straw bale coop??

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Forgot to mention cost. Mine is fairly cheap, but only because we recently built our home of straw & had leftover supplies & tools.

So far, I'm in $50 for cement, $102 for an exterior door, and $100 for straw. Probably won't have many more costs, but that's only because I can pull hardware cloth off my old chicken tractor to help with ventilation, and because I have leftover metal roofing from my house.

Also didn't mention that ours is a more permanent coop than the type mentioned in Andy Lee's books.
 
I was *just* thinking about the possibility of straw bale construction for a chicken coop- the merger of two things I've always wanted to try (the construction and the chicken owning). I'm so excited to crack into those links, thank you for this thread!
 
Be sure to keep us posted. This is very interesting!!!
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Marty
 
Update on straw bale coop:

The walls are up! Only five courses of bales, so nice and manageable. My husband and my dad are finishing the top plate and the metal roof will go on tomorrow!

I've managed to earth-plaster the inside of the coop while they've been working on the top plate. With the cool (50 degree) weather, it's taking a little longer to dry. We're tossing around how to finish the inside---whether to use a second coat of earth plaster, or use a surface-bonding cement as a plaster.

Please forgive me for not posting pictures directly. We have a dial-up connection, so uploading pictures takes absolutely for.ev.er.

So far, I've updated my blog through pinning the walls into place. Within the next few days, I should have two more articles on tying the foundation into the wall and making/applying earth plaster. Pictures and entries can be viewed at www.lifeunderablueroof.blogspot.com.

Thanks!
 
Straw will only decay if it gets wet. The theory behind plastering your straw bale structure is that you virtually seal off the straw---keeping it dry, free of insects, etc. Two of the oldest hay bale buildings in Nebraska were built between 1900 & 1914, and they are still in use today.

Andy Lee builds straw bale coops that are not designed to be permanent, without plaster or T-111 to keep the weather off the bales. We considered this, but I really didn't want to have to rebuild the coop each year.

We put the roof up yesterday!!! So now, I don't need to cover the project at night. The overhang of the roof is deep enough to keep rainwater off the bales.

As of today, the inside of the coop is plastered with an earth plaster. My daughter and I finished plastering one of the three outside walls. I should have the other two outside walls sealed off by next Monday. Woohoo!

I did update two more posts to the blog today---they are details of pinning the walls and making the earth plaster---complete with photos. I hope to upload pictures of the roof to the blog tomorrow.

Thanks for the kind words of support! This is a project we are really enjoying! (And really, once you take two years to build a straw bale house, spending a month or so on a coop seems like nothing!!!)
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