coop with open roof in cold climate

[jgervais]

We are finishing up our coop this week - its a rendition of The Garden Coop (google it, you will see the design idea) - we bought the plans they have online and then made some changes to make the house area bigger, put the nest boxes on the outside and the door on the side instead of the floor.

In their design they have hardware cloth on the top of the frame and then a roof thats angled above that. So essentially rain, snow ect all stay out because of the roof, but it is actually open air on top of the house. The design was intended for maximum ventilation.

Do you think it will be too cold in the winter in Michigan (temps get below zero at times with little to no sun)?
Were building a similar coop for my mom and shes convinced they will all freeze with that open air top.

One thought was to place a board over much of the top of the house area on the coldest days just to keep heat in - but I dont have plans of a heat lamp...

 

[zengrrl]

I'm not sure if that will be warm enough or not, I'm here in Michigan too. It doesn't sound like it'd be draft free enough? Or if the snow would stay out of the space between the roof and the coop but I think the temps and drafts is going to be your biggest problem.

 

[jgervais]

I'm having a hard time distinguishing between a 'draft' and just good ventilation.

 

[Glenmar]

Mine is a garden style. I acutally have 2 side by side with one roof over both. I am in VA. It does not get that cold here, but this past winter,
I tacked some plywood up on the sides. That cut down on the wind. I can take it off in the spring, and put it back on next winter.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

I think it will be plenty warm enough. The open roof design is really for ventilation which in a cold climate like yours is more important than insulation. It prevents a draft and allows moist air to leave the coop thus preventing frostbite.

 

[patandchickens]

I wouldn't. Because it's open all the way around, it will frequently be windy inside the coop. Huge amounts of ventilation, e.g. fresh-air open-front type coops, only work in the North when they are designed to create a decent sized area of basically-dead air. So the coop (the henhouse part) needs to be modified in some way to prevent windiness. If it's like what glenmar shows, with a topless box underneath the roof, you would need to put a top on the box and then have some ventilation high on the usually-downwind side, preferably that also being the side opposite the roost end of the coop.

(e.t.a. - well I suppose if you were to wrap the upwind 3 sides with plastic that would cut down a fair bit on the windiness inside.... but personally I still would not want a ceiling-less house portion, I think that is just asking for trouble in real cold winters, given that this is NOT built as an ACTUAL fresh-air style coop that will have dead air reliably as a result of its proportions.)

As an aside: frankly, there is no benefit to having hardwarecloth (or whatever) all the way across the 'ceiling' with the roof hovering above it. You get PRECISELY the same effect, with less hardwarecloth required and less vulnerability to predators, if you just close the eaves off vertically with your mesh. So the ceiling is the ceiling, no wire between it and chickens. It is IDENTICAL ventilation to the setup the o.p describes and glenmar illustrates, but easier and a little safer.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Glenmar]

Actually my hen houses are enclosed with a top. I also plan to plant more shrubs around the coop for shade and wind break.
I can also lay fans on the top for air movement in the hot summer.

 

[Chihuahuamom444]

Quote:
Love the coop and where did you find those funky colored feeder/waterers?

 

[Pastor Mike]

I used the plans from the garden coop .com . I live in central Oregon and the temps get rather chilly here. This winter we placed a board over 2/3 of the coop area with a heat lamp resting on the hardware cloth to heat the interior of the coop and roosts. We had a thermometer in the coop and it got down to the double digits without a problem. The roosts are 2x4 with the wide part for them to set upon to keep their feet warm. It was up to 5 below 0 and the coop never got below 15. I plan on placing foam insulation on the covering board for next winter. Hope this will help encourage you. I also had 6 inches of pine shavings for the girls to burrow into.

 

[clbdownunder]

I live in Northern Ohio, I sure wouldn't even think of an open roof for my chooks, winters are too brutal to expose them to those kind of winds and temps. I have insulation in my coop and temps get down to below 0 deg, sometimes for days with wicked winds. If I would want ventilation, I would just leave the door cracked. I have hens that tolerate cold weather, but just wouldn't dare do that to them.