Thanks all for the advice.
Here almost all of our severe summer storms come from due west some from SW. They seem pop up out of nowhere in the hot months and can dump a hellacious amount of rain in no time. They pass quickly, and then the sun comes back out and it's like an outdoor sauna. In the winter the wind is nearly always from the west. I don't know if I'm going to build a Woods coop, might be tempted to go with a simpler design. I'm thinking if I do though, I want to face it North. And possibly put the back wall on with screws. Plywood for the summer to keep the sun out, plexiglass for the few months of cold to let the sun in. Wire it for power and put exhaust fans in the top windows. Hehe.
Before you do this, find me a book, ANY poultry husbandry book, that suggests you should face the open front of your chicken house
north.
I doubt you will.*** To the contrary, what you will probably find is that 100% of them will have you face it south, into the winter sun. At least those placed in temperate climates, and NC qualifies for that. Those that do mention putting them on north slopes and facing north describe them as "total failures". Just saying. What you could do if you feel really strongly about this is to make it portable, as mine is. You can then move it anywhere you want, face it any direction you want and move it throughout the year as you see fit. That used to be a really common thing to do. (But when winter came, they all faced south......just saying).
A few more things on the wind. A Woods coop is a rectangle, with standard proportions of being 1.6X as deep as it is wide. The narrow side of the rectangle is wide open and faces south, into the winter sun. In December, as it is now, the entire interior of the coop will be illuminated with natural light, and you will have to do nothing to make it so. It just happens. Best possible condition to provide for your birds.
The direction from whence the wind blows doesn't much matter. You would look at that thing with it's wide open front and assume it has to matter, but it doesn't. Woods described it as an "air cushion". When it is closed up, wind and rapid air movement doesn't penetrate much beyond the front scratch shed. A couple feet at the most......less if you use overhangs of at least 6 inches in front of the scratch shed. In an area with really heavy rains, you would also want to install gutters to shunt rain water off the front shed off to one side or another. Obviously to the low side to get water draining away from it.
Then when the rain is over, it quickly dries out. Again, with the side windows open, the upper monitor windows open and a screen door in place of the solid side door, temps inside won't be more than a few degrees difference. The main thing you could do in a hot, wet weather situation is to have used white roofing shingles (shingles, not metal) and paint the exterior white or a really light color to reflect light vs. absorb it.
In summary, if you build it as designed, it generally works and works well. For small flocks, it is probably as good or better than most.......just as it is.
*** If you want to build a modern, climate controlled chicken house with lights, heat and power ventilation systems, it may not matter much where you put them, except even those are long and narrow and most are oriented east and west so they can drop the curtains on the south facing wall to let in winter light and fresh air when they can.
