Business is a drag

Tallulah –  Keith McAlum realizes that the fruit of his labor is a drag on his customers, but he’s happy about it – and so are his customers.

McAlum is a carpenter who builds chicken coops with a twist: they have wheels on one end and a sturdy handle on the other (or two for the larger versions). They can be easily moved about a yard, so that the chicken droppings can fertilize the ground beneath.

McAlum has been building the chicken coops full-time for more than a decade and has sold thousands via social media and his website, smokymtnchickentractors.org. He builds and sells a variety of models, each with whimsical names.

His top-of-the-line model, the Grande Taj Ma’Hen coop, is 10 feet long, 3 feet wide, and 3 feet tall. The run is 3 feet wide, 2 feet tall and 14 feet long. It’s equipped with two 4-foot-long nest boxes with four nests per box (for a total of eight nests) and five 3-foot-long roosting bars (total of 15 feet of roosting space).

It comes in two versions: one with an uncovered run for $2,500 and one with a covered run for $2,950.

There are six versions in all, starting with the base model called Motel Chicks for two to three chickens, priced at $475 or $575 depending on whether you want a covered run. Larger versions include Holiday Hen (four to six chickens depending on breed), Red Rooster Inn (five to eight chickens depending on breed), Embassy Peeps (which accommodates up to a dozen chickens), Taj Ma’Hen (up to 16 chickens) and topping out with the Grande Taj Ma’Hen (up to 20 chickens).

If you are raising bantams or silkies, the coops can accommodate higher numbers.

McAlum decided to give each model a quirky and memorable name. His grandparents were in the motel business and he decided to run with that theme.

“I kind of got the idea from that because we’re housing chickens,” he said in a 2014 interview in the Knoxville (Tenn.) News Sentinel, where he was living at the time.

Before that, his products were merely called “small, medium, large or extra-large.”

“We just wanted to give them a better name,” he said in the interview.

McAlum had been working in construction and remodeling most of his adult life, and built his first mobile chicken coop in 2012 for his stepmother.

He posted a picture of his “chicken tractor” on Craigslist and soon had three orders. He decided to make it his full-time job in 2014.

He’s moved about in recent years, before winding up in Tuskeegee in Graham County. He took a break when COVID-19 broke out – soon resuming work in what amounted to his busiest year – and then took another break with the cost of building materials skyrocketed.

He was searching for a suitable workspace when he came to know Tom Davis, whose property off Long Branch Road south of Robbinsville included a workshop that met all of McAlum’s requirements – it is large, well appointed, affordable and best of all, available.

With raw material prices returning to normal, McAlum has been busy ramping up his business once again and is even considering hiring help. His wife Michele isn’t available – she has a business of her own, Succulent Eden (succulenteden.com, and succulenteden on Facebook), and provides succulents and plants to plant collectors around the nation.