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Chicken tractor custom-designed for a production market garden.
  • The find: a bunch of rolled expanded metal, assembled into 9'x14' panels, formerly used to hang artwork at the University of Victoria's Maltwood Gallery. These came to us via the Government of BC surplus auction website. "Will a magnet stick to it?" I asked. "Nope," the answer, so I assumed it was aluminum. It wasn't until we started cutting it that we realized it was stainless steel!
  • The fourteen panels, covered on both sides, amass nearly 4,000 sqft of 16 gauge rolled expanded stainless steel, a retail value of nearly $19,000 that we got for $600. Most of these are destined for greenhouse shelving, but two of them became "chicken tractors," a structure for putting chickens to work tilling the soil and eating pests.
  • We cut two panels in half, to make four 9'x7' panels. We then made 30 degree mitre cuts, so the result would fold into a structure that covers a 5'x7' section of our beds, which are 5'x28'. So one tractor will be moved four times to completely prepare each bed for planting.
  • The panels are folded, glued, and screwed. Although it is an unsustainable product, we chose polyurethane glue for its weatherproofness and ability to fill voids. (Our 30 degree mitre cuts were not the most precise.)
  • Nesting box supports span the length of the chicken tractor, sticking out the ends to make handles for moving the tractors. These and other lumber was recycled from horse fence that we replaced with deer fence.
  • The nesting box and night roost supports are in place. These required 30 degree rip cuts in 7' 2"x6" boards, which can be a bit of a challenge on the table saw!
  • Carol "cleans up" the panel, removing signs that the Maltwood Gallery had used to organize its art collection.
  • Cross-supports for the nesting box and night roost are glued and clamped into place.
  • Here are the chicken tractors with most of the supports in, waiting for installation of sheathing for the nesting box and night roost, which will have a door to make them predator-proof. (To be continued...)