Coop Design for Tropical Climate?

[lyndatu]

Hello there and welcome to the world

Just kidding

I was drawing my design for my chicken coop. Luckily I met BackYardChickens.com, which taught me more about the world of chicks and chickens. I looked at the chicken coop designs and they were all beautiful; I can't design a chicken coop better than these! I'm getting some ideas from these designs, but I'm worried because I live here at the Philippines, and we have a tropical climate, and the designs looks like it's for cold climates. Is it not safe for me to copy these designs? I'm quite worried for my upcoming chicks, for my coop might become a hell to them and they might die of extreme heat. Any help?

Thanks in advance!

 

[BirdBrain]

Welcome!!

When I lived in South America (in a very tropical part) we used chicken coops that were completely open (covered with heavy wire) on atleast one side. You could make a frame of board lumber and cover 3 sides (or at least all of the back and parts of 2 sides--plus roof) with sheet goods (ply wood or what ever is available--believe it or not, what was cheapest where I was...30 years ago...was asbestos sheeting

) . That way you would have plenty of ventilation and the chickens would be protected from the heat of the sun and from the rain. Position your covered side such that your coop is protected from the prevailing winds, as these will drive rain into your coop. You can make your nest boxes stick out from the outside (opening, obviously, from the inside for the hens and outside for you to collect eggs). Your roosts would be in the closed end of the coop and your feed there somehow. Your water can be out in the area that is not so protected.

I don't know if any of this has helped, but be sure to take lots of pictures and post them in the coop design section, as I am sure it would be a help to others.

Happy building.

 

[lyndatu]

Thanks for the info, BirdBrain! (whoops!)

Yes, I was thinking of making it mostly of chicken wire so there will be more ventilation. I was thinking this was bad because most of the coop designs I saw were made mostly of solid plywood walls. Thank you for proving me wrong! I thought I was alone on this idea! Thank you very much for your help and those future replies!

WAAAAAAH!

 

[Dawn419]

I don't know what kinds of predators you may have in the Phillipines, but chicken wire is only good for keeping your chickens in...it does nothing to keep predators from getting your chickens. I like using 1/4" hardware cloth, even though it can get expensive. I'd rather spend the $ to keep the birds safe as opposed to spending the $ to replace birds...that's just Skip and I, though. Alot of people also use 1" welded wire.

Hope this is some help!

Dawn