It has been an eternity since I've posted on gardenweb. Mostly on harvest or carolinas forums. But before all that I lurked here, dreaming of a more simple life. Now we have a tiny slice of land and are slowly starting to utilize our little 1 1/2 acres in an agrigarian way.

We've had our chickens a few weeks now and are really enjoying them. However, their housing leaves something to be desired. I like the idea of a chicken tractor and I like how this one looks, http://catawbacoops.com/ it is way way too heavy to drag through soft garden soil. Trying to rig an axel of some sort.

Anyway, these chickens really like to roost or maybe they like an afternoon nap. Anyway, they spend a fair amount of time in the top part on the roost. Which in turn leaves a fair amount of manure in the bedding and the flooring under the bedding stays wet. So I end up cleaning the top every day or two. What I want to do is remove the flooring in the roost area but keeping the floor area for the nesting boxes on each end. Is anyone familiar with this design enough to tell me if the chickens will be able to navigate the upstairs portion. There is a nest box on each end with a roost running down the middle and a ramp to get up there. Will they be able to get from one nest box to the other nest box with just a roost as a 'cat walk'? Also, we live in ag zone 7b/8a will they get too cold during the winter?