Very helpful. I live in Arizona. I'm planning my first coop, and have been contemplating an open air coop. This answers so many questions. Your coop is great! Thanks!
I have just moved to southern Alabama and got some new chickens, but I’m from up north originally so I’m used to dealing with the cold, not intense heat this was very helpful to me, now I have some ideas for designing my new coop.
This is a great article! Funny story, I live in Wyoming and built a large coop this spring complete with high ceilings and electricity. For a brief moment we considered adding a ceiling fan to the coop. Then all I could picture was roosting chickens being assaulted by the fan blades. Can you imagine the feathers, and the squawking??? So the new coop has a window fan instead.
We live in SETX 90 miles south east of Houston. We deal with the same temps that you have. The chickens tolerate the winters without any problem if and I say if we are due a HARD freeze with put up thick plastic just to break the wind and they do just fine. We have 2 fans that go 24/7 from spring to fall. Love to totally open concept. Thank you for sharing
Linda Bell
Beaumont, Texas
I'll go out tomorrow, and get more of the construction details, lumber sizes etc. Dh deleted the program he used to make the plans. As to how it does in major storms, and driving rains, it does fine. There has only been 1 hurricane that hit us, that I emptied my garage, put in wall to wall cages, and put them inside the garage. The rest of the storms, and hurricanes, I have not moved them. Usually for a regular hurricane (up to Cat 3), or really bad tropical storm (Cat 4 - 5), I will put up tarps on the one side, which is usually the direction the wind is blowing from. That helps keep them dry, because the wind blows the rain sideways. It has the proper hurricane strapping, which is a must in Florida, so it's structurally sound, and sturdy.