Thanks to a fox taking off two of our hens and then the would-be-butcher never getting back to us, we ended up keeping the six last chickens from what was to be a broiler flock. We now have eight hens and a very loving rooster. Needless to say, that left us needing to either add on to the old coop or gain a new one. We decided to go with a “new” one, or more specifically, to revamp the old wooden shed and build a new metal shed. We were able to scrounge a lot of the wood needed to alter the old shed. Only four 2X4s were purchased, and technically only two full ones were used.
We ended up having to close everyone in the new coop for a full day before they would go in on their own at night. (They had been circling the old coop and tractor like vultures. It made for a hassle carrying them to the new coop every night.) We haven’t lost any egg production with the change and, even better, we haven’t had to deal with frozen water at all as their new set up stays warmer at night.