Tractor Coops verses Traditional Hen Houses

There are so many choices in hen houses, which do you choose? Tractor coops are on the rise and here’s why.
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Tractor coops are those that are usually built on a smaller scale, have wheels or are at least light weight, so that they can be moved regularly. What are the advantages? Let’s look first at a traditional hen house.

Our large tractor coop. Yes, we put a wire floor in this one to protect the hens from predators. We would not do this again as we've discovered it doesn't seem to be necessary.

Traditional Hen Houses
Most know that traditionally a hen house is built to not be moved. It’s either a barn, or coop with wire fencing to keep predators out. They must be cleaned once or twice a year. This job is not fun and is a lot of hard work.

First to clean a hen house all the manure must be shoveled out to another area of the property. This does make great fertilizer for your gardens. Once the manure, debris, straw or hay is removed, bleach mixed with water, must be sprayed all over the coop in order to kill any bad bacteria.

I remember when my husband and sons did this job where we used to live and had hens. We vowed that whenever we had any poultry again we’d do our best to have the floor space as minimal as possible. This is where the tractor coop comes into play.

Tractor Coops
Like I said above, they’re usually smaller and lightweight. Tractor coops are built specifically to be moved around regularly. The reason for this is so that the chickens have plenty of new bugs, grass, and seeds to eat. This is called free range.

A big advantage is that there’s no floor to clean. Yes, the coop where the nest is and any other area, still needs to be disinfected, but the floor is the ground.

If hens are “cooped up”, pun intended, in a barn or other traditional hen house these hens aren’t able to roam free for new bugs and seeds like I mentioned.

The tractor coops can be made so light that they can be pulled with your two hands or they’re larger to hold more birds and can be pulled by a truck, tractor, or other vehicle.

The first one we made is the larger one in the photo. Obviously, my husband attaches this one to his truck and moves it around every 2-3 days. The smaller one in the photo is great because we have a rope attached to it, so that it can be easily moved by hand.

Hope this gives you a little more understanding on hen houses and the advantages of tractor coops. I’ll be writing soon on how to keep your hens protected from predators.
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Keep on reading, and as always,
~ All the best! ~
Julie

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