Looking for experienced input on a cold-climate open-air coop

[Kutschka]

There is nothing complex about framing up a Wood's coop. It's basically just two sheds, of different heights hooked together, easy. Your winter coop design, with the idea of trapping warmth over the roosting area. Would instead, trap a bunch of humidity, and probably lead to frostbitten birds. And you can probably add respiratory problems to the list too. There is a reason the roof is slanted the way it is, in a Wood's coop. What you are talking about, is not a good idea. You would HAVE to add some vents to the high part over the roosts. And if you do that, with your design, you would subject your birds to a nice windtunnel in the winter. Read up more on open-air coops, and the hows and whys of the design.

Hi, JackE. Thanks for chiming in here.

I've read all I can find so far about the open-air coops, and I still don't understand the essentials of air management. Woods spends most of his prose on celebration of the design and on the practicalities of location and construction, and doesn't offer much of the science and theory of the dynamics of the open-air coop, or of the actual management of chickens within them.

I also haven't seen photos or drawings of the inside of a Woods coop that makes it clear to me where to put roosts. When iski123 suggested putting the roost near the highest point, at the side of a simple, shed-roofed box with the bottom half of the tallest wall left open, I realized I'd been sort of assuming that's where the roost would go -- where the air would be warmest, at the highest point.

Would you please try to straighten me out? You seem to have a really good grasp of the fluid dynamics, humidity management, etc. For instance: Where are your roosts, in your Woods coop? Perhaps they're at the back (farthest from open side), so that warm, wet air travels (gently) up and away from the roosting birds? If iski123 and I put our roosts at the back (short end) of a simple shed-roofed coop with the lower half of the tallest wall left open, would our birds be okay?

And, while I think I get it, intuitively, that the Woods coop is superior to just a box with the lower half of one side open, I don't really understand it cognitively. If I understood that better, maybe I'd feel more confident about whether it's worth the extra cost to build a proper Woods coop, or whether less-than-perfect would be good enough. I don't like less-than-perfect, but I'm already a little breathless at how much just the simple box will set me back.

Help?

Thanks for all you've already offered!

 

[WthrLady]

The roosts go in the back, furthest away from the open end, which is a roof low to their head.

You can set that up however you like. Roost ladders or one roost across the back, depending on your style and number of birds.

Food and water goes near the front opening, which is sand, or a sand and pdz mix.... which mine will be.

The back 2/3 is saw dust or pine shavings. I will have a poop board under my roost.


Air is on a limited exchange during the low circulation period of winter, when all windows are closed except thru always open front bottom window. The back of the coop points into the prevailing winds for your area.

In the summer, you open the windows, which allows for full exchange of air and provides maximum circulation and flow.

And it is EASY to build. I'm 44 (a meteorologist not a general contractor)and doing it on my own except for lifting full sheets of plywood siding and the roof, which dh and teenage son are happy to help with.

And no special tools; circular saw, power screwdriver, jig saw.

Also, I'm saving serious $$$$$ shopping at my local habitat for humanity re-store.

 

[JackE]

The on-line book you are looking at is OK. But it comes up short, to the book you can buy from Amazon. This one:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/097217706X...vptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_8sg02ix393_b


This book has measured drawings of the 10X16' Wood's coop. It shows everything from construction details, to roost placement. The book goes into much more detail on how the coop works. It Shows the original Wood's plans, and the 'new, improved model'. The book goes into the 'Wrong way' to build a Woods. It also has drawings of the other open-air coop designs, to compare. It even goes into brooders for young chicks, and broody busting crates, for broody hens. It really is, IMO, a good all around chicken book to have.

This link has a bunch of pics of my coop. Page 4, has the interior pics, with roost placement, interior details, ect.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/445004/woods-style-house-in-the-winter

All you need to know about air management, as far as a chicken coop goes, is to get as much fresh air exchange as you can, without subjecting the birds to being blown around in the coop. That's what the birds thrive on, fresh air. They can handle the cold, but not cold damp, foul air.

I don't know how many chickens your are looking to get. But you posted you have a 10X10' structure, with a wood floor. You already have a lot more than I did, when I got started on my coop. You could easily extend the floor/deck 6', and build a 10X16' Woods. Or, you could extend it a bit, maybe narrow it a little, and build an 8X14' Woods. Or, after reading the complete book from Amazon, you could build one of the other proven open-air designs.

 

[Beekissed]

I've got a hoop coop right now that's sort of operating like a Wood's style coop, with a few differences, but it's pretty much an open air cold climate design as well. It's 10x12 and I use cultivated deep litter of leaves, pine needles, twigs, hair, straw, pine shavings...well...pretty much anything I can put in there all year to decompose in place. I have 12 standard fowl in there right now and a heated water bowl near the front of the coop.

I've got my roosts in the back of the coop, general living and laying in the front, a door on the front of the coop has the top half(not the bottom as in a Wood's coop) left open, with small windows on either side of that door left open as well. The main part of the coop is covered with a clear tarp only, so no wood on that area, but the back where the roosts are has some wood, some clear plastic inset into side windows. In the summer, the side tarps are raised and the main tarp is replaced with a shadier version, the back windows X3 large, near the roosting area, are opened as well....this coop pretty much has ventilation from all sides in the summer.

I have 4 in. gaps open at the roof on either end, intentional small gaps and cracks at all levels for a slow seep of fresh air, and I also have a 10x8 pop door left open at all times under the roosting area this winter~that pop door opens into a general porch used by dog and chickens that has a wall that blocks direct wind into that pop door. When the wind blows in the wrong direction(from the south)~which is not too often but it happens~I'll drape a feed sack over the top half of the front door to keep the worst of the breeze out.

I have a very accurate mercury thermometer hanging in my roosting area right now and that area shows 10-15 degree warmer than outside temps without wind chill factored in...with that factored in, it can be up to 20 degrees warmer in the coop roosting area than outside temps.

The thing with turning an existing coop structure into something that operates like a Wood's coop is that it's not a Wood's coop design, therefore one has to improvise by creating ventilation that is very adjustable and works to bring air up and out, not just across and out. If you could, I'd put your open area on your short side of the coop and then open up ventilation under your roof on the tall side...and I'd also open up a smaller venting under your roost that can provide an intake of fresh, cool air that will help move stale, humid air up and out the roof vents.

Here's a pic of that coop with the front pop door open this fall, but that pop is closed now and the one under the roost is open instead.... In this pic you can also see the gaps I left down at the floor level under the nest boxes to allow even more intake of fresh air at the front of the coop.



The windows on either side of the door can be open even further when we get that occasional warmer day in the winter, to allow more general airflow.




Pic of the back of the coop, where you can see the pop door currently open, as well as the gaps left in the walls, as well as the large windows on three sides that can be cracked or opened completely to increase ventilation in that area. There were a couple of times this winter after a wet and heavy snow that I propped those side windows open a crack to allow for the extra humidity in the bedding to vent out during the day...and it worked like a charm! This coop design I currently have is the best cold climate coop I've ever had, as well as the easiest for regulating the deep litter and humidity in the coop. Just built from old scraps and small pieces of lumber taken from old shipping crates, pallets, old tarps and such, so the expense was minimal.



The snow is easily removed off this coop by just smacking the inside of the wire to create an avalanche of snow off the sides of the clear tarp and letting light in once again.



This total coop structure costs somewhere in the nature of $260 in materials, as many of the materials were scrounged for free...

 

[Kutschka]

Thanks very much to both JackE and WthrLady; your explanations help a lot.

I hadn't made it very far into that thread you linked to, JackE. 43 pages! But I did go look at your page 4 photos, which are just what I needed, and I'm going to recommit myself to reading that thread.

I've got someone at my library trying to find an interlibrary loan copy of Woods' 1924 book (they have to go out of state); Amazon's used prices are as high as new prices, and I didn't want to invest in that if it wasn't going to offer more of this sort of information than the first book did. But, based on your review, I think I need to go ahead and buy it. Thanks!

WthrLady, apparently what's super-easy for lots of people just isn't easy for me. I gave up on building without help when I tried making just a basic 4x4 box coop, of which the preliminary pieces were out-of-square in every dimension, and somehow mismatched in size, despite what I thought was pretty good effort. (Granted, I was working with scraps, rather than buying large pieces and just following a recipe.) I expect that building is a skill that improves with practice, but I just don't have that much energy to work with.

I've been to Habitat Restore many, many times, and have pretty much decided it's not worth the gas and time. Quality materials of the sort I need just aren't available. Employees say that when good lumber, good flooring, and the like do come in, they get snatched up instantly. Maybe, like with garage sales, good quality stuff is more common in wealthier locales.

I hate to keep harping on limitations of money, energy, and ability; I hope I don't drive you all away. Poverty plus disability is a nasty and discomfiting combination. I expect that once I'm fitted out and actually raising chickens, I'll be fine.

 

[WthrLady]

I didn't get any lumber from them, just windows and hardware, oh and shingles! 4$ for a whole pack of $50 shingles!

We had ACE hardware locally go out of business, so I got paint, and 200 feet of hardware cloth for half price. But I bet you this coop is costing me every BIT of 1200+$ I am keeping my paperwork, so I can tally it at the end. Part of the cost is that it has to be built to code..... county rules, so there is much more to mine than the woods coop book.

 

[centrarchid]

Concepts I follow include the following. New dry incoming air comes from near floor while old moist air is released at or near highest point of coop. If condensate does occur on roof, then roost and moisture absorbing bedding should not be below it. More birds can mean a need for more exchange / shorter residence time. Windy days are often the best for keeping interior of a coop dry as can promote air exchange although with some ventilation setups of less open coops, wind direction can have impact on air exchange rate. Birds can be regarded as the heat engine that causes air to cycle through even when wind outside is minimal as the air they heat rises and that can be a reason for having birds roost in a straight line along a wall to promote that nice rolling action in the coop. In my location moisture buildup resulting from reduced airflow is greatest during pre-dawn hours when wind is lowest. Bird’s feathers, bedding and sometimes even feed should be monitored for moisture buildup. When practical you should build into the design adjustable openings that can be tuned with respect to weather conditions especially if such can be used to block precipitation and provide for more optimal amount of light that either facilitate warming or not. During winter months seldom do my birds not benefit from even a modest increase in temperature as enabled by sunlight. Benefits realized even when temperature increase is not carried into the night.

 

[Kutschka]

One of my open air coops, theres a nest in the box on the left surrounded by thickly compacted dry leaves and pine needles and the old shelf is a nest in the back. Eggs in the shelf nest freeze but eggs in the box normally do not and its only been above freezing one day in the past month. Right now the box nest even has a hen who hatched out 4 chicks on Saturday. All the birds in there are healthy and very lively.

Hey, Bushmansbliss. Somehow I missed these until now. Thanks! These photos and your notes about them are helpful, Cool about your new babies! I'm glad they're doing so well. Reared in this winter, they should be up for just about anything!

 

[Kutschka]

I've got a hoop coop right now that's sort of operating like a Wood's style coop, with a few differences, but it's pretty much an open air cold climate design as well. It's 10x12 and I use cultivated deep litter of leaves, pine needles, twigs, hair, straw, pine shavings...well...pretty much anything I can put in there all year to decompose in place. I have 12 standard fowl in there right now and a heated water bowl near the front of the coop.

Thanks, Beekissed, for your photos, and for taking the time to explain your setup so well.

Much of what you describe seems counter to dominant doctrine for open-air coops -- and even for coops in general. For instance, you have air actively traveling past the roosts, which I've heard described as "drafts," rather than ventilation. But I trust your judgment that this is the best you've had, and am inclined to take that as more endorsement of the open-air dynamic!

 

[Kutschka]

A great way to get local birds is to check the Ad Bulletin, which comes out every Tuesday and is for sale in most gas stations. They have a livestock section and there are people who sell chickens and other birds of all ages, including chicks. You can also find already laying hens there. I always love meeting more homestead minded folks, too!

Thanks! I forget about this resource a lot. I'm glad to be reminded. (Now, if I can just remember until it's time to buy chickens ...)