Coop Design Questions

[Ferosia]

Thanks for all of your great ideas. I'm a little worried about making a closed in coop though b/c we live in the Arizona desert and I'm afraid it would be like an oven in there. And cement also holds in a lot of heat. We also don't have much money to spend on it. Our space we need it to go is basically the space at the side of our house, so there's not much room for trees or anything like that.

 

[CarlaRiggs]

Melissa ~
I have the playhouse from Lowe's and am using it as a coop for four standard hens. They are out during the day, and roost there at night. Before I took the easy way out and bought this playhouse

I had planned to build a three sided coop, with wooden floor and an angled roof. The roof would have vents on each side at the top that I could close off if needed.
This is something you might consider there in Arizona.
If the front is completely open, with two doors consisting of framing/hardware cloth, then the hens will get some good ventilation. You'd need to have some overhead shade for the whole set up. Plants make the best shade because they transpire moisture; when a breeze comes through it's really cooling.
Ignore what you generally see here on BYC because the majority of coops worry about cold; you'll worry more about heat.
Just a thought... can you make a trellis of some type and plant some bougainvillea over it? That would give nice shade and some good color to the area.

Carla

 

[cmom]

Quote:
How old are your birds?