Fresh Air Coop - Northern Climate?

[Hillbilly Hen]

I live in Michigan, I would not recommend an open air coop. This winter so far has not been as bad as usual, but still pretty cold. Despite my best efforts, my Roo got a little frostbite.
Be sure the check out the Michigan thread, lots of friendly folks to help you out. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=3491750#p3491750

 

[gsim]

Quote:

If you design it right, it can be a 4-walled structure and still be healthy for chooks regarding air quality. I built mine so that I have 1 sq ft for each 4 chooks. So for my flock of 24 I have 6 sq ft of full-time 24-7 ventilation. All of it is above the 8 ft level as follows: Two gable vents of 1 sq ft each, two full-length soffit vents of 18 ft length x 1 " wide, one for front soffit, one for rear one. One 16" turbine vent in top center of roof. I can close up my coop tight at night and that ventilation will take care of exhausting fumes all night until AM chore time. I do have 4 large windows too that can be opened in warmer weather. I open two of those every AM when doing coop chores. I also scrape the poop-planks daily

to keep the air extra fresh. I never leave pop doors or entrance open overnight. All windows are screened so all can be open all night if needed.

Since my roosts are at 4 ft ht, my flock never is exposed to any drafts no matter how cold or windy it is. In summer, they are in a continuous draft all night as the windows are opened and contribute to the overhead ventilation. Still, the pop doors are down all night.

I do not have experience with a shed or 3-sided coop. I would rather have that tho then a coop that is too tight, lacking proper ventilation such as that I outlined above.

 

[Intheswamp]

mroxner, I thought I'd mention that the copy of "Fresh Air Poultry Houses" republished by Norton Creek Press is the 1924 version whereas the Google copy is the 1912 version. The newer version does have a good bit more information in it. Wood's smallest recommended size of coop, as best as I recall is an 8'x12' for a "fresh air" style house that would be used in the winter.

The 3x4 coop size appears to give you the "4 feet per chicken" area that is recommended but only if...

1. - The nest boxes are raised off the floor high enough for the chickens to walk under them (someone mentioned 18"...maybe even go to 20").
2. - The dropping board is placed above the nest boxes(maybe directly on top of the next boxes) along with the roosts themselves maybe 6 inches or so above the dropping board.
3. - You place the feeder and waterer both outside the coop.

Any area that is obstructed so that a chicken can not stand there (waterer, feeder, next box, whatever) is deducted from the available "square footage per chicken".

Making a wild stab here (and figuring you will have a 4' interior height), stacking things up as stated above this will probably put the chicken's heads at around 10 inches from the roof...whether this is far enough away to keep a top-vented draft from hitting them someone else with some experience will have to say.

Going 4'x4' rather than 3'x4' will give you an extra 4 square feet for the feeder and waterer and will help to make efficient use of sheets of 4x8 plywood or other sheet goods.

It is normally recommended to have 10 square feet per chicken of run space.

It looks like you are planning your run to be 18" high, you might want to raise the coop another 6" or so to give the chickens a bit more head room under the coop...for the "porch" part it would be good to maybe build a frame so the ceiling of the "porch" will be as tall as the top of the coop...this will give the chickens a little more stretching room and will make it easier (more room) to hang their waterer outside during the warmer times of the year...could even put an outdoor roost in there.

And, just a tip....you can fence in or build more square footage into a square than you can a rectangle. A 6'x6' square run (24' stretch of wire) will enclose 36 square feet. A 4'x8' rectangular run (using the same 24' stretch of wire) will only enclose 32 square feet.

FWIW

Best wishes,
Ed

ETA: That for some reason I took it that the OP was planning on an interior height of 4 feet. Don't know where I got that from.

 

[CityChook]

from MN -

I'm not sure I can recommend the 3 sided coop concept, even with the intention of closing up one side in the wintertime. I'm guessing that your winter is more mild than mine, but still quite cold. You're really going to want to consider insulating and keeping your coop free from drafts, both of which are going to be difficult with one side temporarily boarded up in the wintertime. Also, you want your ventilation up high, over the chooks heads, so you'll want to gable the roof if possible.

The more room, both in the run and in the coop, that you can give your birds, the better the situation is going to be. Particularly if the weather is bad in the winter time. They may not want to spend much time outside (mine hate snow), so you need to make their indoor space accommodating so you don't end up with social problems. Realistically, you're probably going to need to keep food/heated water indoors at least in the wintertime, and you might need a heat source, so consider planning for electricity if it's possible.

Rather than covering the floor with wire and then putting sand/dirt/grass over it, I'd recommend burying wire around the perimeter of your run. It's less expensive and really not that hard and you'll sleep better at night. Some go so far as to back-fill the trenches with cement.

Check out my page for a compact coop (coop for Kathryn). It is for 3 chickens and is 4x4 with an 8x4 run. The roof is built/shingled with snow load in mind. Half of the ventilation is on the run-side, like Patandchickens recommends in an earlier post. The only thing it is missing is the buried hardware wire -- that needed to be done on-site after we delivered it. If you use hardware wire for the run, and then bury it 12-18 inches all around the outside, you should avoid most problems with predators. BUT I STILL RECOMMEND CLOSING and LOCKING THE POP DOOR AT NIGHT. Those raccoons are really smart and motivated and they have *hours* to figure out where your weak points are. And they will. Why risk it?

edited for spelling... duh.

 

[abooth]

At the risk of becoming unpopular here I will tell you when I read about the open air coop idea I thought it sounded awesome. That was what I definitely wanted. When I got around to building the coop I couldn't quite make it happen. I have a 4'x8' coop. On the front south facing side I put a 3' wide "screen door". I left it as just hardware cloth until we got 10 days in a row of below frrezing temps. And then all I did was put some plastic sheeting up to stop drafts. They never tried to roost away from the opening. They still consider the best roost to be the front one right in front of the screen door. I think they like being outside when they are inside. And it was awesome ventilation. I will take the plastic off tomorrow because it has been above freezing and I probably won't block it off again until it gets into the 20's at night. I have not had any problems with my birds but I did select breeds that are winter hardy and I put vaseline on the single combs when its very cold.