Woods Colony House - Portable

[Howard E]

First, many thanks to Jack E for posting pictures of his Woods Colony House, which is partially what convinced me this style of house was the way to go. In my opinion, one of the more interesting threads on this whole forum.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/445004/woods-style-house-in-the-winter

Also, many thanks to Robert P for taking it upon himself to publish and make available Wood's book on fresh air poultry houses.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/097217706X/?tag=backy-20

Anyway, once I was convinced this was the way to go, a decision had to be made on how big. Woods 10' x 16' was too big for my use and his 6' x 10' was about right, but for what seemed like the same materials, I could up that to 8' x 12', which is what I did. I also decided early on this building would be portable........more like can be moved......vs. portable in the "tractor" sense. I do plan to move it around......perhaps once a year or so, if not more often. Initially, this will be used to grow about 15 pullets, some of which are my daughters and will be heading off to her place once they feather out and don't need the heat lamps to survive. That will leave me with about 8 or 9 birds, which are the most I intend to keep. More like 6 or so most of the time, with some allowance for losses.

Anyway, this is not complete.......lots of trim work and other finish work left to do..........a screen door and monitor windows and window screens to build, but is ready for occupancy, which is a good thing, as I have those 15 - 2 week old birds that are rapidly outgrowing their brooder box and need a proper house to occupy. Weather permitting, move in day is tomorrow.

First.....a few pictures........









Again, I still have to build the monitor windows, so for now, I simply screwed the dropped scraps off the poly roofing over the monitor window openings that is over the scratch shed. Since it is getting warmer all the time, my initial thought was to simply tack some hardware cloth over the opening to keep varmints out, but that was before I rode out a cloud burst in it and saw how much rain was coming in through the open monitor windows. That was not going to work.

I would also say red is not my favorite color, but it does match the horse barn out back (came with the property).

The last photo shows some of the details that make this portable (built on 4" x 6" treated timbers for skids), and also how I went about installing the wire apron around the perimeter to keep digging predators out. That I had a really tough time finding a way to run an extension cord into the building to use for a heat lamp makes me think a predator will also have a tough time making it in. If he does, I won't be happy about it, but I would be impressed by his skill in defeating me.

For those who may be inspired by these houses.....or related somehow to someone who is and who will be tasked with trying to build one, I also plan to elaborate on the design criteria that went into building the thing. And a disclaimer.......while I own a variety of hammers, saws and tape measures, I"m not a framing or finish carpenter. Some will come up with better (and far less expensive) ways of building one of these than I did. I already have suggestions for planned changes. But that will come later, once I have some experience with growing and housing birds in the thing. I am also curious by nature, so a lot of things that went in to this were not necessary, but put in to test some things.

But so far, so good. Lets see how well it works!

 

[Howard E]

Quick update. Was gone most last week, so for the most part, birds were left indoors for several days at a time. Did a late turn out today and first thing I noticed was a fresh dig in front of the pop door.



That is new.....happened sometime while I was gone. Something made an attempt at getting in, but the apron stopped them cold.

You can see from the original pictures how the apron was installed.



Still no losses of any birds to predators with this system of tight, secure coop for the hours of darkness and electric fence to protect the yard during the day.

BTW, I now think of a Woods house as being more like a covered run enclosed on three sides....the forth side open to the south. With adequate floor space and wide open ventilation, serves the same purpose as a covered run, yet is secure.

Birds survived temps last winter to -5F, with no frostbite or other ill affects, so open side is not as bad as most fear it would be.

Feed and water are left inside, using a rat proof feeder to keep the mice at bay. Nipple and cup waterers using a bucket heater.

The Woods house remains the best housing I've seen to date!

 

[Howard E]

OK, for some of you who now might be considering building one of these, here are some of the design parameters I found.

In the Woods book, the standard Woods house was 10' wide x 16' deep and was said to be suitable to house 40 birds. The part under the monitor windows being generally 10' x 10' and the front part (what is termed the "scratch shed") in front of the screened in windows to the south) would be 10' wide x 6' deep. So consider this to be a 10' x 10' house, with 10' x 6' screened run on the end, with no wall separating them. Another design parameter is the top of the monitor roof......the highest part of the building.....is in general.....as high as it is wide. The peak on the 10' x 16' building being 10'. The back being about 5'. In the Woods book, I found at least 5 different sets of dimensions Woods provided for these houses, but generally those are the design numbers he gravitated to.

Interesting that there is another constant that was used, the depth being 1.6 x the width.

So a 16' x 10' house........16 / 10 = 1.6

His 10' x 6' backyard house......10 / 6 = 1.667

That ratio also holds up when you look at the depth of the scratch shed vs. the depth overall.

I find this interesting as there is a mathematical constant found in nature and often used in architecture called the "golden ratio". That ratio is 1.618

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio

Woods isn't around to ask, but it would be interesting to know if his 1.6 ratio was by accident or if he intended to conform to the golden ratio. It does work well.

At 12' / 8' my ratio would be 1.5, but since I was using 8' sheets of plywood for the roof, I dropped the overall width to 93" vs 96", so I'm more like 1.55. If it is as tricky as that, I'm in trouble!

A few more numbers I concluded from his book and what I used. Slope of the main shed roof was built using 5/12 slope on the rafters (5 inches per foot of depth), and 3/12 on the front scratch shed. The back roof is as steep as you can safely stand on without sliding off. Anything put up there (hammer, boards, etc) would slide off. I made the pitch that much to open the monitor windows as much as I could get them, and hopefully when I'm done, I should have 12 inches of vertical glass to let the light in. A builder could probably lower the peak by using a 4/12 slope, but that would mean the loss of 8 inches of rise to the monitor face for this build. You could get that back by lowering the front or raising the back.

Yes, it can be a complicated design to work with.

 

[Howard E]

Build pictures? A few, but not many. It was mostly built inside the barn driveway, with not much room to operate, or operate a camera.

On the windows, hard to see, but these were copied after what we used on the hog house......and what Woods showed in some his drawings. Apparently, it was a common way of doing it. They simply slide sideways on the edge of a board. To open, you slide them forward behind the siding......to close you slide them back. I gave up on looking for old window frames when I found some vinyl frames of the right size at Lowes. About $20 each. The glass panes might get swapped out for plexiglass at some point. But the frames won't need to be painted.

 

[Howard E]

Just realized this has never been updated.

Birds went into this house at 2 weeks of age, and for the next 3 weeks, I had a heat lamp running for them and block off the drafts at ground level with a couple bales of hay. They went through a few nights with frost, so it got pretty cold in there at night. At 5 weeks of age, weather was warming up and they feathered out, so heat lamps were pulled and all survived.

Also at about 5 or 6 weeks, I put up a ring of 2" x 4" wire around the front to give them a small controlled area of grass on the outside. A small playpen of sorts. This trained them where the pop door was and allowed them some fun in the sun or they could also go back inside if they wanted. This was also part of helping them remember where home was. That was left in place for 2 to 3 weeks, then pulled to give them open access to the fenced in yard. Even today, they never venture far from "home".

Even though I had roost bars up, they didn't start using them until about 8 or 9 weeks of age. Up until then, they stayed in a pile on the floor. Roost bars started out about 30" off the floor, but after most of them kept trying for the plate on top of the back wall......hurling themselves at it in a vain attempt to roost higher, I moved the roost bars to about 42 inches or so off the deck. From there, they can see the plate and no longer try to go any higher. Since then, all they do is fight for position on the roosts until it gets dark enough they decide to calm down and accept what they got and try to do better next time.

Two roost bars, which are level. One is 1" x 1.5" on edge....narrow side up........and the one most prefer to use. The second is 1.5" x 1.5". They land on that one, then hop from it to the back one. They usually form two groups packing into the corners.

Food and water are kept inside. If I will be gone for the day, they are left inside all day. If I'm around, they are let out to roam around inside a fenced in back yard. Chain link only. They go to the fence, and roam up and down it, but stay inside. None have ever flown out. Yard area is about 60' x 150'.

Front part with open screen does allow wind driven rain to enter and litter in that area is frequently dry on top, but damp below. Back part remains mostly dry. Litter is 2 to 3 inches deep and building. No flies.....no stink and they spend a lot of time in there.

I'm still 4 to 6 weeks from the first eggs, so still no laying boxes for now. Will start working on them when the weather cools down a bit. Mid 90's today with high humidity. Weather for forecast for tomorrow actually said 85 degrees and 85% humidity. Construction projects in those conditions does not excite me much.

Predators? No losses to date, but not because they have not tried:

 

[Howard E]

Nest boxes went in a while back. I put them on the back wall. Three boxes should be adequate for about 12 to 15 birds. Next boxes are not permanently mounted, rather just sit on wall brackets, so can be removed for cleaning. Bottoms are 1/2" x 1" 14 gauge welded wire, which lets dirt and fine stuff drop through to the ground. Boxes are 14" x 14". Board across the front could be an inch or two taller to retain more of the hay used for the nest bedding. Once they started laying, birds seem to be using all three nest boxes equally.

Roof over nest boxes is sloped about 30 degrees to keep birds from sitting on it. Roost bars elevated above the nest boxes.

 

[jahdereh]

Oops not sure what I just did there above but ...so if I use the 10x16 size I would run them in a series but leave 10 feet of space as run between each building is that what you mean?

Or wait I've reread your comment a few times, and now I wonder if you mean just use a common wall between the two to make two sides to the same building so I would end up with a 20 foot wide x 16 foot deep building with a wall running down the center dividing the 20 walls in half...

 

[Howard E]

Happening today..........

20 inches of heavy wet snow. This is the first serious test of my framing schedule as far as the ability of the monitor supports to hold a heavy snow load. So far, so good!

What I'm wondering is who is going to dig that door out so I can collect today's eggs?

 

[Ted Brown]

It may not help but Woods' book, in the Tolman chapter, said "should face south or a little east of south so that the interior can be well sunned at all seasons".

Not much difference but perhaps helpful.

 

[Howard E]

On to some of the design features and why I went with the Woods house.

The wheels for us raising our own birds were set into motion last summer when we moved from our place in town (25 years) to a new place on 10 acres in the country. I had helped my daughter with her birds and we have friends with birds, so we knew what we were getting into. I also happen to be an old farm kid.....not yet retired, but who acts like it way too much of the time. My career has been in the ag industry and I've spent an awful lot of time over the years in various livestock buildings, and that includes commercial laying houses. Those would be a dreadful place to be if you are a chicken.

But still, if we were going to raise our own birds we would need a coop for a small flock. Exploring options of what was available to purchase quickly revealed that A: they were expensive and worse....B: the people building them were clueless if you want to be blunt about it......or had not done their homework if you want to be more kind. Most seem to be designed and built to appeal to the emotions of buyers, not to the care, health and safety of the birds they are to house, so most all of them create as many problems for the birds they house as they solve. It also seemed miraculous that you could pack as many birds in them as they claimed.........which of course you can't.

So I decided to build my own, and in doing so, it also dawned on me that there remain in my area of work and travel a host of very old chicken houses that I could look at / inspect to get ideas on how it ought to be done. These dating back to an era when people raised chickens for a living. I also started a search for plans for these houses. This lead me to the Woods house, among others. I have one "book" dating back about 100 years that must have plans for 40 to 50 of these smaller backyard poultry houses, the Woods house being one of only many. Most are mono slope shed style houses with the tall side facing south. They differ mostly in how the oriented the front with doors, windows and vents. The rest is pretty consistent as far as roost, nest boxes, etc, It turns out almost every state Ag Dept and even the US Dept of Ag had it's own version of, and plans for, backyard poultry houses. Very few, if any, of them resemble what folks are building today. Interesting, however, that almost all of them included the same design parameters we use today. Things like SF per bird......roost height......next box design and sizes, etc. What birds need has been known for a long time. So no reason to re-invent the wheel.

The appeal of the Woods house to me was in large part due to the wind. The place we moved to sits on the highest point on a ridge, which is the highest ridge for miles around. The wind blows and blows and blows. Last winter when I was doing research on these, we had numerous occasions when we had 50 mph straight line winds for hours on end. In winter months, days with an honest 20 to 30 mph wind are common. So dealing with the wind was a huge factor. My original plan was to build this house in place, but on the day I started, the wind was blowing hard enough I couldn't extend a tape measure more than a few feet without it blowing off to one side. So I moved the operation inside the center aisle of the horse barn. It was tight, and slowed me down, but it was doable. The downside to that was when framing it up, I could hear the wind howling.......the barn was humming.......so I'd add another stick of lumber......more nails or screws, and even hurricane clips for the framing. It's built heavier than it should be, but hopefully it will stand up to the wind.

So you want a house that is well ventilated, but free of drafts, the drafts mainly being an issue in the cold months of winter, when wind chill becomes an issue. It is also a serious issue if the house is damp. Cold, damp and drafty being a bad combination if you want to keep birds alive and healthy. On the surface, that seems to create a paradox that would be hard to resolve. The Woods house does this by orienting the narrow end of the house to the wind, leaving an air pocket or dead air space at the back, yet is wide open to the south for ventilation. In the summer, you can open it up to let the heat out......in winter, close it up to cut down on drafts, but still let it vent. I actually test this in the horse barn shown in the background of one of the photos. There is an open ended shed on the west side. At the entrance to this shed, the wind might have been blowing hard enough to make it tough to keep your hat on.......but move inside.......and it only took a few feet, and the wind died out to nothing. At the back......it was nearly dead calm.

The wind is the main reason why I eliminated a coop with attached open air run. It would be great in the summer, but nearly unusable in the winter, unless I wanted to pack hay bales around the open sides to block the wind, which I really didn't want to do.

I also needed one that was predator tight. We have every predator known to harm chickens out here. Possums, skunks, raccoons, foxes, coyotes, probably bobcats and potentially mountain lions and bears, plus hawks and owls. If the birds need to, this house is large enough, and secure enough for them to live in. Even so, they are not going to free range. Even when outside, they will be confined to pastured areas and protected by an electric fence of some type. Always.

Back when, the knock on the Woods house was it was more difficult and expensive to build than a simple monoslope shed style house. It is that, but again, the design deals with the wind and the monitor windows let in light to the back in the winter. It was a design I was comfortable with and could do. So the Woods house it was.