We are hoping to start framing this this weekend, but I would love some feedback on what we have planned. We're using this old greenhouse:
We were planning on keeping the frame, but after stripping the plastic and trellis off we've realized that a lot of the frame is rotting. So we're keeping the bottom log part and the base, but have to reframe it. Luckily, a carpenter friend is coming out to help us out. The roof will likely be shingled as we have shingled from when our roof was done.
You can click the pictures to see them bigger:
They are not quite to scale, as we changed our minds on the height after drawing up the plans. The frame that is there now is 5 feet tall on the sides and 7 1/2 in the middle. We're thinking of making it 5'8" on the sides and 8'2' in the middle (which happens to work out so that the wood we're buying is better utilized, as well as giving us more room to work since we're both tall). Is it okay to have it so tall or will being shorter be better as far as keeping it warm? We're in the Pacific Northwest. We get some snow, but not a lot and usually only for a week max at a time. We rarely get freezing temperatures during the day, though it does get below freezing at night.
The first picture show the front. I love the idea of open-air coops, so am hoping to somewhat follow that idea. I actually have the open-air coop book supposed to be coming in the library, but it could be a few more weeks and I have 8-week-old chicks in the brooder, so we need to get this built soon! The front side is facing west, and our winds tend to be south-west, is this a problem? We plan to overhang the roof around a foot (give or take, we'll get our carpenter friend's advice on this). The two square sides on either side of the door we hope to be able to screw plexiglass over top of in the winter, so then it would only be open above the door. Will this be okay or too drafty when it's windy?
There are two views of the south side (one in second picture and one in third picture). The third picture I have 8 ft of wall (which would use a 4x8 sheet quite nicely), and then 2 feet of hardware cloth which again we could close up with plexiglass in the winter. The second picture is just solid wall all along. Which would you suggest? We would do something similar on the north side too.
We plan to put a 2 foot apron around the outside. We're undecided about the floor still. Right now, it's a dirt floor. I'd like to do deep litter and love the idea of bugs and worms being able to come up through the floor, so want to keep the dirt floor. We may put hardware cloth down inside to protect against rats though.
Also inside, I want to put a little loft along one side or along the back to store pine shavings and food and any other miscellaneous things I have. I assume this would need to be closed off so the chickens can't get in?
The run will likely go at the back (east) side, though that's the one with the most trees close to the coop, but it would provide the best access to the three pastures we want to rotate them around.
Thanks so much!
We were planning on keeping the frame, but after stripping the plastic and trellis off we've realized that a lot of the frame is rotting. So we're keeping the bottom log part and the base, but have to reframe it. Luckily, a carpenter friend is coming out to help us out. The roof will likely be shingled as we have shingled from when our roof was done.
You can click the pictures to see them bigger:
They are not quite to scale, as we changed our minds on the height after drawing up the plans. The frame that is there now is 5 feet tall on the sides and 7 1/2 in the middle. We're thinking of making it 5'8" on the sides and 8'2' in the middle (which happens to work out so that the wood we're buying is better utilized, as well as giving us more room to work since we're both tall). Is it okay to have it so tall or will being shorter be better as far as keeping it warm? We're in the Pacific Northwest. We get some snow, but not a lot and usually only for a week max at a time. We rarely get freezing temperatures during the day, though it does get below freezing at night.
The first picture show the front. I love the idea of open-air coops, so am hoping to somewhat follow that idea. I actually have the open-air coop book supposed to be coming in the library, but it could be a few more weeks and I have 8-week-old chicks in the brooder, so we need to get this built soon! The front side is facing west, and our winds tend to be south-west, is this a problem? We plan to overhang the roof around a foot (give or take, we'll get our carpenter friend's advice on this). The two square sides on either side of the door we hope to be able to screw plexiglass over top of in the winter, so then it would only be open above the door. Will this be okay or too drafty when it's windy?
There are two views of the south side (one in second picture and one in third picture). The third picture I have 8 ft of wall (which would use a 4x8 sheet quite nicely), and then 2 feet of hardware cloth which again we could close up with plexiglass in the winter. The second picture is just solid wall all along. Which would you suggest? We would do something similar on the north side too.
We plan to put a 2 foot apron around the outside. We're undecided about the floor still. Right now, it's a dirt floor. I'd like to do deep litter and love the idea of bugs and worms being able to come up through the floor, so want to keep the dirt floor. We may put hardware cloth down inside to protect against rats though.
Also inside, I want to put a little loft along one side or along the back to store pine shavings and food and any other miscellaneous things I have. I assume this would need to be closed off so the chickens can't get in?
The run will likely go at the back (east) side, though that's the one with the most trees close to the coop, but it would provide the best access to the three pastures we want to rotate them around.
Thanks so much!
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