Hoop Chicken Trailer

Submitted by dorn on Mon, 07/24/2017 - 3:46pm

Tool Concept

Stage:

Ready to Build

Primary problem statement:
I am a farmer and I want a tool to make pastured chicken management easier because chickens can be greatly beneficial to nutrient management and grazing can improve animal and farmer well being. .
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License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Description:

A simply constructed 28’ Hoop Chicken Trailer for up to 150 birds. It is designed to be light weight enough to be moved by a very small tractor or ATV and have easy access to food and water for several days and provide easy access to clean egg collection.

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Documentation

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Documentation Wiki:

Water and feed bay is placed over axels to reduce tongue weight

The 1” vinyl fence flooring is easy on chicken feet but still lets droppings fall through.

Flooring is 3” and 4” secured with self tapping screws before chicken wire is attached with staples to provide predator protection and additional strength before putting down vinyl mesh.

The layer boxes are lower than the roosts with sloped tops to discourage roosting on or in boxes to keep eggs clean.

Roosts are angled to promote different heights of roosting to enable hens to sort out hierarchy.

Slippery vinyl tarp cover with hoop shape discourages roosting on the outside

The tarp cover is necessary to cover food and water bay to keep chickens for hiding and roosting inside.

Bay is 4’x4’x5’ and holds one 55gal water tank and 6+ bags of feed or a good sized loose feed bin.

The order of assembly is –

Floor slating
2x6 and 2x4 edges to catch cattle panel frame
Staple chicken wire and vinyl mesh flooring
Build “A” frame roosts and place on floor
Build egg boxes ( 11”x12” with 9”x 11” front opening)
Bend 12’ cattle panels (made out of 16’ panels) – remove 4’ and keep as a spare panel for sheep pens
Secure panels with lag screws through 2x4

Bill of materials

2x4 for edge frame

2x6 for edge frame

Floor slats

2x4 for a frames for roosts

1x for roosts and bracing

Plywood or 1x material for egg boxes

12’ cattle panel cut from 16' cattle panel

2x4 for securing cattle panel

Self tapping screws, Long and short Deck screws/cabinet staples/framing nails/

Vinyl billboard tarp for cover

Strapping to secure tarp to 2x4 and edge frame

2x4s for framing feed and water bay

Chicken wire for under vinyl fence flooring and for endwalls and around feed and water bay

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User Manual

User Manual Wiki:

The Hoop Chicken trailer is mostly working as designed. There are a few challenges that I think will be addressed in future versions

to keep weight down, only a 55 gallon water tank is being used, which increases the frequency of required to fill the tank. Fitting two tanks, or a larger 250 cube over the axle might be a reasonable tweak, but would come at the cost of mid trailer feed storage.
roll up sides are working very nicely for egg collection and the lower egg boxes do not encourage roosting which has resulted in very clean eggs so far
training the chickens to roost inside the trailer took about two nights of helping them inside in the evening.
there was very little drop in egg production the day after the first move, and none noticeable after subsequent moves
locking chickens inside at night makes it easy to transport the whole flock to a new field the following morning.
chickens will lay some eggs on the ground, usually behind the trailer wheels, so it is important to check daily. Usually out of a hundred birds there are only one or two on the ground.
chicken manure seems to be dropping through the 1" vinyl fence very nicely, and the chickens are comfortable walking on it.
the round shape and slick surface of the billboard tarp cover has been effective at preventing roosting on the trailer itself
securing a cover at the mid-section feed and water bay is critical to prevent chickens from hiding and roosting on top of the feed bin or water tank.
significant rain protection for feeders is still being refined, but for a light rain the mid-bay roof seems adequate.
an option for additional feed storage may be a waterproof bin at the trailer tongue, but this may encourage daytime roosting and dealing with the resulting chicken manure on the feedbox.

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