Hello..gallorojo and others..
Thanks for posting the magazine article. I had not seen that. I've read some of the book and really liked it.. It made sence to me.
I'll be building my first big coop in a month or so.. and planning to use the ideas here.
I have read several places about the "draft" issue.. here and on other sites too. I googled " draft chicken coop" and there is a full page of NO no's. the coop must be draft free.. they say.. so how can you have great ventaliation and draft free too.
I wonder if that is some how an idea or need - that was intended for chicks born in winter with out a mother hen - that has been transfered to the needs of an adult bird. (any one heard the joke about the Christmas ham? new husband asks .. honey why do we cut the end of the ham off..)
Or if there's some thing im missing?
I have recently seen several of the old style open coops.. and the floor was 5' off the ground had mostly chicken wire for the floor and a 3 wall cubby hole along the back with a light above one area. ( this part did have a floor). and still had an open end for fresh air on this part. These were very open structures.. just as described in the book.
debra..
My advice, especially since this is a Heritage thread, is to consider the heritage barns and coops of by-gone days. There was logic and experience behind those designs and really put to shame these modern things that too many people invest in. The Monitor was the classic, in my view. When I re-built our barn a few years back, I largely modeled what we were doing after that design. Here's a few photos. These might also help you better understand ventilation. A roof vent on a house allows stale, moist air to exit. VENT, to let out. BYC is a great forum, but too often the confusion on such a simple word astounds me. Hope you get inspired by the pictures.
This is our barn.
This is a historic example
This last one is Walt Leonard's barn and I love it!!