Woods Colony House - Portable

[aart]

Does the interior ratio really matter in winter when all but south side is closed up?
I'd think not......and winter ventilation IMO is the main focus of the Woods concept.

 

[Howard E]

Does the interior ratio really matter in winter when all but south side is closed up?
I'd think not......and winter ventilation IMO is the main focus of the Woods concept.

Difficult to say how much any of it matters. About all we have to go on is what the guy left behind in his book. This should be a link to the excerpt where he mentioned about keeping things in proportion, front to back:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924003138272;view=1up;seq=128

My guess is a person should strive to get close to what he suggests as far as overall proportions, but not to the point where one starts picking fly crap out of the pepper. As I recall, I found as many as 5 different sets of plans in his book, and while all of them were approximately the same in overall proportion, there was a slight bit of variation in all of them. So I figure if you get close that should be close enough.

 

[Howard E]

To give a sense of how these things perform, here are a couple interior pics (sorry, the girls don't keep a spotless house):



Taken at midday, you can see how far back the sun penetrates (nearly 2/3's way to the back) and that is just from the open front. If I had the monitor windows in, the whole thing would be flooded with sunlight. It is bright in there. Litter is so dry they have been using it for dust baths.



This shows how I did the windows and pop door. I put a pop door on each front corner so if I wanted to, I could run them into two different pens. Windows just slide back and forth to open and close. Those are vinyl windows I got from Lowes. About $30 each as I recall. A whole lot easier than building them and no painting.

 

[Howard E]

Today's effort. Golf balls were put there as training wheels. Probably need to be removed as most of them have now figured out what to do. Not sure I'd want to sit on an ice cold golf ball either.

 

[enggass]

Nice. Looks cozy... More than enough warmth. I'm always amazed at the people that use heat. Ventilation is way more important. I live in Maine and have had some mornings as cold as -17º(not common), but 10º to -10º at night/AM in January and February is the norm... My birds have never had issues. Also, I see a lot of people, including coop manufacturers, use far more nest boxes than a flock will use. 3 is plenty for up to 15-20 birds. Any more and they just aren't used.
@Howard: Where/What part of the country do you live?

 

[WesleyBeal]

I took a stab at putting together a Woods style house in SketchUp.

It's a bit rough around the edges, but the basics are there, I think.

Attempted to grab the design from chapter 6 (p. 59+) from "Open-air Poultry Houses for All Climates: A Practical Book on Modern Common Sense Poultry Housing for Beginners and Veterans in Poultry Keeping. What to Build and how to Do It. Houses that Will Promote Health, Vigor and Vitality in Laying and Breeding Stock"

google ebook link: https://books.google.com/books/about/Open_air_Poultry_Houses_for_All_Climates.html?id=o08PAAAAYAAJ

Here's a link to the SketchUp model: https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=e0da2445-ad99-4787-8811-a2334c967353

 

[Howard E]

Quick update. Was gone most last week, so for the most part, birds were left indoors for several days at a time. Did a late turn out today and first thing I noticed was a fresh dig in front of the pop door.



That is new.....happened sometime while I was gone. Something made an attempt at getting in, but the apron stopped them cold.

You can see from the original pictures how the apron was installed.



Still no losses of any birds to predators with this system of tight, secure coop for the hours of darkness and electric fence to protect the yard during the day.

BTW, I now think of a Woods house as being more like a covered run enclosed on three sides....the forth side open to the south. With adequate floor space and wide open ventilation, serves the same purpose as a covered run, yet is secure.

Birds survived temps last winter to -5F, with no frostbite or other ill affects, so open side is not as bad as most fear it would be.

Feed and water are left inside, using a rat proof feeder to keep the mice at bay. Nipple and cup waterers using a bucket heater.

The Woods house remains the best housing I've seen to date!

 

[Howard E]

Hmmmm......it tried again.


May need to set my game camera up again to find out who is up to no good.

This dig site in front of the house. Once again, varmint started to dig......hit the apron and was stopped cold.

 

[IndianaGreg]

Quick update. Was gone most last week, so for the most part, birds were left indoors for several days at a time. Did a late turn out today and first thing I noticed was a fresh dig in front of the pop door.

View attachment 1211757

That is new.....happened sometime while I was gone. Something made an attempt at getting in, but the apron stopped them cold.

You can see from the original pictures how the apron was installed.

View attachment 1211759

Still no losses of any birds to predators with this system of tight, secure coop for the hours of darkness and electric fence to protect the yard during the day.

BTW, I now think of a Woods house as being more like a covered run enclosed on three sides....the forth side open to the south. With adequate floor space and wide open ventilation, serves the same purpose as a covered run, yet is secure.

Birds survived temps last winter to -5F, with no frostbite or other ill affects, so open side is not as bad as most fear it would be.

Feed and water are left inside, using a rat proof feeder to keep the mice at bay. Nipple and cup waterers using a bucket heater.

The Woods house remains the best housing I've seen to date!

Just wondering how you kept the water from freezing. My seems to freeze quickly. I changed to an upright electric watering fount and even tho it does not seem to freeze it does get dirty very quickly. Thanks for any advise.

 

[Howard E]

Greg:

If you scroll up to post #23 in this thread, you will see my water bucket. Includes both small cup waterer and 1 horizontal nipple. Water bucket includes a bird bath heater that keeps all water in the bucket from freezing, and has down to temps of -10F. The cup will freeze up at around +20F to +25F, but the nipple never stops working.

Birds prefer the cup about 10:1, but will use the nipple if that is what they have.