Thanks to you all for your pictures and advice! I love the looks of the Catawba, but went with a coop, instead, because I felt it would be a bit too cramped. So far, so good! I'd love to see your pictures, though, Dennis! :)
Thanks to both of you! I'd seen in previous posts your suggestion for the hardware cloth and planned to use that. I am concerened that the tractor would be too small for five chickens. I thought I could modify it to add another nesting box. I'd love to see your pictures, Denise! Thanks much!
I built a Catawba this spring and will post pictures for you this weekend. I took a few during the building process and can take some more to show you how the wood has fared in the heat over the summer (not too bad with some Thompson's applied to the wood right after the coop was finished).
I know a lot of people who have used similarly designed tractors. Here are the issues with them: 1. I see you have 5 baby chicks, that tractor is probably not big enough for 5 chickens full-time. 2. With the wire mesh they use you will lose more feed to wild birds than your chickens will get. You MUST use 1/2" hardware cloth. Chicken wire will NOT work either if you plan to leave food out all of the time. 3. I didn't look closely, but usually those tractors have one nest box, that's not enough. With 4 or 5 birds it's a good idea to have at least two, or you will frequently have very loud chickens waiting to get into the nest. That being said, chicken tractors can be a great way to house chickens as long as you realize the limitations they have and compensate for them.
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I'll get more pictures of the patio I added this weekend so you can see how it all fits together. Hope this was helpful! D