8 x 12 Woods coop design - plan

[Howard E]

Agreed......but the benefits of light and heat from solar gain in winter are not trivial things. Folks should absolutely care about those.

Years ago, when all farms had chickens and it mattered........close to 100% of chicken houses in the northern temperate climates faced south for those exact reasons. Just saying.

 

[JDN]

Does the Wood's style HAVE to face South? Been contemplating building a second coop in this fashion, but if I place the windows facing South, it would essentially be 'backwards'.

While the chickens would get a nice view of the woods/field line, it would not allow me to view them from the house/yard/run etc. While I normally wouldn't care, our coyote population seems to be on the rise (already killed 5 this year) and they would have a clear shot at the lower windows without being seen.

If I place the coop as I want it, facing North, then we could keep an eye on it and it would look more aesthetically pleasing. I'm not to concerned with sunlight entering during the winter as the coop will have power and lights on a timer just as our current coop does. Facing it North would also keep the winter winds from blowing directly into it as most of our winter winds comes from the South-SouthWest.

Your in Indiana. you have real, cold winters there, not as bad as some places, but they can't be discounted. The Winter winds from the South-Southwest aren't as damaging as the winter winds from the North/Northwest, you know, the ones that howl off Lake Michigan and down from Canada, etc...

Just a thought, but why are you concerned with the 'yotes in your coop? Shouldn't they be well secured if they're IN the coop? No reason you couldn't have the run off the back of the coop where you could see it. Also, since you have electricity, consider an electric wire...They aren't expensive for small chicken sized enclosures...

 

[cjoffutt]

Your in Indiana. you have real, cold winters there, not as bad as some places, but they can't be discounted. The Winter winds from the South-Southwest aren't as damaging as the winter winds from the North/Northwest, you know, the ones that howl off Lake Michigan and down from Canada, etc...

Just a thought, but why are you concerned with the 'yotes in your coop? Shouldn't they be well secured if they're IN the coop? No reason you couldn't have the run off the back of the coop where you could see it. Also, since you have electricity, consider an electric wire...They aren't expensive for small chicken sized enclosures...

JDN, I'm far enough from Lake Michigan that it doesn't come close to getting down to us. We're a good 60 miles south of the lake effect area. Also any North winds end up coming through about 1/4 mile of woods before hitting the yard and subsequently where the coop is at. It is hardly ever windy on the 'front side' of the house, even on the gusty winter days. The wind coming from the South side far exceeds what we feel/receive from the North.

Picture attached of the aerial view of my property. The upper red x is where the current coop sits, the lower is where I'm planning on placing the second one. Also attached a couple pictures of the current set up. The woods style coop would pretty much go where the tractor is currently sitting and adjoining onto the run in progress (about finished). Once it's done, I'll open it up into the other larger 2 runs giving them effectively a ~775 square foot run. There really is no way of adding the run out the back as you suggest. It would be protruding out into the yard, over the well head, etc.

Also, electric fence is out of the question currently with small children. Pretty sure the wife would kill me once any of them decided to go feel it. Also, not really concerned about yotes getting INTO the coop, but still doesn't mean I'm comfortable with them walking up/around/attempting to dig under the apron. They are the one animal I have no ill remorse over dropping on the spot.

If any of the above came off as rude/abrasive I did not mean for it to. Also, sorry for hijacking the thread.

 

[JDN]

JDN, I'm far enough from Lake Michigan that it doesn't come close to getting down to us. We're a good 60 miles south of the lake effect area. Also any North winds end up coming through about 1/4 mile of woods before hitting the yard and subsequently where the coop is at. It is hardly ever windy on the 'front side' of the house, even on the gusty winter days. The wind coming from the South side far exceeds what we feel/receive from the North.

Picture attached of the aerial view of my property. The upper red x is where the current coop sits, the lower is where I'm planning on placing the second one. Also attached a couple pictures of the current set up. The woods style coop would pretty much go where the tractor is currently sitting and adjoining onto the run in progress (about finished). Once it's done, I'll open it up into the other larger 2 runs giving them effectively a ~775 square foot run. There really is no way of adding the run out the back as you suggest. It would be protruding out into the yard, over the well head, etc.

Also, electric fence is out of the question currently with small children. Pretty sure the wife would kill me once any of them decided to go feel it. Also, not really concerned about yotes getting INTO the coop, but still doesn't mean I'm comfortable with them walking up/around/attempting to dig under the apron. They are the one animal I have no ill remorse over dropping on the spot.

If any of the above came off as rude/abrasive I did not mean for it to. Also, sorry for hijacking the thread.

If you built it abutting the run, wouldn’t you not have the problem of the coyotes right up on it? Wouldn’t they be set back by the run itself?

 

[aligarysmom]

If you are interested you can always read the book this is based on and woods explains why the coop should really face south. Just a thought. It’s free

 

[aart]

Agreed......but the benefits of light and heat from solar gain in winter are not trivial things. Folks should absolutely care about those.

True, but solar gain could also be accomplished with glazed windows(closed air tight in winter) on south side if open side('front') of coop faces other than the prescribed SSE.
You'd still benefit from the main purpose of a Woods,
which is the 'air cushion' effect for max ventilation in winter.

 

[Howard E]

The "air cushion" effect is one of the benefits of the Woods design, as it enables the open ventilation plan, but this is only one of many benefits. Equally important.....if not more so......are the benefits of flooding the house with winter sunlight.

In it's day, the Woods house was known, but in practice, its use was pretty rare. It was an expensive house to build and there was concern about the open front.....even then. So there were dozens of competing designs.......almost every State Dept. of Ag had plans for them......there was even a US Government house. Perhaps 90%+ of those were economical shed style houses......rectangles with wide side being open with vents and windows....with various schemes to offer adequate ventilation........but the "universal" common theme with all of them was the high side.....the side with windows.....faced south. ALWAYS south. Many designs included diagrams to demonstrate the benefits of flooding the house with winter sun, which was made possible by putting windows on the south where the low angle of the winter sun would shine all the way to the back. Then in the summer months, when the sun was overhead, the interiors were shaded from the sun by overhangs.

There are three vertical walls on a Woods house.........the back, the monitor windows and the open front. Combined, the monitor windows and open front amount to about 1.5X the openings of the entire back, through with the winter sun wouldn't make it much past halfway even if the entire back was glazed with windows. But if the designed openings of the Woods house face south, the entire house is flooded with winter light........plus the solar heat gain that warms up the interior.

So anybody who builds on of these is of course free to position it anyway they like. As in you could. But should you? Nope. Just saying.

 

[Howard E]

Another modern era way of looking at this.......a person could buy enough solar panels to cover half your roof. You COULD put them on the north side so they would be in eternal darkness....on the shaded side..... all winter long. But would you? Same theory applies to windows on a chicken house. Always south!

 

[aart]

Another modern era way of looking at this.......a person could buy enough solar panels to cover half your roof. You COULD put them on the north side so they would be in eternal darkness....on the shaded side..... all winter long. But would you? Same theory applies to windows on a chicken house. Always south!

Totally inaccurate analogy.

I'm not denying there should be south windows for solar gain, as I explained before.
Ideally, I think there should be windows on every side of a coop,
of course more so on the south and east sides(duh),
but with a Woods they would need to be air tight for winter....
...and 'Modern Era'... there's plenty of good glazing to use.

Design can be flexible at times...at least for some.

 

[aligarysmom]

I have a couple of questions about a general design. First is there any disadvantage to having a dirt floor instead of the above ground? For instance would it still be structurally sound to make it open on the bottom? I ask because dlm work with dirt.

Number two I would like to have the boxes accessible from the outside of the coop. I’m sure you can put them on the outside and hang them anywhere you would like. I do like that they can be adjusted if if hung on the inside but I think I like access to them from the outside better. Thoughts?