P.T. Woods 10x16 Colony House....????

[Intheswamp]

Well, I've "about" decided on going with something closely following P.T. Woods design of his scaled down 10x16 colony house. For anyone not familiar with Woods, he was a poultry guy back in the late 1800's/early 1900's that did a lot of experimenting and building of poultry housing. His passion was "fresh air poultry houses". The "Woods" house has at least one completely open end and relies on the deepness of the house to give the chickens protection from the elements. It is a half-monitor type of house.

I'm getting my info about the house from a reprint of Woods' book "Fresh Air Poultry Houses" originally printed in 1924.

A question I have, if anyone might have a thought about it, is the height of the front and rear walls. The book states that from the bottom of the sill to the "top of the roof" that the height is 5'11". I'm figuring on using the deep-litter-method and this will lower the functional height of the walls of the coop...I'm concerned about suffering from "stoop in the coop syndrom". The Woods' house is designed with ventilation as a key element and I'm wondering if raising the height of the walls by roughly a foot to allow for the thickness of the litter would be detrimental to the ventilation of the house.

Another question I have is house orientation in regards to direction. Our local weather systems normally come from the southeast...would orienting the open end of the house to the south be recommended or would orienting it to the east be more appropriate?

Thankfully my chicken ranch boss-lady (my 2 1/2 year old granddaughter

) is furnishing skills, knowledge, and grunt power....her daddy.

Any help is really appreciated!!
Ed

 

[pkeeler]

I would think the larger the house, the better the ventilation.

Unless you live in a hot climate, I would orientate the largest opening to the South. This will give you maximum sunlight into the coop, which will keep it warmer in winter and reduce pathogens. It will also dry out the litter should it get wet.

I would think extending the overhang of the roof would be much more effective than changing the orientation, for keeping the weather out.

 

[Intheswamp]

Quote:
Thanks for the reply, pkeeler. I agree with the larger house appearing to have better ventilation. I don't won't to re-design Woods house, if you know what I mean, but I think the taller walls will work fine. After thinking about it, in using the DLM I will literally be raising the floor-level and thus regaining the rough dimensions that Woods suggests.

It is hot and humid down here in south Alabama. My major concern is the summertime being as the winters are not really that bad...very rarely below 10F, normal *really* cold weather for us is the upper teens, normal cold is mid-20's to 30's.

Extending the overhang over the open end to protect the litter seems like it could be counter-productive in that it will actually shade the litter. I'll have to weight that one out.

Thanks again for the feedback...keep it coming!!!!

Ed

 

[pkeeler]

That far south, you might want to orientate the house so that it faces into the predominant breeze direction during the summer. Planting deciduous trees along the south face will also help. There are probably a lot of threads on here about building in hot climates. I wish I could offer more, but up here it hasn't been something I've worried about.

 

[Intheswamp]

Quote:
Yelp, decidious trees will help...I'm still studying my options on placing the house in regards to already established trees. Only problem is that the plans are to incorporate a large piece of the pasture behind the house as a run. Doing this actually moves the house away from the trees.<sigh> Anyhow, something to study over.

The prevailing winds come from the same direction as the storm systems come from. What I will probably do is either orient the open end to the south and put more windows in on the east side or either angle the open end to the southeast and forego the extra windows on the northeast side.

Still studying over things...

Ed

 

[keystonepaul]

We've also become taller in general as a society over the last 100 years, might want to take that into consideration as to the height he was comfortable with and the height we would be comfortable with today. Keystonepaul

 

[Intheswamp]

Quote:
Interesting point. I'm definitely going to raise it a foot...maybe a foot and a half. I'm six foot and could use a little extra room.

Ed

 

[JeffKlapper]

I built a cut down version of a Prince Woods house and it's working very well. Although the wall height of his design may only be 5', the height of the center stud is almost 10'. Mine is 4' at the shortest and over 7' at the peak and I have no problem standing inside and reaching everything.

As to orientation, I keep mine at right angle to the prevailing bad weather. That puts the windows on the sides toward the weather and the breeze. Windows down for bad weather, windows up the rest of the time.

You don't have a winter problem (our low here in Southern Maryland was 3 degrees this winter), so ventilation will be of prime importance. I have a ridge vent and vents at the peak on the end walls - gotta let that heat out!

Good luck
Jeff

 

[Intheswamp]

Quote:
Thanks for the reply, Jeff. Needless to say...I've got a couple of questions.

How did you floor your coop? ...wood, cement, dirt????

Are you using the DLM?

In your orientation, you mentioned that you lower the windows (windows being plural) for bad weather.....did you install more than the noted single window on the sides?....which sounds like a good idea.

The only real issue with winter is the humidity level down here....it does get damp and cold/freezing, though. Indeed, our summer heat is the big issue down here rather than winter cold. I can understand the vents on the sidewalls at the peak, but the ridge vent kind of confuses me...are you meaning the openable windows on the monitor?

Thanks again!
Ed

 

[Judy]

I live about where you do in terms of climate. My new coop is about the same size as you are planning, with a slanted roof (no peak.) My south wall is half hardware cloth, and the north wall has the people door which is all hardware cloth. The angles between the wall top and roof, on east and west sides, were entirely left open for ventilation as well. Roosts are in the southwest corner, and I covered the people door with plastic last winter to cut down the draft on them at night.

The only thing I wish we had done differently is more overhang, if not a porch roof sort of structure, over the south wall. Even with a 2' overhang, rain can blow in halfway across the coop. Seems to me that good air movement dries litter better than sunlight, and they love the shade this time of year. And even with all that open air space, I run a box fan on hot days.

Have you seen this thread? https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=163417