Hot Weather Coop

I can't wait to see it! We don't have it nearly as bad where I am in Central Virginia, but I am also in the planning stages for a coop that is as comfortable as possible year-round. It's much smaller than yours at 5'x10' (coop part being 5'x4', attached covered run adding another 6', with the coop elevated 2' so that underneath it is part of the run-- pretty common design here), sized for 5 birds.
* I'm planning a convertible floor that will be wire in the summer and deep litter in the winter-- saw one like that here on BYC! I think that the heat created by the composting manure and wood shavings would be very uncomfortable in the summer heat-- with a wire floor that's two feet from the ground, air can flow through from underneath and through the windows.
* The run will be roofed for shade, and the entire structure placed in the only shady part of our yard. The wall of the coop that faces in the shaded, roofed run will basically be one big window, with the protective glass totally removed in the summer months. The other two walls will have awning-style windows, for lots of ventilation. (Fourth wall is the one that faces away from the run, and will have the big access doors for clean-out.)
*I'm planning the roof structure and general orientation of the coop to get the best combination of summer shade and winter sun-- we get a lot more winter here, I think, than Mississippi does...
Anyway, I can't wait to see your coop, maybe glean some new ideas from it before we break ground!

I am looking forward to seeing this. I am about one ag. zone further up than you are, so deal with heat more than cold.

So it’s been 7 years. Life happens I guess. Here are some pictures of the finished coop.

As you can see, the coop is in a shady spot - the downside is that there is very little sunlight for the chickens and the run stays wet by the waterer. I don’t know if you can see it, but there is a pullet with a weight to keep the door closed when it’s unlatched. There is a faucet and power outlet next to the garbage can. The best box can be accessed from the outside - the hinges corroded, so we are on the second set. The hardware cloth extends under ground a foot or two out from the coop. That has helped tremendously with predators.


The feeder is an exterior cooler with PVC pipe to the inside. We do have issues with roaches getting into the feed, and as we address our rodent problem I won’t be surprised if we have to switch to a metallic container - maybe we can make it insect proof. We have chicken wire over the feeder because one of the hens was raking it out and making a huge mess

We have an automatic waterer - the only complaint is that it stays wet underneath. I plan to put some paving stones underneath to direct water out of the coop.

No idea why this photo is inserting sideways, but here’s the grid & oyster shell dispensers (excuse the cardboard box - we are using it to keep the chicks out of the layer feed.)

And a view of the water/feed/etc from inside the coop:

On the other side of the coop we have a protected roost where the hens sleep at night, and several daytime roosts for them to hang out on. We have the underside of the poop board temporarily sectioned off for the chicks. Normally the hens like to hang out there during the day. There’s a tree stump on the left that we incorporated into a roost I’m pretty sure that the night time roost is made from that tree.