Direction to face open air coop

[buglit]

I am getting ready to build my open air coop (completely open at both ends (during the summer). Should I face the open ends east-west or north-south? Thank you in advance you wise chicken lovers

 

[chicks4kids]

I would say east and west but that's only from my personal experience here in indiana. Also, I use my bluebird house guidelines for that. Open end faces East. It may be different where you are....??

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

If the open sizes are north and south you will have a coop that is usually shady. If they are on the east and west ends then it will have morning sun from the east and afternoon sun from the west. Our afternoon sun is a killer.

 

[patandchickens]

Er, if you are having two sides open, they probably oughtn't be opposite sides. This will make the coop a total severe wind tunnel, really quite a lot of the time, and cause a lot of problems.

If you're having two sides open, they should be ADJACENT sides, preferably the S and E in most areas of North America (unless the coop site is particularly sheltered from wind in one direction or another).

For a coop with just one open side, you'd normally want it to be the S side, except possibly in a very hot climate but in that case you'd be better off with more than one open side *anyhow*.

JMHO, good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[buglit]

Good point Pat, I guess I may need to change my design. We have 4 seasons here, but generally mild weather

 

[BankerJohn]

I have an open ended pen for my chickens. For me, I have to worry more about summer heat than winter cold in Florida. Our predominant winds in the summers are a SW breeze off the gulf of Mexico. I therefore left the south end open. The north end has a plywood wall, with a small vent to allow for some cross ventilation. I also have a portion that is dry with a roof over and a portion that has an open screen top. Here are some pics...

Good Luck with your build and post pics for others to follow.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Have you thought about having one wall open and just part of the two adjoining walls open? Then the back wall and the rest of the two side walls would be closed and provide more shelter for a roosting area. I've seen multiple open air coops in warm climates designed like that and they seemed to work well.

 

[elmo]

You could even make it more flexible. You could put up a roost with removeable windblock panels around two or even three sides, then have another roost without the windblock, and let the chickens decide where they want to roost depending on the weather. Last summer, mine roosted out in the open on the hotter nights, but picked the more sheltered roost in the back of the run on the rainy nights.

 

[buglit]

Banker John, Great Coop!! Others, thanks for the great ideas