Woods open air coop

chicNlove

In the Brooder
6 Years
Oct 28, 2013
81
5
38
Connecticut Shoreline
If you have this design please let me know how your chickens are doing with this cold weather and if you have closed up the front at all...thank you!
1f414.png
I am in CT..
 
Front is wide open. Gaps on both sides under neath the roof ridge(gable roof), Roof eaves(cornice) was not closed off. My coop has no floor, is on skids which I move with the truck. We had 12 degrees last night and no comb damage. Last year I had damage when it was barely freezing, because I had too many birds in a smaller coop. I too would be interested in what others have to say in colder climates.
 
Went out this morning, temp was 4 degrees, heard on the radio with wind chill, it's supposed to be like -20. It feels pretty cold to me, can only imagine -40 like others have. But at 4 degrees, I opened up the pop door, and the chickens poured out of there like any other day. According to the coop's inside thermometer, it is 19 in the coop. The birds don't seem to have any issues at all, not that I expected them to have any, anyway.
One thing, When I changed out the water fount this morning, it seems like the top inside of the fount was frozen, with a bit of ice on one side of the drink tray. I may have to put a stronger bulb in the cookie tin heater.
As far as to how the Wood's coop is doing, IMO, it's the best coop you can have. And the open front is still wide open.
 
Last edited:
We had 7 degrees here Tuesday morning, the lowest in over 100 years. My coop has lots of ventilation. With pop door open at sunrise, the chickens were out taking dust baths and scratching around. Opening the run resulted in the usual morning stampede to go forage. The chickens did not seem to care about the cold. They did look a bit fluffier than usual.

Chris
 
Went out this morning, temp was 4 degrees, heard on the radio with wind chill, it's supposed to be like -20. It feels pretty cold to me, can only imagine -40 like others have. But at 4 degrees, I opened up the pop door, and the chickens poured out of there like any other day. According to the coop's inside thermometer, it is 19 in the coop. The birds don't seem to have any issues at all, not that I expected them to have any, anyway.
One thing, When I changed out the water fount this morning, it seems like the top inside of the fount was frozen, with a bit of ice on one side of the drink tray. I may have to put a stronger bulb in the cookie tin heater.
As far as to how the Wood's coop is doing, IMO, it's the best coop you can have. And the open front is still wide open.
This is great news. Read the book over the holidays and will be building a Woods Open-Air coop in March. I'm near the north shore of Lake Ontario and we've had -20F temps with -40F wind chill. Only thing is I'm surrounded by flat farm land so in winter I'll build a wall of hay bales to cut the wind from the North and West.
 
I like the idea but don't understand how you have a wire wall but don't get wind? (Michigan here) our wind changes direction. My birds will not go outside and do not forage or act wild. I like the idea as it means fresher air just trying to grasp how it works. My coop is a board and batten shed 6x6 with sliding plexiboard on the windows. The walls breathe and are not air tight, i keep their house in deep shade. (Summer) was cooler in there than sitting under a tree sometimes! I want to add a wraparound porch and have the front for me and the side for them with a floor so i dare to give permanent access.
 
Last edited:
I like the idea but don't understand how you have a wire wall but don't get wind? (Michigan here) our wind changes direction. My birds will not go outside and do not forage or act wild. I like the idea as it means fresher air just trying to grasp how it works. My coop is a board and batten shed 6x6 with sliding plexiboard on the windows. The walls breathe and are not air tight, i keep their house in deep shade. (Summer) was cooler in there than sitting under a tree sometimes! I want to add a wraparound porch and have the front for me and the side for them with a floor so i dare to give permanent access.

Wind can't blow into the coop (In the winter), because it has no pathway through. The back half of the coop is totally enclosed, and built tight, with no gaps. If there was an open window at the back wall of the coop, there would be a pathway for the wind to enter, and go through, the coop. But since there isn't, the inside of the coop is as calm and still as your living room. I've had 30mph+ winds blow directly at the open front, but once you get inside, and close the door, you can feel no air movement or breezes at all. Now, if I was to open the upper transom windows, creating a pathway for the wind, you would then feel some air movement. Check out the link below for more info.

https://archive.org/stream/openairpoultryho00wood#page/n7/mode/2up
 
Last edited:

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom