Which came first . . . the chicken tractor or the egg-mobile?

Chicken tractor?  A mobile chicken house, sometimes called a chicken tractor, can take various forms.  Our tractors for broiler chickens raised on pasture are low, broad chicken wire covered boxes.  They are roofed for protection from sun and rain, but the structure is very simple and lightweight, since the birds need to be moved onto new grass every day.  With the aid of a dolly just one person can slide this kind of hutch to a fresh patch of pasture, and the chickens, if they are in a cooperative mood, just trot along with their house.  The broiler chickens will be out on pasture in this shelter for about six weeks, until they have grown to weigh 3 to 5 pounds and are ready to be processed.

                                                   

Tractors for laying hens, however, must be much more permanent and well-furnished accommodations.

A layer tractor, or egg-mobile, is a coop on wheels.  Lars and Leslie built our egg-mobile on an old silage wagon which makes it large enough for a flock of 100 birds.  Imagine a peak-roofed gypsy wagon all fitted out with nesting boxes, waterers and roosts.

This egg-mobile needn’t be moved as frequently since a generous section of pasture around the wagon is safely enclosed by electric poultry fence.  The ladies descend from their roost each morning, eager to get outside onto the dewy grass and get down to the business of foraging.  Chickens are omnivorous, thriving on a diet of grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, and for protein – the choicest worms, beetles and grubs on offer in the pasture. In addition, laying hens need access to calcium.  We offer chicken ‘grit’, crushed limestone or oyster shells, to help with digestion and to provide the birds with the extra calcium they need to produce sturdy eggshells.

  When it is time for the hens to be on fresh pasture the whole assemblage, wagon and fencing, is moved to a new area.  Why go to all the trouble of raising chickens in what seems to be an elaborate and labor intensive way?  Because a fresh egg from a pastured chicken is such a marvel.

Strong eggshells, requiring a decisive crack to open, are your first clue that your eggs are from active, well-fed pastured hens.  The contents of a fresh egg should slide out as a unit and spread out very little on contact with the pan.  Here’s a beautiful example:

The yolk is large, high and rounded, and is a vivid dark yellow or orange.  That lovely color comes only from pastured chickens which are out in the sunlight consuming lots of green plants and insects.  The albumen of a fresh eggs is cohesive, thick and translucent, sometimes described as opalescent.  Also often noticeable in fresh eggs are the two little white twists, the chalazae, which attach the yolk to the egg membrane. And of course, the lively flavor of a fresh egg from a small farm pastured flock is unsurpassed.  

It's a marvel of engineering, this compact little package of Omega 3s, beta carotenes, and Vitamin E all wrapped up in lovely shades of brown, blue, green or white.  Beautiful in an Easter basket, beautiful on a Passover Seder plate, beautiful any way you fix them, if your eggs didn't start out in an egg-mobile, the yolks on you!
                                               

                    The many colored eggs of our mixed breed hens in a traditional Heirloom Egg Basket by Anne Bowers.