Ridge vent, plus gable vent

[IvyBeans]

Do you have any drawings or photos of what this is looking like?

 

[IvyBeans]

I guess the roosting bar is about at the level of the sides of the roof. It’s the bar going through the middle. It’s bracketed so it can be removed for cleaning.

The chicken door is going to be next to the nesting box, and the side next to the red tarp is going to be doors that open for cleaning.

The side opposite the nesting box is going to be hard to access as it’s going to be just a few feet from the fence.

It’s a bit hard to tell from the pictures but, the frame is a square. 5x5.

 

[3KillerBs]

View attachment 3532381

Are you sure you can't raise that roof another foot?

It's really difficult to get everything stacked up in less than about 4 feet of vertical space:

• Floor with 4-6 inches of bedding
• Nests, which are at least a foot tall, with their bottoms above the max height of the bedding
• Roost above the nest,
• Chicken on roost about 10-14" tall when sitting down (roosters may be larger).
• Vents above the top of the roosting chickens' comb.

 

[IvyBeans]

Are you sure you can't raise that roof another foot?

It's really difficult to get everything stacked up in less than about 4 feet of vertical space:

• Floor with 4-6 inches of bedding
• Nests, which are at least a foot tall, with their bottoms above the max height of the bedding
• Roost above the nest,
• Chicken on roost about 10-14" tall when sitting down (roosters may be larger).
• Vents above the top of the roosting chickens' comb.

The nests are outside.

I agree it’s a bit tight, but lowering the floor or raising the walls is something he doesn’t want to have to do because he’s already framed it up and it took hours.

There’s a good amount of space above the chickens at the peak and since they’re in the middle, I’m hoping it’s enough.

In our climate, it rarely gets below freezing even at night. So I’m trying to shift the focus to staying dry.

We plan to line the soffits with air conditioning filter material to keep it from being breezy. But leave them open.

 

[Krugerrand]

What is your plan for material on the floor?

I'm having a hard envisioning how you will access the coop. My coop is a little bit smaller than yours and I have easy access to all of it. I have about an inch of SweetPDZ on the bottom of it. The floor of the coop is a giant poop board. If you were to do something like this, you can lower the roost to about 4-6" above the floor. (That could risk troubles with proper use of the next box.)

If you go with deep bedding, that gets deeper as you go on and would make a super-low roost problematic.

 

[IvyBeans]

What is your plan for material on the floor?

I'm having a hard envisioning how you will access the coop. My coop is a little bit smaller than yours and I have easy access to all of it. I have about an inch of SweetPDZ on the bottom of it. The floor of the coop is a giant poop board. If you were to do something like this, you can lower the roost to about 4-6" above the floor. (That could risk troubles with proper use of the next box.)

If you go with deep bedding, that gets deeper as you go on and would make a super-low roost problematic.

We don’t have space for deep bedding. Planning on 3 inches or so of horse stall pellets.

Wide doors on one side, we may have to do the same to the space across.

 

[3KillerBs]

In our climate, it rarely gets below freezing even at night. So I’m trying to shift the focus to staying dry.

If that is the case then you do indeed have more flexibility.

10F in Central North Carolina in an Open Air Coop
The Queens Have Conceded ...
Open Air Coop in the Snow

Some of my experience with an open air coop in North Carolina's version of winter.

 

[IvyBeans]

If that is the case then you do indeed have more flexibility.

10F in Central North Carolina in an Open Air Coop
The Queens Have Conceded ...
Open Air Coop in the Snow

Some of my experience with an open air coop in North Carolina's version of winter.

I don’t think we can do an open coop because it rains so much.

 

[3KillerBs]

I don’t think we can do an open coop because it rains so much.

Possibly not. I have ridiculously large roof overhangs on mine and the coop itself is so large that a few feet of rain penetration during a hurricane is meaningless.

But it does show that chickens in a mild climate aren't so vulnerable to drafts.

You wouldn't want storm winds blowing rain sideways on them, but if they can get out of the wind they're fine.

 

[Krugerrand]

Not advocating the Eglu .... but it does show how a low roost can work.