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Yes well, he *shows* that but notice that he does not *recommend* it (I forget what he suggests as the minimum workable house size but IIRC it is something on the order of 10x16). My own experience with horse sheds is that you need to have a significantly deeper narrower house for it to be reliably un-windy in the back of it. Given these things, and the fact that people using the *little* open-front houses shown in the book often had wyandottes (not very vulnerable to frostbite) and quite likely had a more relaxed idea towards the prospect of frostbit or dead chickens than most people on this forum do.... I sure would not recommend trying it in the serious North with a non-large coop.
Just sayin',
Pat
Part of the trick, of course, in northern areas is to raise chickens like Wyandottes, or Buckeyes, or Chanteclers, that aren't very vulnerable to frostbite.
All I can is that, around here, in coastal Maine, where it's been known to snow and blow and plunge way below zero for a good chunk of the year, a lot of farmers raised a lot of birds over many years in those open-front coops. Of course, their next-door neighbor might have had a series of coops in his pasture so tightly constructed you could blow a smoke ring and come find it still hanging there next morning. Each was convinced the other was doing it wrong, and would soon come to grief. The first might lose some birds to frostbite; the second might lose some birds to roup. Each would point a finger at the other and say, a-ha.
Yet somehow the chickens managed to muddle through.
I'm still head-scratching about how I'll build my new coop come spring. I'm guessing I'll make it narrow and deep, from foam sandwich (1/4-inch ply sandwiched around 1.5 inches of closed-cell foam), have a ridge-vent facing south, and leave the front open and screened by 1/4-inch hardware cloth, with a couple of exterior foam-sandwich shutters to close off the front when the weather uglies up. The ridge vent, and a few small vents in the shutters, should handle ventilation needs, and the same deep litter that kept my chickens comfortable in the old uninsulated coop we used to have should keep these chickens just as comfortable, with no electricity needed nor wanted.
I know, before I get all the lectures for not enclosing, I know. I would say mine is definitely fresh air. I put two walls up to block air the other day because it was cold here and they did not like it at all. They wouldn't roost in their spot and acted kinda upset about it. I took them down and everything is wonderful in the chicken world now.
