Converting Pre Fab Coop to Open Air Coop

[sphillips]

Hi all! I currently have two pre fab coops with a shared run. I have 8 PR, and 2 Bantam hens that will live in this area. It was suggested to me on another thread to convert one coop to an 'open air'/woods coop. DH is on board, poor guy, the chicken stuff never ends! Wanted to see if any of you would be willing to give suggestions as to the design, I've looked at some photos, read about the concept, but not sure the best way to go about this.
The open side of the coop that attaches to the run faces west, the house is on the north side of the run. I've thought about enclosing the back (east), and south sides of the run, along with the smaller openings under the house itself and leaving the west side open top to bottom. Prevailing winds here are S/SW. There are two larger doors on the run side of the house, which could be removed, or left open. Suggestions? The coop is the Big Green Walk In Coop by TSC.

 

[aart]

Not all 'open air' coops are of the 'Woods' persuasion.
The terms can get confusing.
In a hot climate like yours, you might not need a solid walled coop,
but rather more walls of mesh....thus the term 'open air'.
For this coop you could take out the wall lined in red,
and add a wall where I've lined in green
either just the upper half or full height.
Could even put a full or upper wall where the blue lines are.
Then you could put a roost the full length under the roof.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Aart's illustration is great! This sort of coop set up is pretty easy to convert. Obviously the basic gist is to treat the entire structure as the coop by removing the current internal walls (so now it's one giant room instead of one small one, one slightly larger one). New solid walls go in the direction of prevailing winds - the other walls can remain wire mesh only. Roost across the whole length.

 

[TwistedSteel]

I`d do it the way aart said, going with the half walls.