Building the Chicken Tractor, Part II

As noted previously, having someone available to help attach the top with its hinges is very useful.

Even with the help, it took me a couple of tries to get the top on straight.  The frame for the top is built first and attached; then the roofing panels follow almost at the end.  The plans have 65 steps; some of which can be done out of order, but some of which need to be sequential.  It is very helpful to not have the roofing panels on until most other hardware is attached.

As I mentioned in the previous installment, I put roofing panels along the entire top of the tractor, rather than leave two feet of hardware cloth.  This simplified the cutting process; I simply attached one whole panel and cut a few inches off the edge of another one.

Cutting the panels is very doable, but I was also happy to minimize the amount of cutting needed.  The picture above shows that I stapled the hardware cloth onto the frame: the plans suggest using poultry staples, which will attach more firmly, but they are also a lot harder to bang in.  A lot of hammering on the frame would seem to be pretty hard on it.  So I used staples. Half-inch stainless steel staples (like these) should hold reasonably well.  It is also possible to use more of these than could be done with poultry staples, so the net effect should be fine.

The picture above also shows the blocks I attached for the eye bolts and wheels.  I used galvanized bolts in each block, plus some additional deck screws.  I drilled the holes for the bolts, cut but did not attach the galvanized panels at the back, then measured to see where insets needed to be cut out of the panels to allow for the bolts to pass through the frame.  Then, after cutting those out, I attached the side panels, then the blocks.  The top wasn't on at this point, making it easier to get inside to screw down the nuts.

Here's a view that shows the wheel. It's a five-inch lawnmower replacement wheel.  I sized a bolt to fit the axle hole in the wheel, and drilled a same-diameter hole in the wood block, so it'd be a tight fit with minimal wobble.  So far, it is working well.  The bolt had to be long enough to go through the block and wheel, plus allow more space for attaching the bolt.  Initially, I took the wheels off at night, but it has become apparent that it really isn't necessary.  The gap at the bottom left by having the wheels on is minimal and often not a factor (the ground clearance of this beast is minimal, too; I sometimes scalp the ground if the ground isn't completely flat).  One thing I didn't think about in advance: as shown above, the bolt on the side not showing will tend to loosen as the tractor rolls.  Therefore, on that side (the left, when standing at the wheels back by the laying boxes), the bolt should be reversed so that the nut is on the inside of the block.  I have finally gotten that done and we'll see how it goes.

More in Part III.