, but we found them a little more difficult to move around. Good video though!
Celtic Roots Farm They are more difficult to move, that can be true, but a good dolly or cart makes a world of difference. These shelters would be difficult for a child to move, or even a person smaller than I am.
@@hdezoo Yes, we found a dolly definitely helps. It's not bad, as long as you are going in a straight line. Which is why we put wheels on two sides of the tractor, so we could move it in either direction.
@@CelticRootsFarm If I were raising birds for just myself, I would probably go with a Suscovich style tractor. They seem to be lighter, and easier to get into if you want to see all of your birds at once.
@@hdezoo Yes, we agree. Although it doesn’t hold quite as many birds, we still prefer it because of the things you mentioned. 👍
it would be awesome to get plans and a cut list if you got em! this looks better than most versions of this tractor. id love to try it.
I'll hopefully make plans for it when I have the time. Thanks for watching!
@Phoenix Bear - Gravy Boat is this book also for a small farmer who doesnt have so many chickens?
Nice work 😎👍
Thanks!
Love the work shoes
I like to live life on the edge 🤓
the main thing that surprises me the most is that these cheap flip flops can handle so much weight :O
Lol
"KUNG-FLU", "Sweet-N-Sour-SICKEN" you guys kill me🤣 great video!
Nice work. I hate carpentry because I suck at it. I would pay someone to make me a couple of these this nice.
Well thanks! We made it up as we went. I had a picture of what I wanted in my head, and it came together really well.
Yeah sandals & socks guy must be from Poland ha ha ha ha:-) we nów that cubots are not just sandals this is the way of live👍 pretty coop easy made wwooowww!!
I notice that you're using the wire mesh on the sides, so that cats and other predators are not going to be able to reach through and grab the poultry. GOOD IDEA. :)
Thanks, and thanks for watching!
Lovely
Thank you!
I would highly recommend swapping the steel for aluminum. Steel will retain heat from the sun as aluminum will dissipate much faster. Which in turn will not over heat you birds to death
Well done!
Joel Salatin concurs.
Where does a farmer find aluminum siding these days? Here in Montana, it's impossible to find. Are you aware of a national source?
@@JoeSenger check with a gutter supply/installer, they get aluminum on rolls and make their own products from stock with a bar break table. There is also a product that is much more durable called poly core aluminum face sheeting (or something) , used for signs. It is awsome, light, and very stout.
Good luck sir.
I'm having problems with finding the aluminum. Would the white PVC corrugated roofing panels work you think? I live in Eastern Washington state and we do get some 100+ degree weather from time to time. Although, 90 degrees through July/August is much more common. I'd hate to cook my birds prematurely. ;)
perfect
Nice safety sandals
Those would also make awesome rabbit tractors.
You should put the steal on an angle and add a gutter that fills a water reservoir 👌
There’s an idea.
Kung Flue and Sweet and Sour Sickening .......... I love it !!! LOL
lol great build!
Thanks
LMAO no sweet & sour sick'em in it! Y'all kill me
A few people have though that that is what I said, but I actually said "sweet and sour sicken". But I'm glad there are still people with a sense of humor.
@@hdezoo either way, it was great lol. I feel the same way, it's good to know some people can still laugh at the absurdity of our world. I'm glad to have found your channel!
We’ve had raccoons rip apart chicks by sticking their arms under the tractor and pulling on whatever body part they could tear off. It’s awful. We have to put electric wire around each chicken tractor. Also, it gets very hard to catch the chickens under the aluminum when it’s time to dispatch them so I strongly suggest putting a second hatch on the covered part too.
yeah, you always wanna make sure it’s a nice, neat hole
Haven I like your videos
Thanks for watching!
I’m gonna build the same exact chicken tractor, video is super helpful, thanks man! It’s a year later from when you made it, is there anything you would have done differently?
Yeah, for sure. I would have used aluminum instead of steel. We got the stew for free, and we couldn’t find aluminum where we were, so we used steel. It’s much heavier than aluminum. You want to make it as light as you can. That’s pretty much it though. That, and a good cart or dolley design to put under the back edge that lifts the back off the ground when you pull it. That is a must.
Dude ! Your video is flying 😳
And I have no idea how. For some reason, the mystical algorithm looks favorably upon that video.
how do you stop foxes from digging under I made one of these in austraila and the fox burrowed under took 12 chickens I was thinking of just putting weld mesh around the outside 30cm (1 foot) long
I’ve heard people who have done that and have it work for them. Some guys put an electric wire a few inches high (6-8 inches or so) around the shelters.
Great video, I might make a few and try this in Tanzania.
Nice channel name btw; are your ancestors Dutch?
Question: how much feed, you reckon, you save by raising chickens this way?
Just once I'd like to see someone video moving one of the behemoth chicken boxes on day 3 or 4 of a week of heavy rain and still think it's a good idea.
Jerry Roberts the ground we had them on was sloped and drained very well. It's really important to put the shelters in an area that drains well. And is slightly sloped, preferably. We had a few weeks where we got 4 or 5 inches of rain or so and our ground was not spongy at all.
@@hdezoo I could see where well drained land would be a God send, lol. I've seen these things sunk halfway in mud. The smaller ones with the skinny tires are no match for saturated soil either.
Yours look to be well built and wishing you guys success with your chickens.
I subscribed after you said, "These were ordered before the kung flu." haha!
Thanks for subscribing!
Nice job! Those tractors look good. Chineseum, haha 😂 Thanks for sharing! How old are the birds now ? How much feed are you giving each bird , each day ?
Conrad Homestead those birds are in the freezer now actually. I'm way behind on editing. I have a lot of footage I have to edit. We fed free choice 24/7, and 300 birds ate 2,500 lbs of feed to get to 8 weeks old, and average 5.6 lbs dressed. We actually processed 150 from the batch after the one in the video, today. We are about to package them. And we are doing the other 150 tomorrow.
EDIT: sorry, not 2500 lbs, 2.5 tons, so 5000lbs
Do you guys put screen wire underneath your metal??? Or is just the metal over the areas covered good enough? Thank you!
We put wire on all sides of the shelters before we put steel on, because we were planning on having the sides hinge up just like the back, but we ended up just screwing the side steel on because we were low on time. The steel would be fine on its own.
Do you have issues with algae in the clear tubing that you use for the waterers?
We did a little. It didn't seem to gunk up the drinkers we had too bad. We would have used black tubing, but we couldn't find any online or at the hardware.
Great job guys
How long will it take you to get them to my homestead?
Excellent work!! Is there any danger/precautions to take in the case that predictors dig from the sides to get under and in the tractor? Thanks and keep up the good work.
I’ve heard that puting an electrical wire six or so inches tall, all around the shelters keeps them away, but you have to keep the grass low under it so it doesn’t short. We have yet to have anything dig underneath them, and we have been doing it for 2 years. Some people put fold down flaps on the side of their shelters that fall flat outside the shelter for a few feet. That way, anything that wants to dig has to dig several feet in one night.
Took all of maybe a month or so with this style before mink dug under and killed most of my chickens. Back to the fortified coop and run with mine.
These are meant to be moved daily, most predators can’t dig through in one try.
Hello! If there are long periods of rain, for example 4-5 days, and the pasture is soaked, how do we keep the chickens from getting wet and sick while in the chicken tractor? If we don't have a dry shed built nearby, is there a solution related to the construction of the chicken tractor?
My cousin has tractors this big, and, lawd. If it takes two people to drag one and I still end up injured, I'm not sure you can really call it a "tractor." More like big-ass box-on-the-ground.
You’re not wrong. I use a cart that is placed under the back wall to make it roll easier. A roller thingy is a must.
Hey thanks for the video. Just wondering where yall live? We are in Texas and my aon says we will need misters to keep them cool here. Have yall had issues with the heat?
joel c we had a week or two when the highs were around 85-95 and very humid. Our shelters are designed so the back can open completely, which helped a ton, and I would spray water on the roofs in the heat of the afternoon once a day, and because the roofs were concave a bit and the shelters were on level ground (total luck) the water would evaporate over half an hour or so and cool the roof. When the birds are small, the can stand the heat very well. When they get about four or five weeks old, heat is an issue. But even in that heat, we only averaged a 3.3% mortality rate for the summer overall.
So, what I am gathering here is A Stationary Chicken Coop is soon to be an antique. Very good guys, I am very impressed with your craftiness. Is the Coop Mobile on wheels? Or just scraping the ground when it is moved. Please help out this City Slicker, all I grow is sweet Potatoes.
We have a small cart with wheels that I slide under the rear of the shelter. It keeps the back edge about 2-3 inches off the ground so the chickens feet don't get caught under it. I pull it from the front, and the wheels make a huge difference.
Great Video Gents!!!! Keep it coming!!! Perhaps a rough estimate of the cost per tractor? Thanks again!
When we built them, about 250 or so
@@hdezoo Thank you much friend!
Wonder whether these tractors could be used with other fowl (ducks, guineas, turkeys) if the ceiling height were greater?
They could be very versatile, although if I added much more material to the shelters, they would be a bit too heavy to move comfortably.
New subscriber. Good job on the build! You would have loved to have Joel's new book on all his builds! Would have saved you a bunch of trips to town 😉
It would have been nice. I have it now, so I'm better prepared for future projects. Laying hens and turkeys are in our future.
@@hdezoo lucky you 😊 we are still waiting!
did you mention the size this is? great stuff, we are starting our 10x10 joel salatin tractor soon!
These are 12x12x2
I built an 8x5 and it is solid and easy to move. Will make the next one 10x5. The Salatin design seems way too big to me.
If I was just raising broilers for myself, I would make the shelter smaller as well. I think we will swap out the steel roofing for pvc roof sheeting this spring to make them lighter as well. I also want to make a different cart/dolly to make moving easier.
i live in the rainforest of peru with strong winds sometimes in storms. does such an enclosure fly away? What can I do to prevent this from happening?
If you had winds much stronger than 30 miles an hour, I might consider tethering the shelters down with something, maybe a three foot or so pole with a loop at the end, driven into the ground, with a ratchet strap over the top of the tractor to synch it down?
Hey, I'm just wondering, what happens when it rains heavily, the entire ground gets muddy right, so is that ok for chickens hygiene-wise?
The ground we have them on is pretty sandy, and drains very well. It is also on a knoll, so the water cannot pool around the shelters. Also, to my knowledge, it has never been cultivated, the grass sod is very thick and holds the soil together very well. It’s for all these reasons we decided to choose it as our chicken pasture. If we were to seed a low lying crop field to pasture, and started running broilers in this system on that ground, we would probably have a lot of issues with water, but the ground we have them on is very well drained.
@@hdezoo That clarifies it, thanks for the response man, looking for more interesting content on homestead and self-sufficiency.
i aways wonder with the chicken tractors do predatoers not just easy dig under it to get inside ?
We are about to start our third year growing chickens here in Michigan this way and we have yet to have anything dig under the shelters. We have coyote, fox, possum, and racoon, but none have dug underneath. I’ve heard some people say that because they are moved every day, it throws the predators off, but I don’t know. It could happen, but it hasn’t yet.
Bro, I used the same exact flip flops and impact!
It’s a trade secret
What size boards did you use to build the chicken tractor? I would like to build one just like it. I would need all measurements, thanks
Kimberly Laney we cut a lot of boards in half the long way. We didn't have any plans, we just made it up as we went along. I'll make a video in the future that has a materials list for the tractors we built.
@@hdezoo polyfacedesigns.com/. Polyface Designs, a new book has everything you need to build this.
My field is not very flat, so I'm not sure how safe this would be keeping out predators. Any suggestions?
You could have an electric fence around the shelter.
Yep, I was thinking about our land has LOTS of rocks of all sizes including big ones so it's hilly, rocky, bumpy, etc.... Great build but definitely we need to put in security fence before bringing in animals.
How do you keep pests out? We have raccoons that would easily take out our chickens unless locked up at night.
The only way for the raccoons to get in would be to dig underneath the shelters, which they have not done the two years we have grown them this way. The hardware cloth is 1/2 inch, so raccoons cannot get their paws through it to grab any chickens.
How many chickens in each one, I know Joe has 75. Seems a lot to me .
Excellently built guys !
Yeah, we do 75 in each. I wanted to move them twice a day the last week, but we didn't have enough room at the end of the pasture. The pens do get a bit grimy in 24 hours if they only get moved once a day.
Yes, 75 sounds like a lot to me too. Especally as the grow. I was thinking 50 per tractor. IDK.
@@Pepper-rn4hh I have 10 X 12 tractor and move one a day while little but last few weeks I move twice a day. I buy 50 each time I usually loose about 4 or 5 before processing. Works good for me.
@@deanlewis1650 sounds good. Thank you.
Our area we have bear, coyote, mountain lions, and of course raccoons etc. What do you do about predators?
@@Pepper-rn4hh we have different critters,hawks coyotes a raccoon every now and then. It's usually not a problem. Only on our free range birds. We lost 12 in one day once😢. I believe that it was a air strike on my hens but not sure.
No issues with our hogs at all.
Keep in mind that I am in upstate SC.
Are you shooting with a Cannon M50? My screen goes black to and is very annoying
This video was shot on a GoPro Hero 5, but would probably looked just as good, and sounded better if I shot it on my iPhone. The reason I didn’t shoot it on my iPhone is because I didn’t have a lot of storage left on my phone. I do have a cannon rebel T5i that I use if I’m filming stuff at my desk that I like very much.
Bagus
Yeah them 2x2 get pretty wonky without loads of support for sure
"...built like Fort Knox." The only thing that can get in is a politician.
👌👌👌
👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
I am making one for only 15 chickens. Laying boxes? Roosting rails?
These are for meat chickens, so there are no roosts or laying boxes.
Здорово!
Why don't they use a workbench to do the pre-fab work and save their backs?
We didn’t have a workbench to build the workbench on.
How many can you put in each cage. Also how big are the cages. Great work!
How do you cut the wire mesh (Hardward Cloth)?
Dr. Karen Jackson we mostly used a cordless grinder with a cutting wheel for speed. Although a pair of steel snips or even a pliers with a wire cutter would work, but it would take longer to cut.
Just a tip you might consider. When I cut hardware cloth I simply turn my blade backwards on my battery powered circular saw (Ryobi) and cut it just like cutting plywood. Neat, fast and efficient.
Would you provide the link for the watering cups? Thank you!
I would, but they really suck. I would not suggest them after using them all summer. They started failing the last few weeks. They are on Amazon, from several different places depending on who's selling them. They all vary a bit as well which is why we won't use them again.
@@hdezoo So...what do you recommend?
Awesome build. Two questions if you have the time:
1. What is the size/location of the hose you used for the waterer?
2. What kind of wire cage is that? Looks rectangular instead of square like 1/2” hardware cloth would be.
1: my brothers house and we’ll is about a quarter-mile down the road from the pasture. There are heifers in a few barns over at his place so there are water lines underground. We tied into those water lines with 1.5 inch waterline, and trenched it to the edge of the pasture with a backhoe and have a frost free hydrant there. From that hydrant, we have garden hoses running on top of the ground to wherever the chickens are at.
2: the mesh is 1/2inch by 1 inch hardware cloth on the top. We used it because we had bought every roll of 1/2 inch hardware cloth within 30 miles of us, and that was the next best thing.
@@hdezoo so cool. I loved the little racks with water cups so I’m thinking of integrating into a couple of hoop coops I’m making for my laying hens.
Rock on!
After a yeah of using those drinking cups, I wouldn’t recommend them. They get busted when the chickens get older and they get leaky with age. I recommend the bell-style waterers. They are pretty pricy brand new, but, but chicken houses sometimes rotate out older ones and you can get a good price on a used one sometimes.
@@hdezoo awesome intel!
I really like the way you built the back panel. Does having that wide open like that help mitigate any extra heat you may be absorbing from the steel? Also, how's the weight? You guys seemed to be handling it alright. Aluminum panels are a bitch to find.
Yeah, we could not find any aluminum sheeting when we built these. The reason we made the back like we did is because we had to use steel. We heard that steel is a lot hotter, so I wanted to be able to vent the shelter very well. We haven’t had any issues with birds overheating in these shelters. We’ve been very diligent to make sure they don’t run out of water, and if it gets above 90 or so I will come out at about 2 o’clock and get them damp with the garden hose to keep them cool until evening.
@@hdezoo Thanks! I saw your video about this after I had asked the question.. I think I'm going to end up using PVC. My main concern is durability but we'll see. I never expected aluminum to be that difficult to find! 🤷♂️
So is it about a t10x10 structure?
steph wofford Close, it's a 10x12. 10 wide and 12 long
and if you put 2 wheels to move them?
Yes, if you watch the next video on my channel, you can see how I move them.
How many acres do we need to accomplish this guys? Thanks
Official216OldMan we ran three batches of birds through these shelters this past summer on about an acre. The rule of thumb is that 10 shelters will cover one acre one time in one year. We have four shelters, and did three runs, so the pasture had twelve stripes at the end of the season. If you did one shelter you would need at least 4,200 square feet if you moved the shelter every day, for 5 weeks (3 weeks in the brooder, 5 weeks on pasture, 8 weeks total)
when they are all done and built, how much do they weigh?
I’m not quite sure. I’ll get an exact number later this spring, but they are probably around 200 pounds or so. Probably a bit less.
How many cycles do these tractors last for?
We're not quite sure. If we treat them well, I think they could last maybe ten years? All of the lumber that touches the ground is pressure treated, so it won't rot, and I move them by hand, so they don't get torn like they could if they were pulled by a vehicle. We did three runs with them this summer and they still look brand new.