I want to have a 3 foot wide tractor so I can pull it around my garden paths. My potager graden is broken up into squares that are either 6x8 or 7x9. All the paths in the potager are 3'1".
How long can the tractor be and still get around the corners? I'm putting wheels on it so I can move it like a wheelbarrow. I want it to be as long as possible but still get around the corners of the beds. What do you think?
Chicken Tractor Advice Needed
Can it overhang the beds while turning? If not it can't even get around the turns at all at 3 ' wide. We need more information.
Unless you had some space at the end of each row to turn around it sounds to me as though you're going to sacrifice a lot of growing area in your potager in order to be able to do 90 degree turns. I would go up and down the rows in one orientation (like N to S) and then do the other orientation (E to W) so you don't have those corners. Hopefully you could use the turn-around space for other purposes, or use it for storage of movable features, since you won't have to pull the tractor to a new place on a daily basis.
We had a home-made chicken tractor that we just got rid of because it was too big and heavy, although it worked. We bought a much lighter aluminum contraption which we haven't yet put together. But we're planning to use it in a large field, just to give young chickens protection.
Greenhouse gal, did you buy that online? Do you have a link? I'd be curious to know which one it is. I'll try and post a not-to-scale drawing of my garden. It's already laid out. At the end of some of the paths is a wider area for turning around. So I wouldn't have as much of a problem with the north/south paths, but the east/west ones would prove tricky. This is a pdf file so not sure if it'll post here. If it doesn't, when I get back from the airport, I'll see if I can convert it to a jpeg.
Porkpal, not sure how to answer your question. I'm still thinking about it! I guess it could overhang a bit but the problem is it isn't like a wheelbarrow where the bulk of what you're moving is 6 inches or more above the ground/wheels.
What I need to be able to do is just find some way to enclose those paths so the chickens can have access to them.
Gwendalou, we got the pen from Murray McMurray, I think. We ordered it this winter and it's still in the box. It's this one:
http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/product/portable_chicken_pen.html
They're not cheap but we really needed something that was easier to move!
Without knowing what your garden looks like, it seems to me that it might be easier if you just put up temporary plastic netting with those fibreglas or metal poles in the area you want the chickens to be able to roam. We use that to keep our chickens out of places we want to protect.
I was able to convert the pdf to jpg so I'll see if it posts here. The area on the right, where it says chicken tractor and chicken run is the only area more than 3'1" wide (aside from the beds of course).
I saw a pic of a tractor that had been made using a garden wagon. They took the sides off and used the base to build the tractor. I wonder if that would work. I did want the cutesy little tractor I had seen online tho. I'll post that in a second photo.
Here's the tractor I had hoped for!
Another view...
Last one...
That's a cute tractor, for sure! Very decorative and presumably useful as well!
Yes, see why I have to have it?!?!?!?!? LOL Now, help me make it work around those corners!