- Jul 27, 2011
- 82
- 5
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Hello all. For some time, I have kept my chickens in the back portion of my mini barn. It is a separate 2'x10 area. At one time, I only had 2 hens and 1 roo. this worked fine until a neighbor gave me 4 more hens over the summer. They only use the coop to roost/lay/eat, and have plenty of run area. I have eave ventilation as well as an awning window that can lower to mostly close off the winter chill (it's facing east).
I want to turn the old coop area into a feed/supply room and build a new coop in part of the existing run. I will also add more run space to compensate for this. I want this new coop addition to be about a 6'x8'.
The layout:
The 8' west side will be attached to the back side of the existing minibarn. The 6' north side will be windowless. The 6' south and 8' east sides will be the only available options for windows/ventilation. The roof will be a lean-to style sloping downward toward the east. It will have a 24" overhang on the east side. As of right now, I have had no problems with frostbite. It got down to low teens last night with a north wind on top of that, and is expected to hit 0 with a -teens wind chill Sunday and Monday nights.
I would like to have as much light as possible on the south and east sides. Hoping to scour CL and surplus stores for windows. Want to have plenty of ventilation, but limit the air movement in the winter. I have read about the woods style houses, and would like to apply what I can, but my layout is resricted to what is mentioned above. I'm thinking of maybe old wooden windows that I can make tilt in at the top for winter / full open in summer? Or maybe some vinyl windows rescreened in hardware cloth if I run across a deal.
Location is Mid-TN. Summers can get warm. Winter is usually milder than this, but I like to be prepared for whatever.
Thanks for any advice
I want to turn the old coop area into a feed/supply room and build a new coop in part of the existing run. I will also add more run space to compensate for this. I want this new coop addition to be about a 6'x8'.
The layout:
The 8' west side will be attached to the back side of the existing minibarn. The 6' north side will be windowless. The 6' south and 8' east sides will be the only available options for windows/ventilation. The roof will be a lean-to style sloping downward toward the east. It will have a 24" overhang on the east side. As of right now, I have had no problems with frostbite. It got down to low teens last night with a north wind on top of that, and is expected to hit 0 with a -teens wind chill Sunday and Monday nights.
I would like to have as much light as possible on the south and east sides. Hoping to scour CL and surplus stores for windows. Want to have plenty of ventilation, but limit the air movement in the winter. I have read about the woods style houses, and would like to apply what I can, but my layout is resricted to what is mentioned above. I'm thinking of maybe old wooden windows that I can make tilt in at the top for winter / full open in summer? Or maybe some vinyl windows rescreened in hardware cloth if I run across a deal.
Location is Mid-TN. Summers can get warm. Winter is usually milder than this, but I like to be prepared for whatever.
Thanks for any advice
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