6x10 A-Frame Chicken Tractor Plans for 4-6 Hens (Free PDF)

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 120" long and lay them on edge, 72" apart at the outside faces. Cut 7 rungs 69" 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 72" 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 34-13/16" from the closed end. The LOADED centre of mass works out at 42-13/16", 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 24" past it, and join the two with a grip bar.

A rib is two rafters meeting at the peak. Build all 7 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 72" 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 14. 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. Slenderness is what governs a strut, and at 72" long a 2x2 is l/d = 48 against the NDS limit of 50 for a compression member; the 3 purlins a side brace it about its weak axis every 15-9/16" of rise. Framing it in 2x4 instead would put about 65 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 23", 23", 19-1/4", 17-3/4", 17-3/4", 17-3/4" from the closed end. They are not evenly spaced on purpose: the third rib has to land at 46" so the partition has framing to screw to. Nothing exceeds 24". Then run 6 purlins the full 120", 3 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 4" short of the peak on each side, and that continuous gap — 44-1/2" long, both sides, 2.5 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 — 67-15/16" wide by 44-1/2" long. That 67-15/16" is narrower than the 72" outside width and narrower than the gap between the skids, because the rafters lean in over the floor. Measure it in place. The closed end and the partition are triangles 72" across the base by 62-3/8" tall, and 1/4in ply comes 48in wide, so neither one can be a single piece. Cut four right triangles 36" by 62-3/8" and join each pair over a centre post. The end panel's post runs the full 62-3/8" from rung top to the peak; the partition's stops at 47-7/8", on the pop-door header, because the pop door is on the centreline and the post cannot pass through it. A butt joint in a 1/4in skin with nothing behind it is a hinge, not a joint. Frame the pop-door opening in the partition first — two 14-1/2" jambs and a 15" header — then skin around it. The opening is 12" wide by 14" tall, on the floor and centred. Both panels are notched around the 6 purlins that pass through them — 6 1-1/2" by 1-1/2" notches per panel.

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, 44-1/2" by 68", screwed to the outside faces of the first three ribs and to the purlins behind them. Its top edge stops 4" 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 44-1/2" by 68" on each side — 42 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 44" by 67-1/2" 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 4" 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 50-1/16" 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 47 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.

2 bars, running the length of the coop, 12" apart and straddling the centreline — 6" either side of it. Two, not one, because 6 hens need 60" of perch and one bar down this coop is only 43". And straddling rather than one on the centre and one beside it, because in an A-frame the headroom falls away from the middle and two symmetrical bars give both birds the same air: 29-15/16" over each, against 58-7/8" on the centreline nobody now sits on. Each bar 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 65-7/8". Floor to the peak is 61-7/8", so the bar leaves 43-3/8" to the peak line. Your tape will read 29-15/16", 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. 29-15/16" 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 2 bars deliver 86" of perch between them — one alone would be 43", which is why there are two — for 6 birds; the extension minimum is 6in each. Slide the droppings tray underneath on two cleats. It is 30" long, not the full 43" 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.

Nothing to build here. This is the page that tells you what you have made, and it is the page most tractor plans do not print. Dry, empty, straight off the bill of materials: 466 lb. That is the figure every seller quotes when they quote one at all. It is not the thing you move. Put 4" of shavings on 19 sq ft of coop floor (50 lb), hang a filled waterer and feeder (30 lb), and let it stand out in the rain overnight, and the tractor on your lawn on a Tuesday morning weighs 583 lb. Hens add about 27 lb more if they are still in it. Flip the wheel arms down and that 583 lb splits two ways. The grip bar takes 43 lb — the axle is set 8" ahead of the loaded centre of mass precisely so that it does. The other 540 lb stands on the two 10" wheels, and that is the half nobody costs. On mown turf small wheels do not roll, they climb out of the rut they are making: reckon 54-108 lb of push, the low end on short dry grass and the high end on soft ground or long grass. So: two people. For scale, the one hard rule anybody in this business has written down is Joel Salatin's, in Pastured Poultry Profits: the whole pen “shouldn’t weigh more than 200 pounds. If it does, it’s too heavy to handle by hand.” That is a ceiling, not a pen — his own pens weigh about 150 lb, and the famous “200 lb Salatin pen” repeated all over this industry is a misquote of the limit. Loaded, this tractor is 2.9 times his ceiling. The other two numbers worth having: the UK HSE's manual-handling filter puts 25 kg (55 lb) on a man lifting at knuckle height with the load close to him and 16 kg (35 lb) on a woman — so a 43 lb grip load is inside one of those figures and outside the other, and “one person” should never quietly mean “one large man”. And Penn State's pastured-broiler guide describes moving an A-frame of almost exactly these dimensions with two people: “One person will move the tractor while a second person with a broom moves the chicks away from the tractor frame.” Even at half this weight, the second pair of hands is doing a real job. Anchors. It presents 52 sq ft of side to the wind and weighs 466 lb empty. Balance the two and it goes over at roughly 63 mph — an order of magnitude, not a rating, and it ignores uplift on the slopes, which is what actually removes a hatch first. Screw two earth anchors into the ground and cable them to the skids when a gale is forecast — buried anchors, not blocks: a dome builder reports the wind taking a shelter and its four concrete blocks thirty feet into a ditch. Anything with a solid roof that one person can move is, by definition, something the wind can move too, and ATTRA's own housing guide says gable roofs blow over more readily than any other shape.