Woods Coop Confusion...

[JackE]

Can really tell going over the book when it was written vs. modern times. Soffits are in just about every structure requiring some form of ventilation. Though it does make sense as I thunk' it over today while being judged by my rooster outside. Think you are exactly right in it would just cause conflicting air currents and disrupt that luminous vortex pinnacle we all try to achieve. My other question is he designed these coops having a particular location and direction in mind to best use the ventilation setup. When that isn't applied for whatever reason, i.e. you can't do it, the ground is all level, one direction of wind do you still get the same effect as intended?

Yes, as you say, soffits are basically standard with modern construction. But, we are talking about a 100+yr old chicken coop design. When the coop is in winter mode, all the other windows are shut, except for the open front. Now, the rest of the coop is built tight. No gaps, no extra slots for air, none of that. If you had other openings, like soffit vents, and you got a strong wind from the front, you would have, basically, a wind tunnel. The wind would blow, unhindered, right through the coop. In a properly built Woods, there are no other openings, so there is no throughway path for the wind to go, so it does not blow in, and through. In the book, there is an drawing, showing the air movement through the coop. Cool air comes in at the bottom of the open front, goes to the rear of the coop, warms up a bit, then wafts up and makes it's way back out the front. You don't feel any of this, but it's constantly happening. Woods, the guy who designed the coop, hung little scraps of paper throughout the coop, and watched the way they moved. That guy, put a lot of time, into the development of this coop.

The preferred direction the coop should face, is to the south, southeast. The main reason for this, is so the coop can get the most benefit from the sun in this hemisphere. When the coop is sited right, it is flooded with sunlight. Gets the birds up early and to the business of laying. Also, I believe it helps with some solar heating through the windows in the winter. Other than that, the direction doesn't matter as the wind is concerned.

 

[Chullicken]

Yes, as you say, soffits are basically standard with modern construction. But, we are talking about a 100+yr old chicken coop design. When the coop is in winter mode, all the other windows are shut, except for the open front. Now, the rest of the coop is built tight. No gaps, no extra slots for air, none of that. If you had other openings, like soffit vents, and you got a strong wind from the front, you would have, basically, a wind tunnel. The wind would blow, unhindered, right through the coop. In a properly built Woods, there are no other openings, so there is no throughway path for the wind to go, so it does not blow in, and through. In the book, there is an drawing, showing the air movement through the coop. Cool air comes in at the bottom of the open front, goes to the rear of the coop, warms up a bit, then wafts up and makes it's way back out the front. You don't feel any of this, but it's constantly happening. Woods, the guy who designed the coop, hung little scraps of paper throughout the coop and watched the way they moved. That guy, put a lot of time, into the development of this coop.

The preferred direction the coop should face is to the south, southeast. The main reason for this is so the coop can get the most benefit from the sun in this hemisphere. When the coop is sited right, it is flooded with sunlight. Gets the birds up early and to the business of laying. Also, I believe it helps with some solar heating through the windows in the winter. Other than that, the direction doesn't matter as the wind is concerned.

Think I will make a mini mock up this spring to see what the temp. difference is between outside and inside and how it works with my wind direction as I have a returning gust where I live so all my neighbors who burn wood up the road are fortunate as all that smoke comes right back down to my house and hovers like smog. Unless someone already has that information available? Like Mr.Woods I do some similar 'test' when I build mine so I know ventilation is working and solar heating is doing something as well. My main issue is maintaining an inside temperature above what is outside as that is really the goal of a chicken coop. I would imagine this design would do that as well.

The book was painful to read as I mentioned above but his ideas really have a lot of merit to them. Just like to know some of these variables before committing to a giant chunk of wood in the middle of my yard. They're not the most pleasant of things to look at.

 

[WthrLady]

I have temperature difference information as I am a meteorologist and have temp set ups both inside and outside the coop.

I did add a small sliding vent door on the north side of my coop, which is ONLY opened in the summertime. Usually only in early August. This is when OUR winds stop and our temps are at 100, and humidity sends the heat index near 120' when the corn is growing. The north vent helps what little movement we do get (and yes, it has hardware cloth over it.)

When we drop to -20'F, with all the windows shut (and howling north winds sending the chill down to -40' or more) the inside of the coop never dropped below -10'F by the giant front window. The roosting area, whose roof is low, near the chickens, never dropped below 0'F.

As soon as the sun came up, the whole system warms up quickly. On our longest stretches of cold this winter, two weeks of highs below 10'F, the coop and run stayed between 20 and 30 degrees, which the feather butts don't mind one bit, as they are totally out of the wind.

Summertime is spent almost 100% free ranging, but the winds normally do a great job keeping the hot and humid air moving. (Except in August when the winds stop.) Every window is open, AND my door is latched open revealing a large hardware cloth screen door for those days I can't be home to watch them range.

When it is 90 outside, we're running about 70-75 inside.

I could NOT be happier with my coop. Although IF I could blink my eyes, it would be twice as large...more chickens more chickens more chickens! LOL.

I keep 26 birds in my 8x12, which has a 12x 16 run attached, due to LONG brutal winters here.

 

[aart]

When it is 90 outside, we're running about 70-75 inside.

That's pretty good considering you have no trees for shade.
Wonders of the upper awning and run roof help deter solar gain?

I assume this is the coop you are speaking of?

 

[Howard E]

Not sure if this will help or hurt, but these are the plans I built my 8' x 12' from.



On the plans for the 6' x 10' house in Woods book, the detail is all there.....dimensions, windows, window placement and all, once you know where to look. Detail is found in both the drawing and in the narrative that goes with it.

The 6' x 10' was the only house in the book that included droppings boards. The reason was to enable the placement of nest boxes below the droppings boards, which was a common trick of the time. The competing "fool proof" house used that method exclusively and was part of the system of that house to control drafts through the roost area. The "fool proof" house depended on a lot of other tricks to work as well as the Woods did.

On soffit vents, normally those are used in residential construction to vent attics. Cool air is drawn through the soffits to replace hot attic air that vents through the gable ends or mushroom caps on the roof. You don't have an attic in a chicken house.

On my 8' x 12' woods, I have only had the side windows open in the summer and it is basically the same temp inside as outside when I do that. So not a bad place to be. But I also have a white comp shingle roof to reflect the heat from the summer sun.

 

[WthrLady]

Nope the overhang on the large front windows does not bother a thing, and here's why. In the winter the overhang is covered with a CLEAR panel, allowing full sun on the giant upper windows. Warm sunshine spills into the coop from these.

In April, I switch it over to an opaque white panel, which shades the windows from the brutal summer sun, but still allows in all the light.

 

[Howard E]

Another thing that often gets drowned out by all the noise is the reason for the designs used in these historic houses. 100 years ago, there were NO commercial laying houses as we know them today. Small farms were the only source of eggs to the major urban centers, and eggs were like gold to the folks who raised chickens. For some, their only source of money to live on. Even back then, some growers could get as many as 280 to 300 eggs per bird per year.

So while chickens were not pampered pets, they were a class of pampered livestock as happy healthy birds were going to lay eggs in abundance and sick or stressed out birds would sink you as well as them. So anything you could to to a house to optimize it to get better production, you did. Basically ALL land grant universities of the time had developed their own chicken house designs, as did the US Government. What worked and what didn't had been studied in great detail. BTW, study these old designs in great detail, read all the books, etc, and the word "cute" will never be found in any of them. Just saying.

The Woods house, even then, was one of the very best you could build. Still true today.

And related to this comes the names of the birds. Rhode Island reds? New Hampshires? Delawares? Plymouth Rocks? That these heritage breeds were developed near the urban population centers of the NE is no coincidence.

 

[aart]

Nope the overhang on the large front windows does not bother a thing, and here's why. In the winter the overhang is covered with a CLEAR panel, allowing full sun on the giant upper windows. Warm sunshine spills into the coop from these.

In April, I switch it over to an opaque white panel, which shades the windows from the brutal summer sun, but still allows in all the light.

I wondered if maybe you switched out the awning in winter....run roof too?

 

[WthrLady]

Forgot to add. The reason for my overhang on the large window is rain. INSANE rain and hail. The storms we get in Nebraska in the summer are crazy and can blow from any direction. We were having an spate of storms blowing too much water into my open windows. So I added moisture control awning

 

[WthrLady]

I wondered if maybe you switched out the awning in winter....run roof too?

The run roof is now actually a steel roof. Hail took out the plastic one and it sagged and leaked. Drove me bonkers. The steel roof actually stays quite cool, despite being dark brown. The extended run addition is 7/8 inch ply and shingles, which surprisingly also stays cool. As warm air rises up and out of the coop in the summer, it pulls cool shaded air from the runs into the coop, which pulls fresh air into the runs. The runs are 100% open whenever it hits 40' from April on.

Prior to April we open and close windows to minimize drafts from winter/spring winds, which are chilly. Usually we open in the morning and close about 2pm to build up winter heat in the coop.