Woods Colony House - Portable

[Ted Brown]

Howard, very early in this thread @aart asked you to confirm that you did not have a floor in your coop. I think that is correct but please confirm.

Reason for the ask is the DLM question inside the coop. I am planning both a coop and an attached run (coop outside a roofed pole shed, run inside 1/3 of the 12' by 36' shed), thinking DLM in the run only. Seems that you do DLM inside without a run and that it works well?

I am in an "extreme" climate (past 3 days have been -20C+) with lots of snow. I will do DLM in the run but keep going back/forth whether to also do it inside the coop. Advantage is cost and simplicity of the build. I chose the K-D plan but note that you scaled down with success - hmmmmm?

Thanks.

 

[aart]

20 inches of heavy wet snow. This is the first serious test of my framing schedule as far as the ability of the monitor supports to hold a heavy snow load. So far, so good!

What I'm wondering is who is going to dig that door out so I can collect today's eggs?

Looks like about a foot on roof.....nasty drifts against door and a ways away from it...wind coming from the left of pic?
Well you are digging it out, right?

PS: How much snow blew in? Virtually none.

Cool....was wondering. Once you dig out you can take a pic of that.

 

[Howard E]

Howard, very early in this thread @aart asked you to confirm that you did not have a floor in your coop. I think that is correct but please confirm.

Reason for the ask is the DLM question inside the coop. I am planning both a coop and an attached run (coop outside a roofed pole shed, run inside 1/3 of the 12' by 36' shed), thinking DLM in the run only. Seems that you do DLM inside without a run and that it works well?

I am in an "extreme" climate (past 3 days have been -20C+) with lots of snow. I will do DLM in the run but keep going back/forth whether to also do it inside the coop. Advantage is cost and simplicity of the build. I chose the K-D plan but note that you scaled down with success - hmmmmm?

Thanks.

Correct, this has a dirt floor, with deep litter. Intent was to be able to move it. Because it was placed in a well drained site close to water and electric, and it has a well established dig apron, I have not moved it yet. Over time, I will need to for a couple reasons.

First is the soil below, even with litter, is starting to get funky. Original flock was less than half of what I have now, so the process is accelerating. Second is to be able to get floor as cleaned out as much as possible when I do a clean out, I always get a little dirt in the process. What was flat and level is slowing starting to dish out, which instead of draining water away, is starting to pull water in. We have had one of the wettest Januarys on record and keeping it dry in there with a full population of birds has been more work than usual.

In a cold, snowy climate, a covered run would probably be appreciated by the birds. It may take a week before enough snow melts they will see grass again around here. First time we have had to clear our driveway in 3 years. Snow has not been an issue for me until today.

 

[Howard E]

Looks like about a foot on roof.....nasty drifts against door and a ways away from it...wind coming from the left of pic?
Well you are digging it out, right?

Cool....was wondering. Once you dig out you can take a pic of that.

Yup......almost 20 inches on the ground, yet only a foot or so on either roof. Back has the steeper pitch. Surprised more didn't pile up on the roof of the front scratch shed.

For those wondering what the concern was, it is the cross framing of the monitor. This thing is clear span inside, so the cross framing behind the top window openings has to support the weight of both roofs. I used 2 x 4's for rafters and they have held. Main support framing was 2 x 6's, doubled up with 1/2" plywood lamination between them.

In his description, Woods called for this to be framed lightly (chicken houses were expected to be cheap and economical builds back then), but went on to say some of the monitors of his lightly framed houses had sagged under heavy snow loads. I went with heavy and stout vs. light and prone to sagging. Some 30 to 40 years ago, I remember when the roofs of many of the old original poultry houses collapsing under 12 and 14 inch snow loads. I didn't want this to collapse.

This highly unusual snow came from the east (right to left in photo) with light to modest winds. Hardly any drifts anywhere. Just deep wet snow. Product of a slow moving upper level low, which parked itself directly overhead and just sat there dumping.

About an hour or so before dark, got the door and pop door dug out. Made a hole deep enough to get the doors open. Shoveled pile was waist deep.

 

[Howard E]

PS: Got a dozen eggs from 23 pullets. They still haven't bounced back from their fright over that cat incident. Anybody want a young tom cat? Anybody? Anybody at all?

 

[Howard E]

Hmmm.....morning comes, along with discovery that its snowing. Still???? Storm system moved out yesterday, but a pocket of light snow remains parked overhead. Like an obnoxious guest who just won't leave.



Anyway, top wire on the electric fence......about 20 to 22 inches high, is now gone. Buried somewhere down there.

And view of the Victory house in the background. Roof slope is about 4 1/2" per foot, so is steep enough stuff slides off. Like snow.

That back wall is 4 feet high. Ouch.

But as for the Woods House? Still standing!

 

[RussellRoosters]

Hi, Howard! I just came across your portable Woods Colony House and fell in love. I've never built anything on this scale, so there's a lot to process in terms of whether this is a feasible endeavor for me. The answers to my questions may seem a little obvious, but I'm still learning a lot in regard to building a chicken coop so please excuse my lack of knowledge.

• How much do you think you spent on materials for this coop?
• What is the max number of chickens a coop this size could house?
• How long did it take you to build from beginning to being able to safely house chickens?

I imagine I may have more questions down the road. Thank you in advance for all your help!

 

[Howard E]

I did not keep track, but would budget for $1,500 +/-, depending on the materials you use. The Woods house was built with T-111 siding, which I found to be iffy in quality, and required a lot of effort to get it painted right. If a person was familiar with metal siding........the type being used on pole barns, etc., that might be a better alternative.....and if done that way, I'd frame the walls different than I did this one. If using metal, I'd also use the 1/2" polyiso foil faced insulation with a plywood liner.

I think it would also be possible to simplify the monitor windows, making window frames, but then screwing clear skylight material to the frames vs. messing around with any type of glass. The opaque poly material used over the scratch shed has held up and is working well.

If using metal siding, I'd frame along the lines of the way I did the Victory House.......

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/the-victory-house.1225477/

This Woods house, at 8' x 12' is sized for up to 24 birds. I have 23 in it now and it is working well. Enough space they can be kept in if need be, but most days are let out into the yard. The original flock started out as 15, but eventually dwindled to 7 or 8, so only 3 nest boxes. With 23 birds, that became a bottleneck to the laying process. In recent weeks there were times when all three nest boxes were doubled up (2 per box), with others waiting. Added three more nest boxes and the bottleneck has been removed.

I think it took me about 3 or 4 weeks to build it, but was shopping for supplies and engineering and designing as I went. A skilled builder could knock this out in half that time. I'm watching a pair of Amish lads put up a pole barn next door and I suspect those two could build one of these in a couple days. Their work ethic is impressive.

The one thing that remains constant with this house....... with the side windows closed, it really doesn't matter what the wind is doing. At the back, where the roosts are, it is always calm......no drafts back there.

We went through several days of -12F to -15F with little to no frostbite.....a few with long combs had singed tips.

 

[Howard E]

BTW, this is the layout I used for the 6 nest boxes required for a full load of 24 birds.

Would have preferred to lower them about 6 inches, as bar for top bank of nests is now about even with the roost bars. But so far, nobody has tried to roost in them. Most days.....all 6 will have eggs in them.

 

[aart]

Most days.....all 6 will have eggs in them.

With no bedding on bottom row?
Do you use fake eggs?