Winter chicken tractor care

Here in zone 6, we're able to leave our chickens out in their tractors all year.  We have a water- and wind-proof section where they can roost at night (or during drippy days), and we never see any sign of our chickens being too cold.  In fact, tractor life seems to suit them --- their yolks are still as orange as summer eggs even though it's the middle of December.

We do make a couple of changes to prepare our chickens for winter, though.  As the days get chilly, we flip our tractors 180 degrees around so that the sun can shine directly in.  (During the summer, we put the solid side to the sun so that our birds have some shade.)  We are also more careful to move the tractors every day, since cold, wet soil can quickly be churned into a morass of mud.

And, of course, we have to be a bit more vigilant to prevent our chickens' waterers from freezing.  Still, care of our nine hens probably takes no more than ten minutes a day, thanks to our automatic chicken waterers and Mark's handy tractor-building skills.  I always recommend that folks make the switch from coop to tractor as soon as possible!