chicken pot Pie

Project undertaken in course year 2018-2019 with Pie Ranch Organic Farm

Project Goal

Develop an enclosure that keeps poultry in a specified area, keeps predators out, and can be easily moved in order to reduce labor time

Project Motivation

Raising poultry this way is more humane compared to conventional factory farming methods and results in chickens that are healthier and fields that are naturally fertilized.

Background

Pasture-raised poultry must be moved across a field so that they have new plants to graze on and deposit manure across a distributed area.
Pie ranch does not move its pastured chickens because moving the current poultry fencing is too labor and time intensive

Chickens and coop on pasture at Pie Ranch

High Priority Requirements

Area of three square feet per chicken
At least eight feet tall and electrified to 4000 volts
Enclosure can be moved in under 30 minutes by one person
Costs less than $3000

Ethical Considerations

Worker safety
Animal safety

Solution

We have developed an enclosure system consisting of poultry fencing stretched between two parallel chicken coops. The weights in the elevator shafts maintain tension in the top line of the fence as the length varies during coop movement. The tractor operator can then advance each coop in under 15 minutes to move the enclosure to a new section of land.

System view

Final design that has fencing spanning between the coops. Each coop is towed one at a time, moving the fence

Coops moving

View from the top, shows position of the coops as they are being moved, and how the cable length needs to increase

Chicken Coops

These coops are where the chickens reside. Due to their size, they need to be towed

Fence support structure

The fence is an electrified net hanging from the cable system. Tension is maintained in the cable by hanging weights at either end. This ensures the net is adequately suspended while the coops are being moved

Model of Frame

CAD model of the weight and shaft attached to the coop frame

Weight system

Hardware connecting weights to the cable

Stress analysis

FEA of wood structure to ensure it could withstand loads from weights

Weight in hardware

Weight suspended in the shaft connected to the chicken coop (weight is low)

Weight in hardware when moved

Weight suspended in the shaft connected to the chicken coop, when one coop moved, weight is raised

Cable Test Setup

Test setup to measure deflection (droop) of cable vs tension. Distance between the red lines denote the deflection of the cable

Other testing conducted

Stress analysis on connection hardware
Cost analysis
System towed by tractor in 20 minutes

Student team

Future Work

Safety - add flags to denote extension limits of the fence and structures in the shaft to constrain weight movement
Poultry Protection - develop electrification of fencing system and add weights to the bottom of the fence to reduce swaying during windy conditions

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