4x8 A-Frame Chicken Tractor Plans

The base is the foundation, the floor frame and the tie that stops the A from spreading, all in one. There are no piers and no posts: a tractor that needs levelling is a tractor nobody moves. Cut two skids 96" long and lay them on edge, 48" apart at the outside faces. Cut 6 rungs 45" long and screw them between the skids, on edge, flush with the skid tops — one at each rib position so every rafter foot lands on solid framing. Run the skids crown up and put the better face outward. They drag on grass for years; a cupped skid collects water in the hollow and rots from the top.

The wheels go on before anything heavy does, because after the cladding you will not want to roll it over. Each wheel hangs off a wheel arm 14" long, bolted through a pivot block on the outside of the skid. Flip the arms DOWN and pin them and the coop end rises onto the wheels; flip them UP and pin them and it settles back flat on both skids with the tyres 3/4" clear of the grass. That is worth the two extra parts. Wheels bolted permanently below the skids hold one end of the coop off the ground all night, which is a gap running the full 48" width under the end the birds sleep in. Wheels bolted level with the skids never touch the ground at all — lift one end of a rigid frame and it pivots about the other end, so a wheel in the middle only rises. Set the arms so the wheels touch down 23-1/8" from the closed end. The finished centre of mass works out at 36-1/8", and the wheels have to land AHEAD of it — behind it the coop end hangs past the axle and the handle end lifts on its own. At the far end, lag a handle 42" long to the outside of each skid, projecting 18" past it, and join the two with a grip bar.

A rib is two rafters meeting at the peak. Build all 6 of them flat on the ground before you stand any of them, off one set of marks, so they are identical. Every rafter is the same part: a 2x2 48" on the long edge, cut at 30 degrees off square at BOTH ends, with the two cuts PARALLEL, not mirrored. Set the saw once and cut all 12. Two come out of one 8-ft length if you alternate the offcut end. 2x2, not 2x4. The base rung ties the two feet together, so each rafter is a strut in a closed triangle carrying its load along its own length rather than bending across it. Framing this in 2x4 puts about 40 lb onto something you pick up every morning, and a tractor nobody moves is just a small dirty coop. Stand a pair on edge with the 30-degree top cuts butted plumb against each other and the bottom cuts flat on the floor, then screw a peak gusset across the joint on each face. The gussets are the joint — the butted end grain carries nothing on its own.

Stand each rib on its rung, outside faces of the rafter feet flush with the outside of the skids, and fix each foot with an angle bracket plus one screw skewed through the bevel. Brace it upright as you go. Rib spacing runs 20", 20", 19-3/16", 17-5/8", 17-11/16" from the closed end. They are not evenly spaced on purpose: the third rib has to land at 40" so the partition has framing to screw to. Nothing exceeds 24". Then run four purlins the full 96", two per side, screwed to the INSIDE faces of the rafters. Inside, not outside — the slope panels and both big doors have to lie flat on the outside face, and a purlin out there is what stops a door from ever closing.

The peak is a 60-degree vee, which is sharper than any ridge cap sold for a house roof. Bend your own from 10in aluminium roll flashing over the edge of a board. The flashing is doing two jobs. It sheds the rain off the butted rafter joint, and it shelters the ridge vent: the coop cladding stops 3" short of the peak on each side, and that continuous gap — 38-1/2" long, both sides, 1.6 sq ft in total — is the ventilation. Screen it with hardware cloth stapled to the rafter edges before the flashing goes on. Screw the flashing to the cladding 2" below its top edge, on a bead of sealant, so the fasteners are above the water line.

The closed end gets a solid floor; the run end stays open to the grass. Drop the coop floor in on the rungs between the closed-end rib and the partition — 43-15/16" wide by 38-1/2" long. That 43-15/16" is narrower than the 48" outside width and narrower than the gap between the skids, because the rafters lean in over the floor. Measure it in place. Cut the partition panel and the closed end panel from 1/4in ply as matching triangles, 48" across the base by 41-9/16" tall. Both are notched around the four purlins that pass through them — four 1-1/2" by 1-1/2" notches per panel. Cut the pop-door opening, 12" wide by 14" tall, in the partition, sitting on the floor and centred.

Only the coop section gets skinned. The run stays mesh, which is the point of the whole machine. The left slope panel is one piece, 38-1/2" by 45", screwed to the outside faces of the first three ribs and to the purlins behind them. Its top edge stops 3" below the peak for the vent. Cut the egg hatch opening in it now, hard against the closed end, 14" along the length by 20" up the slope. The hatch opens the outer wall of the near nest box and lets you reach over the divider into the far one, so two boxes are served by one opening. The right slope is not clad here — the whole panel is the cleanout door, and it goes on in step 9.

Roll roofing, not metal. On a stationary coop metal is the better roof; here every pound is a pound you lift twice a day, and mineral-surface roll goes on flat over plywood at a fraction of the weight and none of the drumming. Roll it up the slope, not along it, so no seam runs downhill. Nail the top edge under where the flashing will land, then work down, and lap the lower course over the upper by 4in on a bead of lap cement. Cover 38-1/2" by 45" on each side — 24 sq ft in total, comfortably inside one 36in roll. The right slope gets its roofing AFTER the cleanout door is built, on the door itself.

The single most useful thing on the tractor. The entire right slope of the coop section lifts, so you clean, catch a bird or change bedding standing up instead of crawling in through a hatch. Build the slab 38" by 44-1/2" out of 1/4in ply on a 1x2 perimeter frame — thin ply on a frame, like a screen door. The frame, not the sheet, is what keeps a panel this size from racking into a parallelogram. Hang it on three hinges along its top edge, to a 1x2 ledger screwed to the rafters 3" below the peak. Two two-action latches at the bottom edge, into the skid. Two-action, both of them: raccoons open hooks, and a door this size is the whole side of the coop. Fit a prop so it stays up. A panel this size falling on the back of your neck while your hands are full of bedding is the accident this design has to design out.

Two boxes across the closed end, sitting on the coop floor. There is no wall to hang them from, so they stand on the floor and they genuinely take 2.2 sq ft of it — that is already out of the capacity figure on the cover. The bank is 24-1/2" across and 13" deep, with one divider. The sloping sides are the outer walls of the outer boxes, which is what lets two 12" boxes fit at all: at the top of the opening the triangle is only 26-1/16" wide. A litter lip 3-1/2" tall across the front keeps the shavings in, so the opening a hen steps through is 12" tall with its sill 4" off the floor. Slope the top so nobody roosts on it and fouls the eggs.

The pop door is the hens' way between the coop floor and the grass, and it is the only opening that gets shut every single night. The opening is already cut in the partition, 12" by 14", sitting on the floor. Hang the slab on the RUN side so it swings against the frame and cannot be pushed inwards, two hinges and a two-action latch. The floor is 4" above the grass, so add a ramp 8-15/16" long with cleats every 4". A hen will jump down happily and then refuse to jump back up at dusk, and you will be the one lifting her in.

This is the predator strategy, and it is different from every other plan in this set. A stationary coop buries an apron 12 inches down. You cannot bury anything under something you drag across the lawn, so the cloth goes UNDER the birds instead and travels with them. 1/4in hardware cloth, 19 gauge. Never chicken wire — chicken wire keeps chickens in and keeps nothing at all out; a raccoon opens it with its fingers. Staple the floor cloth across the underside of the skids and rungs over the whole run section, then both run slopes, then the handle-end triangle. Fasten with staples every 2in AND fender washers every 8in along every edge. Staples alone pull through — that is the failure everyone finds out about the morning after. Total needed is 26 ft off a 36in roll.

One hatch on the right run slope for feed, water and catching a bird without opening the coop. Frame it 28" along the length by 30" up the slope out of 1x2, cover the frame with the same hardware cloth, and hinge it at the TOP so it falls shut on its own if you let go. Sill 8" up the slope, so the bottom rail clears the grass. One two-action latch. Hooks and turn-buttons are not enough on a run panel a raccoon can stand on the ground and work at with both hands.

One bar, running the length of the coop, on the centreline where the headroom is. A 2x2 with the top two corners eased — flat side up, not a dowel. A hen grips with a flat foot and in cold weather she has to be able to sit down ON her feet to cover them; a round bar leaves her toes exposed and is how you get frostbite in a coop that is otherwise fine. Set the TOP of the bar 18-1/2" above the COOP FLOOR — not off the grass. The floor is 4" up already (3-1/2" of skid and 1/2" of ply), so off the grass the same bar is 22-1/2" and the peak is 45-1/16". Floor to the peak is 41-1/16", so the bar leaves 22-9/16" to the peak line. Your tape will read 19-9/16", and that is not an error: the rafters are plumb-cut and butt on the centreline, so the joint hangs 3" below the peak and the tape stops on wood. 19-9/16" of clear air over a sitting hen is the number that matters, and it is the one on the check line. That height also keeps her above the nest bank top so she roosts on the bar rather than in the eggs. The bar delivers 37" of perch for 3 birds; the extension minimum is 6in each. Slide the droppings tray underneath on two cleats. It is 24" long, not the full 37" of the bar: the first 13" of that floor is where the nest bank stands, and the bar passes over the bank's own sloped top there. Pull the tray out, tip it on the compost, slide it back — thirty seconds, and it is the difference between a coop that smells and one that does not.