# Using aluminum to build a tractor



## 8hensalaying (Jun 5, 2015)

I posted this on another forum, but no replies. Hoping some of y'all can help.Does anyone have any experience with using aluminum for the frame and coop? Hubby thinks that will make it lighter and easier for me to move around. We are planning on a gambrel roof coop that will run the length of the run. All aluminum except the hardware cloth. He thinks that will allow him to make it big enough for the number of chickens we want (8) while keeping the weight down enough so that I can move it myself with maybe just a little help from our daughter. Pros/cons? any suggestions? Thanks in advance! 


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

32 square feet of floor, no nest boxes taking up space, no feeders, now waterers. That's an 8X4 building, minimum. The weight of conventional framing of the roof. Then a run also? My commercial construction husband is shaking his head no. It will still be too heavy and he's seen what I'm capable of moving weight wise. Or at least he was before I hit 60 plus.

Then there's the whole thing of where you live. Does it get extremely hot? Metal collects and transfers heat like you wouldn't believe. Same with cold.


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## 8hensalaying (Jun 5, 2015)

That is what I am thinking as well, I thought he was coming around to a fixed coop, but I guess not. He is set on a tractor for the ease of cleaning and fertilizing the grass, plus the hens being able to forage as we will not be able to free range at all. Can't budge him lol We may need to re-think and adjust our hen number down to 6...for the time being


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## 8hensalaying (Jun 5, 2015)

Anybody else's significant other drive them nuts??? DH now thinks the best thing is to have a stationary coop and build a very basic tractor (canvas, tarp for shade) to allow them some foraging time during the day....For some reason this was NOT a good idea when I suggested it a week ago....Now that he thinks it is his idea it is BRILLIANT!!! lol. My head is starting to spin! Oh well as long as I get my coop and chickens I don't care lol!


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Wait, just wait for just a minute, he'll decide something different in just a minute.

Why did he not like the idea of having runs on either side of a fixed coop. Or there could even be one all the way around but section them off so that they only have access to the one you open the pop door for? 

I'll see if I can find some pics of the coops with runs on either side. Heck, my Silkie coop had runs on both sides but I also had separate pens inside so they were all divided off. Maybe I have a pic.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I don't have any of my Silkie coop but check out this link:

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-rotate-permanent-runs-for-your-chickens.html

Really all he's doing is creating more work for whoever has to shuffle the birds around.


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## 8hensalaying (Jun 5, 2015)

The way our lot lays, our back yard is very tiny, Larger front yard, but he does not want to put a permanent coop in the front. He is just in love with the idea of letting the chickens fertilize our yard and making sure the ground has time to recuperate before the chickens go back on that same plot. Our lot is an acre but is very narrow. The back slopes down sharply to woods and creed bottom. so the coop will have to go on one side or the other. I am home most of the time and really don't mind "tractoring" them around daily (as long as it isn't too heavy) since free ranging is not an option for us. We probably won't start that until next spring.


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