Chickens That Follow the Herd

Status: Proven (moving poultry behind cattle) · Early commercial (self-moving coops) · My own build (any robotic coop I make)

The idea

Move the cattle onto fresh grass, then bring the chickens in behind them a few days later. Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm made this famous with the "Eggmobile": "On our farm, the chickens follow the cattle, which are also moved daily to new pasture. This supplies the chickens with plenty of fresh insect life, living in and under the cow patties" (Salatin, via UC ANR).

The basics from the same source: portable shelters, fresh forage, and moving the birds daily or nearly daily so manure and scratching don't wreck one spot. Salatin's own rule of thumb is no more than 500 birds per acre per year.

What the research actually says

I want to be honest here. The fly-control benefit is popular but not well proven:

• A University of Minnesota controlled trial found pastured broilers did not reduce face fly larvae survival in cow pats and were never observed foraging in the pats; the birds mostly stayed in the shelter as sun and heat rose (Phillips et al., Animals, 2020).
• That study tested broilers, not laying hens. The authors call for research on hens, ducks, and geese, so layers in an eggmobile are still an open question.
• Shade and cover help birds range; open pasture with short grass keeps them close to the coop (same study).

So my plan is to treat fly control as a hypothesis, test it with layers, and measure it.

Robotic coops that exist today

• Ukkö Robotics ROVA BARN (Manitoba, Canada): pasture barns that move themselves daily, with automatic feeding and watering, app-set ventilation, an electrified predator skirt, and onboard cameras. They're moved with a wireless pendant and set up in a mobile app (Ukkö automated barns).
  • The ROVA BARN 200 starts at CAD $20,500; holds 110 layers or 150 broilers; weighs 2,475 lb empty; has a 110 gal water tank; needs a minimum of 1.7 acres; is solar-powered (2 × 80 W) (ROVA BARN 200).
  • Lead time is about 4 to 6 months (Ukkö FAQ).
• Research robots such as Wageningen's PoultryBot work inside poultry houses, not on pasture (WUR).

My plan

1. Manual eggmobile first, following the cattle a few days behind.
2. Measure: pat breakup, fly counts, grass regrowth, egg output, predator losses.
3. Then decide: buy a ROVA, or build a coop that follows the herd's path using the same base as my water robot. Any robot I build myself is labeled My own build.

Sanitation and the rules

Poultry manure is high in nitrogen, which is exactly why the coop has to keep moving (Salatin, UC ANR). If I ever sell eggs or birds beyond friends and family, state rules apply; I'll check before that happens.