For our meat birds we have decided to pasture them using a Justin Rhodes style meatshaw. This should allow us to get them out on grass for the remaining five weeks of their brief lives.
We started out a few weeks ago at Papa’s house, where Seppi and Daddy cut most of the pieces out of scarp 2 x 4 which we drove down to the farm. Then we had to take a pause of a few days before we could start working on the frame. We used Daddy’s truck as a scaffold to get the perimeter and cross braces together.
For the next steps we tipped it upright and leaned it against the rafter of the carport.
Lots of cross bracing and angle bracing gives this thing its rigidity…
While old rotatiller wheels placed close to the center of gravity provide its mobility.
Seppi loves building things. And now we have a fram on wheels. Light enough that Daddy can move it easily with one hand, and Evie can move it easily with two hands.
Well, maybe not easily. The wheels need to be pumped up a bit.
How’s this for a country-chic glamour shot?
Then we screwed on some of the metal panels we took off the front of the shop when we put in the garage door, and voila!
Free chicken tractor!
The final step…
Painting the uncovered boards to give them some degree of weather-proofing.
And there you have it. A Chick-Shaw.
God Willing, tomorrow we will get it set up out on the pasture and get the chickens set up there. Stay tuned!
Little Farm in the Big City 