Please evaluate my coop design!

[Leigti]

You have to get The coop oriented correctly in your yard so that the wind and sun do what they need them to do or the coop will not function right.

 

[mobius]

Love it love it. The Woods coop does have windows on the sides I believe. The human door is easiest cause you can buy a door and frame to fit. Did you find the book (link) online yet? If not, let me know, I will post it here....

supposedly the ratio of dimensions are a bit critical....length to width I mean. Love the drawings.

 

[aart]

You have to get The coop oriented correctly in your yard so that the wind and sun do what they need them to do or the coop will not function right.

Not true.
Woods coops are easy to misunderstand.

The main concept and function of a Woods coop has 2 critical points:
-the proportion of width to depth.
-the closing tightly of all openings in winter except the large front window.
This is what forms the 'air cushion' that keeps wind from blowing right thru.

Southern orientation can help with solar gain, but it is not critical to the main concept/function.

 

[mobius]

Not true.
Woods coops are easy to misunderstand.

The main concept and function of a Woods coop has 2 critical points:
-the proportion of width to depth.
-the closing tightly of all openings in winter except the large front window.
This is what forms the 'air cushion' that keeps wind from blowing right thru.

Southern orientation can help with solar gain, but it is not critical to the main concept/function.

In the book orientation is emphasized but not critical. The proportions, as aart says, are critical.

That being said, if I were doing it myself I would try to take into account prevailing wind and weather direction...here for example nearly all weather comes from the west to east.

 

[Leigti]

In the book orientation is emphasized but not critical. The proportions, as aart says, are critical.

That being said, if I were doing it myself  I would try to take into account prevailing wind and weather direction...here for example nearly all weather comes from the west to east.

Exactly.

 

[WesleyBeal]

I'm not sure I read clearly what your plan was for water?

Both getting it to the property, and keeping it from freezing in the winter?

Assuming your temperatures get as cold as mine do, you're going to have days when the water will freeze easily in under an hour. The chickens must have access to liquid water.

Also, since you aren't living on this property, how easy is it to get to during high snow falls?

In the category of "things I wish I knew beforehand" (I'm still in my first year doing this, so not an expert), keeping food and water (especially water) outside of the coop ranks fairly high. However, given the weather in the north, leaving the water outside isn't really doable. I would build a small-ish structure for the water, with a passage that is protected from the weather, that the chickens can use to get to the water outside the main structure even when the weather is bad.

That way the water can be heated more safely without risk of it catching your coop on fire (depending how you do it, of course), and without building up the humidity levels in the coop which will lead to cold birds and frostbite issues.

It's on my to-do list once winter is over. While it isn't too difficult for me to carry the water out to them every morning and bring it in every night, I think it would be much more convenient for me (and the chickens) if the water were available all the time.

If I didn't live on the property, I would definitely want that kind of solution.

Being able to section off birds is also something I didn't understand I would want as much as I do. Seems especially true if your goals are hatching chicks. You might consider building multiple smaller Woods-style coops instead of fewer, larger ones. The ratios on those dimensions are important, meaning you can't just put a wall down the middle and expect it to work right. That said, the Woods style can be slapped up against itself, side-to-side, in a row across the width of your property.

But water is still my chief concern for your location. I'd want to be sure I had that figured out before I built the coop or got the chickens.

 

[mobius]

I'm not sure I read clearly what your plan was for water?

Both getting it to the property, and keeping it from freezing in the winter?

Assuming your temperatures get as cold as mine do, you're going to have days when the water will freeze easily in under an hour. The chickens must have access to liquid water.

Also, since you aren't living on this property, how easy is it to get to during high snow falls?

In the category of "things I wish I knew beforehand" (I'm still in my first year doing this, so not an expert), keeping food and water (especially water) outside of the coop ranks fairly high. However, given the weather in the north, leaving the water outside isn't really doable. I would build a small-ish structure for the water, with a passage that is protected from the weather, that the chickens can use to get to the water outside the main structure even when the weather is bad.

That way the water can be heated more safely without risk of it catching your coop on fire (depending how you do it, of course), and without building up the humidity levels in the coop which will lead to cold birds and frostbite issues.

It's on my to-do list once winter is over. While it isn't too difficult for me to carry the water out to them every morning and bring it in every night, I think it would be much more convenient for me (and the chickens) if the water were available all the time.

If I didn't live on the property, I would definitely want that kind of solution.

Being able to section off birds is also something I didn't understand I would want as much as I do. Seems especially true if your goals are hatching chicks. You might consider building multiple smaller Woods-style coops instead of fewer, larger ones. The ratios on those dimensions are important, meaning you can't just put a wall down the middle and expect it to work right. That said, the Woods style can be slapped up against itself, side-to-side, in a row across the width of your property.

But water is still my chief concern for your location. I'd want to be sure I had that figured out before I built the coop or got the chickens.

IF you built one Woods coop, large, and sectioned off a much smaller brooding are with a wall of wire, don't you think that would work?

Also if it were me, I would have a large bucket of water with horizontal nipples with aforementioned stock tank heater inserted and then connected to a deep cycle marine battery (maybe get two so you can keep one charged). I would put that in the coop (as mine is but is connected to electric). It hasn't increased the humidity in the coop...has a solid cover, and lasts a long time before I fill it...depends on number of chickens of course...and carefully cover/protect connections/battery from chickens.

Stock tank heater cycles on and off per temp of water and is 250 watts.

 

[WesleyBeal]

IF you built one Woods coop, large, and sectioned off a much smaller brooding are with a wall of wire, don't you think that would work?

**IF** you ran a section of just wire, it shouldn't interfere with air-flow. However very often where there is a wall, wire or otherwise, things end up placed against it, which would interfere with air flow.

I think it depends on the size of the coop - the larger it is the more easily such a divider would be to keep the ratio's right. However building multiple Woods styles in a row has other benefits. The book talks about row-houses as I recall. Would need to go back and read up on that.

 

[JackE]

IF you built one Woods coop, large, and sectioned off a much smaller brooding are with a wall of wire, don't you think that would work?

.

In my Woods, when I have a broody raising chicks, or if I just buy some. I have temporary walls that I built from 2X3"s and chicken wire put into the coop. They block off and provide a 3X6' safe space. More or less, it is just a sectioning off of the low front section of the coop. When the chicks get old enough, I just pull the walls out.

 

[Redoubt Renee]

In the book orientation is emphasized but not critical. The proportions, as aart says, are critical.

That being said, if I were doing it myself I would try to take into account prevailing wind and weather direction...here for example nearly all weather comes from the west to east.

The is long running north to south, all trees east and west, so I figure to have very little wind.


Water is a big no go, so I'll have a cistern for rainwater, electricity is possible, just haven't worked out how expensive it will be to get a simple pole and box. Eventually I would like to have a pain mound for heated water. A Pain mound is a big compost pile you build around a drum of water connected to a tube system to automatically cycle water through. The chemical energy of decomposition can heat a building(not the coop, a Walipini greenhouse) via the heated water tubes.