Desert Coop

[Bosque]

Hi,

i am moving to Arizona at the end of June and want to build a coop. does anyone have any design ideas for extreem heat? How do you know if the coop is displacing the 120 degree heat?

Any other suggestions are welcomed.

Thanks,

bosque

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

Air conditioning.....

 

[SimplyForties]

I would suggest that you wait until you get there and see how the locals deal with this issue. There are backyard chickens everywhere. Seek and ye shall find!

 

[DarkWolf]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=cob+building

My money is on that style of building..

 

[ArizonaNessa]

Here in Arizona we do not usually have solid walls on our coops. They tend to have one solid wall and the rest is wire. I personally use green screen ( I don't know what the proper name for it is) and a misting system that you can buy or create from materials found at Home Depot or Lowe's (Maybe even wal-mart) The chickens here need good air circulation and I use those cheap box fans for that. I just place them so they are moving the air and not blowing right on the birds. I don't know where you are planning to move in Arizona but it does not get that hot all over the state. If you will be North of Prescott then you might be able to get away with more but if you are anywhere near Phoenix for sure you will need misters. Good Luck to you and know that if you go to the Arizona Chickens you can scroll through and maybe see some of the peoples BYC pages.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=31227

Edited for spelling

 

[Bosque]

Azcknldy,

Thanks for the links. There is a lot of Arizona information there. Who knew that there were so many people in Arizona. i will be moving to Tucson, so the heat will be an issue. One of the posts suggest waiting until August to get chickens to avoid the majority of the heat. A good suggestion.

thanks again,

Bosque

 

[ArizonaDesertChicks]

I'm in AZ too and agree with Vanessa (Azcknldy). We don't build 4 walled, enclosed coops here because the chickens would get too hot. Mine has 3 walls with ventilation at the tops of the walls and is built under large shade trees. Click on my BYC page for photos.

 

[ArizonaNessa]

I kinda hate the fact that we can't have those little dollhouse looking coops in the coop section

 

[Bosque]

If the three walls are screen, does the coop get to cold in the winter time when it gets in the high 20s and 30s? Do you have plywood winter walls that you install?

 

[ArizonaNessa]

LOL it never gets that cold in Arizona unless you are up at least north of Prescott. We just finished a winter that I only wore shorts!! A lot of us don't even own sweaters.

That being said we have had the freakish cold storm in the past where we had bad rain and it dropped to the high 40s and I just use blue tarps and cover the coops.

I don't know where you are right now but yesterday it was 103 degrees here. Maybe that will give you some sort of idea of the weather. It does snow in Arizona but only up North. If you are moving to Northern Arizona then you might be able to get away with a closed coop but not around Phoenix.