Building a Woods Coop for DLM in the Shenandoah Valley

[aart]

I'd keep any chicks in the back of a Woods.
As long as they have a heat source, and maybe a wind block, they should be fine.

 

[Ted Brown]

@DoozyWombat My experience is limited (1 hatch) and yes until they are fully feathered they are susceptible to cold so caution is needed.

My chicks hatched at the beginning of October last year. I followed @aart 's advice and integrated early (~4 weeks). I built a brooder under my drop board beginning of November and also made a small chick shelter using an overhead heating pad that ran all the time until they started to go to the roost with the other chickens (end December?). They did just fine even though by December in my area we are below 0C all the time. The earlier one exposes them to the cold, the earlier they develop their natural down/feathers and do just fine.

My coop is elevated 3' off the ground and I feed/water in the coop so far. My feeders/waterers are off the floor and so far I do not have food accumulating on the floor. I do not remove either at night (in fact refill around 4-5pm). No issues with any critters so far although I have yet to go through a summer...

We get winds here as well, not often at 60mph but steady 30kph is common. My coop faces south east as Woods recommends and I had very little wind or snow come into the coop. As advertised the back of the coop is always calm regardless of weather.

 

[DoozyWombat]

Follow-up. Things are now stable as far as temperature goes. The chicks are almost 7 weeks old. The one Leghorn is still tiny, the eight Brahmas are half again the size of the Leghorn, and the CX are about nine pounds each--three times the size of the largest Brahma. I'm going to have to expand the pop door, because the CX are already too big to get in and out without losing feathers. They won't be around much longer, but the Brahmas will eventually get that big.

I'm going to record the process of expanding the automatic pop door, because I'll bet I'm not the first person to have this difficulty. If it works, I'll post what I did in a new thread.

 

[Molpet]

Follow-up. Things are now stable as far as temperature goes. The chicks are almost 7 weeks old. The one Leghorn is still tiny, the eight Brahmas are half again the size of the Leghorn, and the CX are about nine pounds each--three times the size of the largest Brahma. I'm going to have to expand the pop door, because the CX are already too big to get in and out without losing feathers. They won't be around much longer, but the Brahmas will eventually get that big.

I'm going to record the process of expanding the automatic pop door, because I'll bet I'm not the first person to have this difficulty. If it works, I'll post what I did in a new thread.

When you figure it out
Put a link to the new thread on the pop door here please

 

[DoozyWombat]

When you figure it out
Put a link to the new thread on the pop door here please

Will do!