We’re trying out a new (for us) breed of broiler chickens. Called “red rangers” or “freedom rangers” they grow a bit slower than the super hybrid chickens used in confinement (8 weeks to a 4 lb chicken) and faster than the standard breeds (14 weeks for white rocks or barred rocks).
These guys looks good so far and are supposed to be good foragers as well, wo they maybe a better match for the chicken tractors if they do a great job of foraging.
I see your chicken tractor has chicken wire on it. Do you ever have a problem with raccoons or Coyotes chewing through the chicken wire and killing your chickens? I say this because here where I live in the city we had a raccon that was chewing through our chain link fence.
Those must be tough Chicago ‘coons! We have lots of coons around and when they get to living in outbuildings, I first trap them in a live trap. That wire is much less thick than chain link and I’ve never had one break a wire, even though sometimes it appears that they dig all night and fill up the cage with hay, dirt, or whatever is around the cage. Every once in a while something will get a young one, but I suspect it might be a weasel or rat. Our worst was when somehow a skunk got in the brood house and killed about 35 of 50 chickens overnight. Then we had the problem of getting the skunk out. The floor and footings about a foot high were cement, so shooting it in the building was out of the question, so we finally came upon the idea of trying to get it out using something that was uncomfortable, but not unfamiliar to the skunk to avoid getting sprayed, but getting him to move out of the buffet – so we made it “rain” in the brood house with a hose and when the skunk ran outside, he met Mr. Remington.
On a side note, we also have a territorial dog (mostly jack russell terrier) that we leave loose at night. The other night, he chased some coyotes away and does a good job of keeping deer and other varmints away (as long as we chain him up during the day since he does the same to delivery drivers!).