One important focus for the chicken team, is to make this project appealing to the administration in any way possible, and what better way to get their attention than with a solar powered chicken tractor! Yes, they exist! As ridiculous as this idea may sound, there could be a great interest for the school to look into such a project. One way we could get students involved in LaFarm and have the chickens play a role as a teaching tool is to have an engineering class create this crazy machine. The students get a hands on learning experience and the chickens get a mobile home!

A drawback to the classic stationary chicken tractor is that it has to be moved by hand every so often to make sure the chickens are covering enough ground to till the soil, eat pests and fertilize. With a solar powered chicken tractor, this takes one job off the hands of the busy farmers and student volunteers. Plus, this could be a great bragging point for the school on our sustainability page which they are always looking to improve.

Here’s an example of what it would look like: