Open-front "Fresh-Air Poultry Homes"

[Super Admin]

Someone was so kind to send an article to me about this. It was very interesting and I was wondering if anyone has actually tried this? Hubby and I are going ahead making some of our own modifications. Wanted any tips or success stories from others. Thanks!

 

[Southernbelle]

Does mine qualify?

Click on view my BYC page and I have my knocked-together ugliest-coop-on-BYC on there. I think at one point the "barn" was a livestock shelter, open on both ends.

Works great in the spring/summer/fall - a little cold in the winter

I used a tarp to block off the open part over the winter - which made it very dark inside.

 

[elmo]

The fellow I got my chicks from keeps all of his birds in coops like this, and free ranges them during the day in his yard. The birds have shelter from rain, but no enclosed living space. We do live in Texas, so hot weather is much more of a problem than cold weather.

Given what I know about birds' respiratory systems, it makes much more sense to me to keep chickens this way than in coops. I've built a run with a partial roof, and when my chicks are old enough to move out to their run full time, I'll probably built some kind of wind break on one end, too.

 

[keystonepaul]

I like the idea, but PA gets pretty cold in the winter- how abot a design with an "oversized door for the opening and those farm yard peg hinges- you could take it off for the three seasons and put it on in the winter, even build some windows into it though storage would need to be a bit more careful then. a book on open air housing was on ebay a while ago- a fellow BYC member was building one using the same book that was on ebay -could've been " Open air housing for poultry" but that's a barely educated rememberence of the title. Good luck, keystonepaul

 

[TXmom]

I live in Texas, so my coop is basically 3 sided. The front is open but has a door that's hinged at the top and can be let down to lock them in if necessary. When the door is propped up (90% of the time) it provides shade underneath it. The 3 sides have windows and ventilation also because it's so freakin hot here. In the winter, I might close the front door at night to help keep some warmth in...but it rarely freezes here.

 

[ducks4you]

Quote:
I think the Olympic committe has small, medium and large "ugliest coop" categories.

Seriously, though, the longer I keep outside animals --chickens, horses, cats who go in-and-out--the MORE fresh air I prefer for them. It's kinda like coming home to a closed up house after vacation, and someone didn't get cleaned up. The FIRST thing that you do is open all of the windows. Isn't it humidity that gets you cold when you're outside in the winter? When you're dry, you're comfy, and I think our birds are too. Give them a shelter to keep out the winter winds but DOESN'T suffocate them, and they'll be fine.

BTW, is THIS the article you're referring to?:
http://www.nortoncreekpress.com/fresh-air-poultry-houses2.html

 

[patandchickens]

The first person I knew around here (in Ontario, Canada, with typical winter low temperatures of -25 F ish) who kept chickens, had them in an older-style openfront shed. The front of the shed was just wire mesh in summer; in winter she covered it with plastic. I am pretty sure she did not provide any other source of heat. They were your basic generic chickens (at the time I didn't know from chicken breeds, but, nothing unusual, just basic white and brown and black chickens) and she said they did fine that way. (I was asking her b/c this was when I was still mulling over chickens)

If you can do that successfully in Ontario you can for sure do it in Penna.

Pat

 

[jenjscott]

My turkeys and bantys all live in open "coops" inside the run. I secure my run with electric fence, and don't close in any of my chickens at night. My shelters are made of two cattle panels wired together, then arched and penned to the ground with tent stakes and covered with tarps across the top. They end up being about 5 ft high in the center by 10 feet across. I build the coop against the fence, and tarp the fence behind it, leaving the front open. Inside I have roosts that run from side to side, or "saw horse" roosts. I live in southeast Arkansas, so the winters are not too cold.