Devin spent his entire stretch off building the egg mobile, and I must say the hens love it.
It started out as an old jet ski trailer we got for free.
We put a solid board in the center but we left the sides covered with only chicken wire. The roosts will be above those areas and we want the poo to fall to the ground.
We originally had wood on all four sides, but we decided tin would be lighter. We have tin on two sides and wood on the sides with doors.
Chicken wire is at the top for ventilation
As you can see, some poo stays on the framing boards, but most of it falls through to the ground
We placed our large nesting boxes on one side, so the birds have many places for egg laying.
Yes, this egg mobile is pulled around with our riding lawn mower. We do not own a tractor so we had to work with what we DO have, which is the lawn mower. Devin put a ball on the hitch area and the trailer hooks right up. So far we have moved the egg mobile to two spots with the hens inside and it all went very smoothly.
This morning I moved the egg mobile to a spot the cows occupied a few days ago. It was loaded with cow patties. You can see above what the hens will do to a cow pile. Within an hour almost all of the patties were scratched up and spread out. The hens eat the bugs, larvae and spread the manure out so that it can fertilize the grass.
This young pullet is one very content bird, and we are one step closer to a salad bar beef farm.
Next I will paint the wooden areas of the egg mobile to help it hold up a bit longer in outdoor weather. and then we start looking into some fencing!
Hope you have a great weekend!!!!
