Open Air Coop with Earth Floor Suggestions

[maudeflanagan]

Hello all. So probably in the near future, we will be constructing a chicken coop for my mother in law. We have a Woods style coop sized at 8 x12 with an earth floor and I love it. I can walk in, cleaning is easy and the bedding/ manure compost very nicely inside. The chickens have lots of room if the weather keeps them in.
This is a little large for her application. I am wondering if there are any other decent options with the great ventilation, standing height, earth floors, yet a smaller footprint. I realize that some have done a smaller woods coop in the 6x10 size, but due to material usage, we may as well slap up an 8x12. Which may be what we do. Before that happens, I thought I would scratch other’s brains before we go that route.

Long story short, what other open air coops are out there? I know that the Woods book mentions other styles that were popular at the time of writing. Maybe I should study the images of those more too.

Side note, we are in SE Michigan.

 

[3KillerBs]

Welcome to BYC!

While the Woods Coop is an amazing, specific design, any Open Air Coop can be thought of as a roofed wire box with a weather shelter on one end.

Where you are determines just how much weather shelter you need and how much that varies from season to season.

If your MIL always gets her storm winds from the same direction you could make a coop with hardware cloth instead of a solid wall on the leeward side and some seasonal vents that could be opened for cross-ventilation during summer's heat and closed in the winter.

 

[Beej7]

I just started a thread about building a 6x10’ woods coop. We’re in the UP. I considered building a bigger one but we really dont want dozens of chickens and I like the idea of building it on a trailer for mobility.

Heres a link to the Woods book if you want. You can find online versions as well.

https://www.bookdepository.com/Fres...7VFjWWMrhEDGYBIoNZzh54Q5oFlfEyEhoC3VYQAvD_BwE