Chicken Tractor: The Permaculture Guide to Happy Hens and Healthy Soil

by Patricia L. Foreman, Andrew W. Lee

A chicken tractor is a bottomless, portable pen that fits over your garden beds. Just set it wherever you need help in your garden. The chickens peck and scratch the soil to clean your beds, eat pest bugs and weed seeds. Best of all, they provide eggs and meat with that old-fashioned flavor. Chicken tractors have helped thousands of gardeners have better gardens and taken chickens out of factory farms and put them in the garden where they are your personal helpers.

Genres: Nonfiction, Agriculture, Gardening, Survival

324 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Wayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great information, but poorly edited. Also, the author later wrote a book length retraction of this called Day Range Poultry. This is still a good method, though, for the small, beginning hobbyist, especially in places that don't get too cold or wet.

[Hugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eggscellent book! Would get 5 stars if it had better illustrations. The artwork is very clip art collaged together.

I will be looking into getting chickens this year!

[Brad Belschner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is for medium scale producers (i.e., 25-200 chickens). It's great for that purpose. If you want advice for an even smaller operation, such as a dozen chickens in your backyard, then you should buy their other book "City Chicks" instead. Alternatively, if you're an even bigger producer interested in more large-scale advice, check out their other book "Day Range Poultry", aimed at flocks in the hundreds or thousands.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, who knew!

So this is a great guide and resource for those interested in raising chickens, turkeys, geese, or other poultry in an organic and permaculture way. I also learned a thing or two about such common edible plants such as comfrey and kelp.

I thought this was going to be about the design and construction of portable chicken pens known as 'chicken tractors' it is but it is also so much more!

The book is full of useful information about chicken behaviors, how to keep them comfy, what to feed them, how to improve their taste and nutrition, and even considerable detail about harvesting them. There is a glossary and addresses and phone numbers for poultry suppliers and breeders, as well as a description of dozens of breeds of chickens, some turkeys and other poultry. This book also mentions many other helpful books and resources.

All in all a great resource, it is written in a humorous style, with a few corny illustrations and lots of tips.

[AdultNonFiction Teton County Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

Teton County Library's call number: 636.5 Lee A
Suzanne's rating 5 stars on any day

Permaculture has been one of my interests for over 20 years. It's great to see more books come out that capture the minds and imagination of the current slow foods philosophies, blending Bill Mollison's (Aussie father of permaculture) tenets with practical ways you can walk your talk.

I always thought chicken tractors were a great way of keeping it all in the loop naturally. This book gives you a thorough how-to with ample explanations, some diagrams and a series of "badly drawn" chicken cartoons and gratefully only a few (too dark) photos. Great information told in the characteristically home spun fashion of all this permaculture. It was a great read and helped focus that I will NOT be getting chickens this summer. What about you?

[Lorie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this idea! And all of the great experience and inspiration shared here. I can't wait to start. What happy chickens they will be. (Bummer is, I won't be ready until next year.) My Mom heard me say I'm going to get chickens, and called me very concerned that I was going to rush into chicken-keeping, and "coup up" the chickens, and how unhappy they would be. I was so happy to have a plan to describe to her, and I think she was not only impressed but amused, as she had never heard of all this before. It will take me all summer to get everything ready, so I will get the chicks next spring...

The book is roughly edited, but who cares when the wisdom is so rich... A reference I will appreciate for years, I'm sure...

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! We have 9 chickens and struggled to build a coop (that's still not done). I want to raise chickens the way laid out in this book. The book could use some organizational editing--you get little snippets of how to copy his methods, but it's not all clearly laid out. But putting it all together--it's a genius way to raise chickens. I love the moveable coop idea. You build a moveable coop and let the chickens till the garden area and their bedding mulch it and you end up with an already fertilized garden bed. I'm all for throwing tilling out the window, and this is a great way to do it.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It was easy to read and had actual information in it which is always nice. However I don't think I'll be able to really use this method. I don't see myself out there moving a chicken tractor every day, or in some cases twice a day! Our garden just isn't laid out in a way that is very practical for this method. I will probably build a chicken tractor at some point - I do want to let the chickens into more areas of the yard. But I plan to put in more perennials that would be in the way of a chicken tractor, and I don't want to hold off having anything in half my beds for half the year.

[Shawn Kahl · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book about utilizing the Chicken Tractor concept for raising chickens and fertilizing garden beds. Author is knowledgable, but has a fairly remedial writing style that can be frustrating to process.
I read the book because it claimed to educate about Chicken Traktors, Permaculture and raising hens, which it ultimately did. The theme of the book, however, was focused on raising chickens for meat production, which dominated the overall tone of the book from the beginning. Not as much emphasis on the physical construction of the tractor or it's potential implementation as I'd hoped for.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great tips about alternatives to the stationary house and bare clay chicken yard! Plus the chickens provide mowing, fertilizing, and tilling services. Mine are already doing wonders for my garden and lawn, currently making me a raised bed in the back of the garden for next summer. Eggs are of course, the gravy.

[Barb Lawrence · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is some good information in here, no doubt. But some of it is tedious. So much so that I actually didn't finish the book completely (something I rarely if ever choose to do). While I probably will incorporate a chicken tractor into the raising of chickens, I have obtained better advice in other books.

[MJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this one hiding away on a bookshelf so returned it to the library today terribly overlate!!!!!

Excellent, exhaustive, practical guide to keeping chickens and moving them around within a "tractor" (enclosed safe place) to fertilize your soil. A little more information than I needed but good tidbits on keeping chickens.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has made me so excited to start raising chickens! Before I thought that I would just do layers, but now my plan is the have layers in a chicken coop but raise maybe 20 meat birds a year in a chicken tractor. It might not happen until next summer, but I am feeling more confident and excited after reading this book!

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

An encyclopedic range of every type of chicken tractor (arc) that has been built in the last 100 years. Covers raising chickens for fun and profit. Also covers permanent chicken houses, straw bale, keeping them in your green house, etc.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far I really like this book. It's easy to read and gives some nice, basic introduction to the philosophy of permaculture. I'm excited to learn more and change some of my practices to live more in harmony with my surroundings.

[Tony Paulson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an excellent book and the ideas are easy and fun to implement. I've raised both egg-layers and meat birds using the authors' suggestions and produced clean, healthy, odor-free poultry and eggs as a result.

[Margarita · Rating 3 out of 5]

US based, this book is still a good reference read for Australians with an instrest in backyard chickens.

[Cynthia L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chock full of useful advice, this is a fine reference book for gardeners who wish to improve their soil using poultry.

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome! Urban chickens! Come on by for some eggs in Autumn!

[Del · Rating 5 out of 5]

Will be buying this. Good practical useful info.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first chicken coop embraced this idea, and was set on large piano casters. This year I will have chickens again, and will incorporate the 'tractor' idea into my permaculture plans.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this. Obviously the work of Bill Mollison was a huge influence but I found the practical advice and the great ideas in here a joy to read. Can't wait to get back into a garden again.

[Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

not really impressed. Almost humorous and almost educational but not quite enough of either

[Inga · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good ideas, really poor layout & organization of the book

[Holly E Bacon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful and fun to read.