I was reading an article today about chickens and it said to have your coop done, BEFORE you get your chickens. Well, that is not the case here, but I'm not worried so much for this spring and summer. I can fabricate something quickly for my babies that will arrive in April by the time they need to be outside. But I began thinking about this winter and what we could do if the "real" coop didn't get built this summer.
I had the idea of building a cube out of straw bales stacked like legos into a square box, allowing the ground to be just the dirt, and using the deep litter method with pine shavings. My husband is very handy and could figure out how to make a door and a couple windows, and I thought of using plywood for the roof, with a tarp over the whole thing, and then metal corrugated sheets on top of the plywood so we could pull the snow off without tearing the tarp.
So, is this CRAZY? I thought it would be nicely insulated for northern Washington winters, and not too expensive to build, just in case we don't get the real coop done, which will be made out of wood with insulated walls, etc.
So, I'm hoping for feedback on this idea from some experience chicken people, as I have never had any chickens before, so don't know if this would, or would not work for a makeshift winter coop. Thanks! Kristy
I had the idea of building a cube out of straw bales stacked like legos into a square box, allowing the ground to be just the dirt, and using the deep litter method with pine shavings. My husband is very handy and could figure out how to make a door and a couple windows, and I thought of using plywood for the roof, with a tarp over the whole thing, and then metal corrugated sheets on top of the plywood so we could pull the snow off without tearing the tarp.
So, is this CRAZY? I thought it would be nicely insulated for northern Washington winters, and not too expensive to build, just in case we don't get the real coop done, which will be made out of wood with insulated walls, etc.
So, I'm hoping for feedback on this idea from some experience chicken people, as I have never had any chickens before, so don't know if this would, or would not work for a makeshift winter coop. Thanks! Kristy