Sunshine_Amy
Songster
Hi everyone,
After a previous thread pointed me towards a spacious hoop-style tractor, I've landed on a basic plan I like, and have my own modifications in mind to make it more secure and winterizable, and would like your input. Some day I'd love to build a Wood's Open Air coop, but it's not gonna happen this year, so whatever I come up with is ideally light & secure enough for summer mobility, and comfortable for winter use.
For the basic structure, I'm liking John Suscovich's Stress Free Tractor, for its light-weight conduit above a sturdy wood base, walk-in ability, and bright white tarps for good light inside.
His design is 5' 5" inside height at the peak, on a 6x10' footprint.
Photo I grabbed of someone's SFCT. (YouTuber La Vida Buena Acres)
My thought is to modify the current design, which is well thought-out as a build, to simply include a secure interior summer/winter huddle box as follows:
UPDATE: SCROLL DOWN A FEW POSTS FOR MY MOCK-UP SKETCH
I took a guess at making the ventilation 8" at the narrow peak, and I'm wondering how this sounds to the ventilation experts here, in an otherwise fully winter-closed huddle house; is this enough? Also wondering if the approximately 19" front and back wind-proofing above the top of the roost bars, is enough to keep the settled birds happily out of the draft zone. I think they will sit down on their feet and be well below the draft zone above them. If I can raise the roosts higher with them still remaining comfortable, I'd love to hear it; perhaps that, and a few inches lower on the whole huddle house, could give them floor room below the roosts. Let me know if this seems doable.
I really hope this plan works. I could make the whole unit taller to make for more room in the coop, but I'd love to avoid the added weight, potentially unwieldy proportions, and changes to the pattern, if at all possible.
Water and feed would be outside the huddle house in the main area.
I'd like to put 6 laying hens in this. Still narrowing it down to 6, but the current breeds I have reserved are Favaucana, Speckled Sussex, Welsummer, Ameraucana, Australorp, Olive Egger, Black Copper Marans, and Salmon Faverolles.
Also worth noting: My plan is to have a Premier 1 fence with a net over it in my veggie garden for a larger area in the winter to roam. I can potentially do something similar for them in the woods of my property in the summer, if they need to stretch their wings more, but am hoping this tractor will be a baseline in which they are generally happy, with lots of lawn weeds and grass to interest them in the summer.
Let me know what you think!
Thanks, all,
Amy
After a previous thread pointed me towards a spacious hoop-style tractor, I've landed on a basic plan I like, and have my own modifications in mind to make it more secure and winterizable, and would like your input. Some day I'd love to build a Wood's Open Air coop, but it's not gonna happen this year, so whatever I come up with is ideally light & secure enough for summer mobility, and comfortable for winter use.
For the basic structure, I'm liking John Suscovich's Stress Free Tractor, for its light-weight conduit above a sturdy wood base, walk-in ability, and bright white tarps for good light inside.
His design is 5' 5" inside height at the peak, on a 6x10' footprint.
Photo I grabbed of someone's SFCT. (YouTuber La Vida Buena Acres)
My thought is to modify the current design, which is well thought-out as a build, to simply include a secure interior summer/winter huddle box as follows:
UPDATE: SCROLL DOWN A FEW POSTS FOR MY MOCK-UP SKETCH
- ½"-plywood floor where the above-pictured roosting bars are (4'x 6' footprint, raised 2' above the ground)
- 12" sides coming up from this floor to accommodate deep litter for winter (and ideally for summer as well, though I can clean it out if the weight is troublesome).
- ½" hardware cloth from litter-area front, straight up to ceiling, with an automated pop-door cut in directly above the litter area, effectively creating a full enclosure for night time security, even in summer, which I like!
- roosts placed directly on top of litter area (12" above plywood floor, with 4-10" litter in between), or maybe a smidge higher (how high would you go?), with the following in mind:
- In winter, the front and back of the huddle box would be covered in another 1' 9" height of plywood (coming up from the 12" floor sides) –– with doors for additional ventilation when needed––leaving a permanent 8" gap above the huddle house for ventilation. Back wall below huddle house would also be enclosed in winter.
- Front of tractor would remain fully open in summer (just hardware cloth and door frame), and partially open in winter, with the top half of the door and the wall sealed to air flow in the winter. Sides can roll up in summer if more airflow is needed. Back wall above nesting boxes would be fully open in summer.
- Nesting boxes: I'm imagining pop-out nesting boxes off the back. I know I only need 2 for my 6 laying hens, but I was thinking this could be a nice place for including a dust bath/potential broody hen area, the size of two nesting boxes, so ~ 4' wide here. Entrance ledge would be the 12" litter wall and the box would sit below and above that point, on the outside.
- Additional modifications would include 2 leveraged, inflated wheels placed on the sides of the tractor, not the back, to balance the weight, a la @aart 's Hoop Coop, and possibly either a fold-up apron (also as in @aart 's plan) or an electric wire around the base.
I took a guess at making the ventilation 8" at the narrow peak, and I'm wondering how this sounds to the ventilation experts here, in an otherwise fully winter-closed huddle house; is this enough? Also wondering if the approximately 19" front and back wind-proofing above the top of the roost bars, is enough to keep the settled birds happily out of the draft zone. I think they will sit down on their feet and be well below the draft zone above them. If I can raise the roosts higher with them still remaining comfortable, I'd love to hear it; perhaps that, and a few inches lower on the whole huddle house, could give them floor room below the roosts. Let me know if this seems doable.
I really hope this plan works. I could make the whole unit taller to make for more room in the coop, but I'd love to avoid the added weight, potentially unwieldy proportions, and changes to the pattern, if at all possible.
Water and feed would be outside the huddle house in the main area.
I'd like to put 6 laying hens in this. Still narrowing it down to 6, but the current breeds I have reserved are Favaucana, Speckled Sussex, Welsummer, Ameraucana, Australorp, Olive Egger, Black Copper Marans, and Salmon Faverolles.
Also worth noting: My plan is to have a Premier 1 fence with a net over it in my veggie garden for a larger area in the winter to roam. I can potentially do something similar for them in the woods of my property in the summer, if they need to stretch their wings more, but am hoping this tractor will be a baseline in which they are generally happy, with lots of lawn weeds and grass to interest them in the summer.
Let me know what you think!
Thanks, all,
Amy
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