ventilation.

[aart]

.... three sides mostly enclosed, but one side wide open for light and ventilation.

Those other 3 sides (4 really with roof) need to be totally enclosed (during winter) or you'll lose the 'air cushion'.
Concept is...wind can blow into open south side, but only so far because there's no place for it to exit....more of a 'dead end'.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you look at the first post in this thread you’ll see that the OP has an existing 3x5 coop. I really would have liked photos of that to see what they were working with. Knowing climate would have really helped too. Since we don’t know specifics all we can do is generalize.

 

[Howard E]

Those other 3 sides (4 really with roof) need to be totally enclosed (during winter) or you'll lose the 'air cushion'.
Concept is...wind can blow into open south side, but only so far because there's no place for it to exit....more of a 'dead end'.

Good point and thanks for the clarification. Totally closed up (all glass windows closed) IS how mine is setup today as we in Missouri are going into winter. Currently +65 F this morning, but a front is blowing through today and forecast is for temps in the 30's and wind chills in the 20's by tomorrow. Wind is currently gusting to +30 mph from the south, swinging around to the north and blowing just about as hard tonight. But inside the house, not much happens except that the temperature changes.

BTW, one of the reasons I did the Woods coop vs. a smaller coop with larger open run is to deal with the wind. We are on an elevated ridge, and the wind blows constantly. For much of the winter, an open sided run in our exposed location would not be usable without making some serious modifications. The closed up Woods house is what I would have to modify the run to anyway.

But then comes summer. I can open two side windows, open the monitor windows and open the solid door and have an screened door inside. That does open it up to vent the heat and moisture and let some breeze blow through and it is still mostly calm up on the roost bars. So a highly flexible and secure place to shelter the birds.

BTW, it is mid November and the days are getting shorter and I'm still getting the same number of eggs they started with a couple months ago.

 

[aart]

If you look at the first post in this thread you’ll see that the OP has an existing 3x5 coop. I really would have liked photos of that to see what they were working with. Knowing climate would have really helped too. Since we don’t know specifics all we can do is generalize.

Yep, me too.....but <shrugs> oh well.

BTW, it is mid November and the days are getting shorter and I'm still getting the same number of eggs they started with a couple months ago.

Yep....pullets will often lay thru their first winter without slowing down and without supplemental lighting.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I’m just a bit south of you Howard and getting the same weather. I didn’t realize you were somewhere in Missouri. For my main coop I enclosed the end of a loafing shed so I wasn’t building from scratch. I left the tops open under the overhang of my 12’ single sloped roof plus put “gable vents” on the ends. Basically I just left the top above the 8’ high walls open and covered all openings with hardware cloth. To me that’s equivalent to gable vents. It’s fairly loose construction so there are leaks down low. For winter I have an opening at the bottom that I can close off but in summer that is open and is inside the rest of that loafing shed so it is shady. That lets cooler shaded air in during the hot summers. I also have a window at roost level that’s still open but I’ll probably be closing that today because of the weather coming in.

I’m in a north-south dead end valley with the worst of the winds from the south. I really don’t get much from the north or east. Occasionally the west winds can get pretty strong, but that’s a significant storm to do much coming over the ridge.

My hens are also still laying. That’s not only my pullets from this year but my older hens have not molted yet. I don’t know what is going on. Maybe it’s the unseasonably warm weather, we set heat records the last two days, but that will sure change today. Hopefully this cold snap will kick off the molt so I can get hatching eggs from the older hens next spring when I need them. But I may just be hatching pullet eggs.