Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Design and Use a Chicken Tractor - blurb and contents

I've written over 5000 words, so I thought it was time to share the blurb and contents for the book. This could change, but its what I think I'll include at this stage:

Ever wondered about keeping your chickens in a chicken tractor? That’s just a fancy name for a chicken pen on wheels. Your chickens get access to fresh grass and bugs, and you get peace of mind that they are safe from predators and you never have to clean out a chicken run again! With a bit of thought, you can design a chicken tractor to work in nearly any situation. This ebook explains how chicken tractors are used by the author, and others, and then lists all the design considerations so that you can build one yourself to suit your climate, terrain and personal chicken keeping goals. As a bonus, the final section of the ebook contains firsthand experience with a number of chicken keeping challenges, from egg-eating hens to trimming a rooster’s spurs, and finally how to butcher a chicken. If you’ve thought about using a chicken tractor, but didn’t know where to start, this ebook will give you enough information to
understand how to design and use a chicken tractor yourself.


1. Introduction
1.1. About us
1.2. About this book
1.3. Conversion of units
1.4. Chicken tractor terminology

2. Chicken tractor basics 
2.1. What is a chicken tractor?
2.2. Advantages
2.3. Disadvantages

3. Examples of chicken tractors
3.1. How do we use chicken tractors
3.2. Joel Salatin – Pastured Poultry Profits
3.3. Linda Woodrow – Permaculture Home Garden
3.4. Chicken Tractor: The Permaculture Guide to Happy Hens and Healthy Soil
3.5. Toby Hemenway. - Gaia’s Garden

4. Design and construction considerations
4.1. Construction materials
4.2. Mobility and weight
4.3. Climate
4.4. Size
4.5. Layers or meat chickens
4.6. Predators and pests
4.1. Mesh size
4.2. Provision of food and water in the tractor
4.1. Putting it all together

5. How to use a chicken tractor
5.1. How to accustom chickens to a chicken tractor
5.2. When and how to move the tractor
5.3. How to combine chickens and gardens

6. General Chicken Tips
6.1. Using an incubator
6.2. Using (and making) a broody box
6.3. Ideas for feeding chickens
6.4. Egg eating hens
6.5. Dealing with clucky hens
6.6. How to catch a rooster
6.7. Trimming a rooster’s spurs
6.8. Keeping multiple roosters (peacefully)
6.9. Butchering chickens

7. References

Appendix A: Photos of our chicken tractors
Appendix B: Useful chicken tractor websites

What do you think?  Did I miss anything?  What else do you want to know about chicken tractors?

1 comment:

  1. It sounds good, I think I will have to figure out how to put tractor weights on mine as rarely we have horrible wind storms in the summer. I once had a goat house blown over with a goat in it so it really blasts here at times.

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