chicken tractor

noun

A movable enclosure in which chickens can scratch the ground for food, allowing them to be pasture-raised (benefiting from grass, insects, sunshine, and breathing space) and offering benefits to crop rotation systems (e.g., insect control, soil manuring).

Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nounchicken tractor (plural chicken tractors)

plural chicken tractors

  1. A movable enclosure in which chickens can scratch the ground for food, allowing them to be pasture-raised (benefiting from grass, insects, sunshine, and breathing space) and offering benefits to crop rotation systems (e.g., insect control, soil manuring).

Origin

So called because it serves some functions of a tractor, such as weeding and fertilizing. Attestations from the 1970s exist, according to the metadata connected with snippet views in Google Book Search results.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

chicken tractor. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chicken%20tractor

MLA

“chicken tractor.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chicken%20tractor. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “chicken tractor,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chicken%20tractor.

Source: chicken tractor on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.