Where I live they have to be locked up tight. We had them in part of the barn with sheetrock on walls. This is a finished room in a pole barn...a mink found his way into the overhead and pried loose a spot in the drywall...came through and killed nearly all of the chickens we had at the time. I trapped him the next night by wedging a Hav-A-Heart trap in the chicken door, but it was too late to save the birds. No way could we ever leave them loose. We are on a lake and surrounded by National Forest...couldn't get any worse for predators. One fox took a break in the front yard while carrying off a hen that decided to hide out instead of going in at night. Neighbors have lost all their geese and chickens to coyotes. Most of us have tried to keep guineas. We loose most to owls taking them off their roosts in trees and the rest to ground predators taking the hens off the nest. Usually end up with one wise old male.

I would have loved to use chicken tractors, but we had to string wire in a pattern over the permanent chicken yard and tie strips of cloth, sureyors orange tape, and mylar film on the wire to keep hawks and eagles out. We have found an array of different feathered and furred animals inside the chicken house, and the only way in was through a 12x12 inch chicken door.

The only thing I can think of would be a portable chicken house on a trailor frame that could be moved with the tractor for security, but is it worth all that? If it was a small number of chickens, it might be feasible, but not for large numbers. Couldn't be made of chicken wire...we have had them killed by raccoons reaching through the wire and pulling parts of the bird through...literally eaten alive.

My"Hilton" chicken tractor kept out racoons and skunks that we know we have.My husband overbuilt it because two by fours were cheaper than two by twos.Its all I can do to drag it to new ground but the chickens were borrowed from my daughter and went home for the winter.I'm hoping to get some permanent ones this spring.It has a metal door with a good catch and high roosts where they seem safe.The top is partially covered with plywood and the rest is chicken wire.And two by fours.Its all real solid.If the ground was uneven where I moved it,I filled the hole with a few bricks or a piece of heavy timber.We trapped FIVE skunks from under our house thru the year so I know they were here and our neighbor had coons in the barn(like pets but not) so we do have varmints here too.Years ago we had a weasel come in and kill most of our order of 100 baby chicks so we knew about critters and varmints.Posy Pet

I too faced the critter factor since I live on the edge of national forest in the North Carolina Black Mountains -- hawks, owls, foxes, etc. I elected to build a stationary chicken house with a fenced run that has a roof and then just let the chicks run around in the yard now and then for fun. The wind was as big a concern as critters -- our wind storms would certainly topple anything light..and a heavy chicken tractor (as someone else pointed out) is a challenge to move...

The roof turned out to be the best thing b/c it keeps the bedding dry in the run and we have a lot of rain. Then I built the whole thing within the larger 'lot' fence so our dogs kind of patrol too. I've found fox scat very near the chicken house, but after a year and half we had no losses.

There's a picture of the chicken house at www.herwords.org/house -- it's red and white -- we call it the TajMaHen.

But what's been great is the connection with the garden. I put down thick straw bedding (plus throw in grass clippings, leaves, yard clippings, garden thinnings and weeds, etc) The chickens beat any compost turner -- feathers down! The pulverize this stuff into tiny bits, season it with their poop and feathers, and then when I clean out the house every several weeks I make a compost pile out of it all. It composts VERY quickly and is incredible stuff! I clean it out often just to get the compost b/c due to the roof, it stays dry and has very little odor if any.

It's a system I plan to do again when I move in the summer to the Arkansas Ozarks -- I hear I'll be able to use any amount of compost I can make on the thin soil!

But I want to try a chicken tractor too. Does anyone know of links that picture different tractor designs? I'll go put up a better pic of my house on my website right now. :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: the chicken house -- look for red/white bldg

Treegal where are u moving to . Always glad to make a new friend. Judy

I think I typed in chicken tractor on google and got some pretty good pictures.Posy Pet

After our house in NC sells, we'll be looking for a place somewhere within about 45 minutes of Rogers and/or Eureka Springs. Where are you Judy?

Hi, I may be the one to whom you were referring about wintering chickens in a hoop house and varmints. We have 2 Great Pyrenees who patrol the yard, garden areas and orchard. The hoop houses are on the garden proper so the dogs can protect them. We've only lost one chicken and that was in broad daylight to a fox. Our female ran off the fox and took the dead chicken to her favorite lair to protect it. We've found dead and dying opossums in the yard where the dogs have caught and mauled them. If they tree one, they make enough racket to make me go check it out. I can usually prod the beast onto a lower limb, then into a cage for relocation.

I move our chicken tractors with 6 12" lengths of 3" PVC pipe. I put one under bottom rail perpendicular to the leading edge (direction I want to go), a second one under the same rail about half way back and a third about 3/4 of the distance back. I can lift the edge with a hand truck as a lever and push the PVC under the rail with my foot. Put 3 more under the opposite side in the same locations. I position my backside against the following edge of the tractor and push with both legs. Our yard is relatively smooth but has a minor slope to the southwest. Good luck.