Organic Farmer Network: Network Discussion Summary

Topic: Eggmobile

Cathy is asked about the eggmobile she has as a part of her farming system.

Cathy says: “The Eggmobile is wonderful. I am so glad you asked because I am totally sold on the concept of mobile henhouses that are not small enclosures "chicken tractors" that require daily moving. We built (Michael would say over-built) ours on the frame of a small trailer. The final dimensions are around 8' X 9’ because we cantilevered the floor joists out over the frame. Michael ripped two 2"X3"s out of yellow pine 2"X6" (from a local sawmill) for the framing. We used some cedar siding… Because we are new to this poultry-thing I did a lot of looking around at plans and any kind of ideas for a henhouse. We knew how many birds we wanted to accommodate (50) so we had to have enough wall space to hold enough nest boxes (10) and sufficient amount of roost poles.

The portable fencing is the best part. We got ours from Premier1supplies. They have a website - http://www.premier1supplies.com Look for the section on poultry. We use the PoultryNet, 164' rolls - we use two of them and as of yet we haven't had to electrify them. The way that we are integrating the chickens into the fields has them following a cash crop. Our thinking is that they will eat down the old crop, any weed seeds and hopefully any bugs that have been pests. The Organic rule has a pretty long "re-entry time" after livestock before you can harvest anything. The frequency with which we move them totally depends on how large an area is fenced in, how much "food" there is. We have also found out that we like it better when they are in the fields closer to the house. We would like to refine it by including water and food storage.

It is pretty heavy so it is necessary to move it with our tractor. We move it at night after the chickens go in to roost. They don't seem to get very upset, they settle down quickly after the move and I am sure they enjoy waking up in the morning to fresh forage.”