BBA Students Design and Build a Chicken Tractor

by Rob Terry, Executive Director

Keep your eyes on our pastures for the introduction of a chicken tractor—essentially a mobile coop.

At present, our flock of sheep is rotationally grazed, moving between our three fenced pastures on a regular schedule in order to reduce soil compaction and over grazing while limiting the flocks exposure to parasites, all well as naturally fertilizing the fields and helping maximize below ground carbon sequestration. Starting this summer, a test flock of 25 hens living in a mobile coop constructed on a rehabilitated hay wagon will be following the flock. These hard-working hens will serve two primary purposes. First, they will act as a sanitation crew, by picking through the sheep waste for grubs as well as eating grass hoppers and other potentially undesirable insects. Secondly, the mobile clean-up crew will be converting everything they eat to nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium rich fertilizer.

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this experiment is that it is being undertaken as a capstone project by two Mountain Campus students from Burr and Burton Academy (thank you both so much). Their project will include research leading to the design and construction of the trailer. In an effort to minimize the impact of the project, they worked together with MFFC farm staff to salvage and rebuild a retired hay wagon with wood that was harvested and milled on site. As of mid-June, the chicken tractor is under construction, and there are 25 chicks in the brooder that will be ready to hit the field midSummer. If you are interested in learning more about getting involved in a volunteer project, big or small, feel free to let us know by reaching out to info@merckforest.org.

“A land ethic reflects the existence of an ecological conscience, and this in turn reflects a conviction of individual responsibility for the health of the land. Health is the capacity of the land for self renewal. Conservation is an effort to understand and preserve this capacity.”