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

[Urban Flock]

I agree with what HandsomeRyan said a few days back. Second Post.

 

[centrarchid]

This is setup I have used for American Dominiques. It forced me to develop technique for getting birds to roost where I want them to roost. Dogs or poultry netting required to keep out foxes, coyotes and bobcats. Capacity as shown only about 18 birds. Thirty six can fit but not when they have to fly up into it.

 

[duluthralphie]

No matter what design you end up with, just wanted to say kudos for thinking about ventilation.

I live in Texas, so my requirements are slightly different as I am catering to the hot temperatures more than the cold. For that reason, I do have two large openings across from each other to create a cross-breeze.

Here are some photos during the build that show it better (this was a reuse of an 8' x 8' playhouse).

On this end you can see that all the top was left open and just covered with hardware cloth.

I like your design. I am thinking of copying it, except for making the gable ends with a removable cover for winter and summer use. Winter on. Summer off

 

[JackE]

This is setup I have used for American Dominiques. It forced me to develop technique for getting birds to roost where I want them to roost. Dogs or poultry netting required to keep out foxes, coyotes and bobcats. Capacity as shown only about 18 birds. Thirty six can fit but not when they have to fly up into it.

Man, talk about open-air. That's the most open, and airiest you can get.

 

[duluthralphie]

Man, talk about open-air. That's the most open, and airiest you can get.

X2

 

[christy777]

We use open air coops, too, and are in West Virginia, zone 6. Countryside magazine just published a letter I wrote about it, but I did not submit any photos because I didn't know how to upload photos online. I just never took the time to figure it out, but did today, so I can post my pics here!

We've built three coops, all very open. One was at our old house and in use for two years, but I took it apart and reused everything I could. Here are the two coops we built over a year ago at our new place, so we are in our second winter using them. The smaller one was initially going to be a chicken tractor, but has been converted into a communal rabbit house. We did have our males and females together, but due to their amazing reproduction abilities, we now have males together in the two hutches, and females and babies in the small coop.



Here is a picture of our coop. It faces east because that was the convenient location for us to put a door. The only solid wall is at the back. The roosting poles run parallel to that wall. There are short walls on either side of the poles, and all other walls are hardware cloth, secured by wood screws and washers. The top is covered in hardware cloth and a tarp. There is also a hardware cloth skirt surrounding the coop outside to deter digging predators. It's attached at the bottom of the coop, then lays out along the ground with landscape fabric pins to secure it. They are locked up at night, and I don't think anything but a bear could get in there. All access doors to our animals are also securely locked at night with latches and carabiners. The solid wall areas surround the roosts, so that wind will not blow on them at night. The nest boxes are attached to the side, and the hens enter from the inside. The nest box lid lifts, so we collect eggs from outside the coop. We use the deep litter method, and had at least two feet of straw in there, but just cleaned it all out last week and put it on the garden. We also add the rabbit manure to the garden.



Here is where the hens enter the three nest boxes. Our old coop had one large, communal nest box, but I made separate boxes this time. Both seem to work fine, but we did have a barred rocks hen hatch out eggs last September in one of the boxes. The cross breed rooster above is one of those chicks.



Here is the feeding area inside the coop. Everything is homemade. The two five gallon buckets are feeders. The plastic pipes hold oyster shell and grit. The hanging bucket has horizontal chicken nipples on it and a bird bath de-icer inside to keep the water from freezing. The chicken nipples keep the water clean, and they don't seem to eventually leak as often as the vertical chicken nipples. We run 300 feet of extension cords in the winter just for the de-icer, but do not run any lights or heat. Egg production does drop in the winter, but we are still getting eggs daily, and production is going up as the days are getting longer. The second extension cord goes to the rabbit pen. I've bought rabbit watering nipples, and want to make something similar for them, but haven't yet, so we just take water out daily, and more often in freezing weather.



We have had great success using open coops with a variety of breeds. We did have a rooster last winter someone gave us, that got frostbit during a string of subzero nights on his very large comb and wattle. Some of the other birds had touches of frostbite that year as well, but healed on their own. You do want cold hardy breeds if using an open coop, but many breeds are, so there are plenty to choose from.

Unless the weather is really bad, our chickens like going out to free range, and in our experience, chickens do very well having constant access to air flow. I've gotten so many great ideas from others here at BackYard Chickens, and now I can share what's worked for us.

 

[centrarchid]

This is setup I have used for American Dominiques. It forced me to develop technique for getting birds to roost where I want them to roost. Dogs or poultry netting required to keep out foxes, coyotes and bobcats. Capacity as shown only about 18 birds. Thirty six can fit but not when they have to fly up into it.

As shown in an open air roost rather than a coop. Note no nest sites. Normally better windbreaks provided. Round roost poles very important with such a setup although keeping them from turning is a problem. I have pushed my birds harder than most. I have employed coops like christy777 has but still had problems with eggs freezing. One of these days we will play with nest locations that get a little heat to prevent eggs from freezing.

 

[Bushmansbliss]

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.

 

[Bushmansbliss]

Another open air coop. This one only has a solid wall in the rear, the other walls are fencing covered in chicken wire.

 

[Kutschka]

We use open air coops, too, and are in West Virginia, zone 6. Countryside magazine just published a letter I wrote about it, but I did not submit any photos because I didn't know how to upload photos online. I just never took the time to figure it out, but did today, so I can post my pics here!

Thanks for all this! I'm "Hedgehog," the one who nudged you to post here; I'm glad I did! Your photos are great, very informative. Good for you for acquiring a new skill -- and for traipsing out in this weather to take the photos!

I also am in WV, so it's great to hear how open-air coops work locally. I'm near Charleston. Are you?

This week, I'm really glad I don't have chickens yet. I've never seen temps like we're to have by Thursday, and I'd be driving myself nuts, like a fretful new mother, if in my first winter with chickens, and my first winter with open-air coops, we were subjected to this cold-test. I hope to be in chickens before next winter, though, and I hope it's milder -- just until I get over rookie-worry.