Maine

[lazy gardener]

I would have built a Woods open air coop.

 

[OpalSecret]

How is that one made?

 

[lazy gardener]

Your best bet is to do a google search for it. You will find lots of photos as well as explanations regarding the science behind it.

 

[OpalSecret]

Ahhh I see, thanks! Reading on that now...interesting! I was thinking of insulating but hmmm

 

[lazy gardener]

IMO, insulation provides minimal benefit compared to the expense... unless you are building a metal building. Better to put your money into providing lots of natural lighting which is positioned to take advantage of morning sunlight. If you are interested, you can view my coop which is in my interview which is listed in my signature. Total of 65 s.f. of ventilation IF all doors and windows are opened. Coop is 10 x 12. Doors and windows were picked up at town dump aka. Town Mall.

 

[lazy gardener]

I think I have an other broody. Am contemplating allowing her to set. If any one is interested in started S.R. or sex linked chicks, please PM.

 

[HoopyFrood]

@OpalSecret X2 on what LG said about avoiding insulation:

IMO, insulation provides minimal benefit compared to the expense... unless you are building a metal building. Better to put your money into providing lots of natural lighting which is positioned to take advantage of morning sunlight. If you are interested, you can view my coop which is in my interview which is listed in my signature. Total of 65 s.f. of ventilation IF all doors and windows are opened. Coop is 10 x 12. Doors and windows were picked up at town dump aka. Town Mall.

Focus on cold-hardy heritage breeds rather than insulating or heating a coop. There are people on BYC keeping chickens down to -40 without needing those things.

Definitely focus on LOTS of ventilation as much as you can. Frequently during last winter (because of a design error) I was down to between 0.6 and 0.7 sq ft per bird. The coop and roost designs were very efficient at getting fresh, draft free air in the coop, but I still had problems with frostbitten comb tips. This spring I modified the coop to get about 0.95 sq ft per bird (under ANY prevailing weather condition and that's the hard part) and increased flow efficiency through the baffled inlet vents. That's still below the 1.0 sq ft per bird rule of thumb, but I'm sure we'll do MUCH better next year. My goal is zero frostbite for their second winter (and beyond)!

And thanks @lazy gardener for the mention of the Woods coop. I'd never heard of it. Very cool idea! We often get hammered with the worst winds coming out of the south so the exact design wouldn't work for my location. But there are many good ideas in the design itself! I'll have to read that book before I build and design my second chicken coop. I hope to not need to do that for a long, long time, though

 

[lazy gardener]

Hoopy, I think that even with your winds coming from the South (I find that weird. Almost all of my weather comes screaming from the West!) that the Woods coop WOULD work for you. B/C it is open in the front, but closed at the back, the air movement is stifled before it gets to the back where the birds are roosting. The air flows up and out the Clerestory windows. I have 3 sides of one bay of the run closed off by plastic in the winter. The open side is on the west. BUT, b/c the other 3 sides are closed, that wind has no where to go, and is stopped before it ever becomes a problem in that "sun room". It is always calm in there, and quite pleasant. The building and orientation specifications for the Woods coop are very exacting: including L to W ratio, and exact slight SE orientation of the building.

 

[HoopyFrood]

Hoopy, I think that even with your winds coming from the South (I find that weird. Almost all of my weather comes screaming from the West!) that the Woods coop WOULD work for you. B/C it is open in the front, but closed at the back, the air movement is stifled before it gets to the back where the birds are roosting. The air flows up and out the Clerestory windows. I have 3 sides of one bay of the run closed off by plastic in the winter. The open side is on the west. BUT, b/c the other 3 sides are closed, that wind has no where to go, and is stopped before it ever becomes a problem in that "sun room". It is always calm in there, and quite pleasant. The building and orientation specifications for the Woods coop are very exacting: including L to W ratio, and exact slight SE orientation of the building.

Very interesting stuff! I'll definitely look into it more before the next "thing." Weather is a huge challenge in our microclimate because it can (and does) literally come from any direction. In the past few windy days we were even getting tight cycling winds where a single gust could oscillate 180 degrees (e.g. E wind whipping into a W wind and back to E...) several times in just a few seconds. Makes designing certain things a bit of a head scratcher

 

[OpalSecret]

IMO, insulation provides minimal benefit compared to the expense... unless you are building a metal building. Better to put your money into providing lots of natural lighting which is positioned to take advantage of morning sunlight. If you are interested, you can view my coop which is in my interview which is listed in my signature. Total of 65 s.f. of ventilation IF all doors and windows are opened. Coop is 10 x 12. Doors and windows were picked up at town dump aka. Town Mall.

Oh awesome interview! I see the 10 x 12 coop! Nice. Thanks!