Key Design Pointers

[jthornton]

Electricity will be provided - lights and water heater(s?) only.

What! no Internet or Cable? My chickens at least have Internet... lol

JT

 

[culturalinfidel]

I like having an above ground coop. Gives the girls another area to roam around in underneath it.

Clean out is easy depending on your design. My coop is 4' x 8' with the nest box built on the end wall. Easy to clean and manage with this design.

 

[Ted Brown]

Dunno if you found my link to the Modern Fresh Air Poultry House by Woods or not but I cleaned up the images and made into a nice PDF. JT

JT, your link and file are very much appreciated. I looked on amazon but did not order, then googled and found a text based version but it was useless.

 

[JMotuzick]

Why not use the whole 12x12 section as a coop. Block off with a plywood wall from the other. Leave one side with just a hardware cloth mess floor to ceiling. This will be plenty of space for 4-6 hens in the winter months. A couple roosts and nest boxes, then Add a pop door to a outside run for the nicer weather. If you have a tractor you can make the HC a gate and scrape the floor once a year too!

This is the basic set up our neighbor has. One whole bay of a 2 car detached garage. His pop door is the window! He has a couple large wooden shipping boxes so they reach it! He has about 25 and they have a ton of space!

 

[Ted Brown]

Why not use the whole 12x12 section as a coop.

Do you mean "use the whole space as a run..."? Please note that my pole shed will have no walls just a floating roof, in my case on 8 vertical poles.

I did think of this more in passing but, if possible, the cost advantages and simplicity appeals to me. I rejected it thinking that the birds would need more shelter than it would provide; my Woods design reading suggest that may not be the case. I could see an 8' free standing wall on the sheltered side of the 12' by 12' portion with roosts, brooding nests, laying nests, etc. mounted on various sections of the wall; the rest a large open cage.

We get lots of snow and temperatures as low as -22F here although winter is more often 15-35F

What do folks think?

 

[aart]

A Woods coop needs walls...3 tight ones and 1 open one.

The 2 main and key design components that make a Woods truly a Woods are:
-Proportion of depth and width of coop.
-All windows and vents (except the large front one) must be kept tightly closed during cold weather to create the 'air cushion' effect which eliminates drafts at the back of the coop where the roosts are.

The south facing can facilitate solar gain, but is not essential.
The pop door is, I believe, in the front part of a woods to keep drafts from back of coop.

 

[JMotuzick]

I miss understood your pole shed, I thought it was 3 sided. Yes, the whole 12x12 as run then a separate woods coop. You may want to cut some strips of plywood 2’ +\- for the bottom of the run area, to keep the wind down.

 

[Ted Brown]

I have been reading "Modern Fresh Air Poultry Housing" (thanks JT).

I will build a portable 10' by 16' Woods K-D type as described in this book including "framing" method, sections, roofing material, finishes. Framing will use rough cut pine 2" by 4" in lieu of 2" by 3" - stronger and my miller does not normally cut 2" by 3"; exterior boards will be planed pine 1" by 4" OR T&G cedar 1" by 4" (both available cheaply).

I will put both coop and run within in the 12' by 12' space (pole shed roof will have 2' overhangs so 16' total). Will build a 3 piece floor; elevated on large hydro pole 30" cut-offs, set vertically so that run space can include the K-D footprint. Steps to access for walk-in.

 

[jthornton]

That sounds like chicken wonder land and the big overhangs will be so nice when bad weather is around.

JT

 

[Folly's place]

x2! It sounds wonderful!
Mary