Woods Coop Questions

[ssramage]

My last thread on coop ideas opened up a giant can of worms for me. I thought I had settled on a design to have built, but now I'm thinking of going in a new direction.

I live in southeast GA, specifically on one of the barrier islands of GA. It gets HOT here...and rarely gets cold. I like the open air concept of the Woods style coops for this reason. I have plenty of space for a coop, but don't want to go too big because we're renting the house we're in and whatever gets built will likely move with us one day in several years.

I'm thinking a 6x10 coop to start and adding an open top (or tin roof) 5x10 dog kennel.

Any pictures of a 6x10 Woods style coop would be much appreciated!

1. Are the dimensions for a 6x10 coop available somewhere? How easy would a 6x10 coop be to move later down the road?

2. Would a concrete floor be a good idea for this type coop? I have an unused slab on the woodline where a shop used to stand. I would likely still put cinder blocks along the base to raise the wood off the ground level. This would predator proof the coop and allow the run to be in the woods away from the house.

3. Any issue with just leaving the openings open, with hardware cloth? No permanent windows?

4. Any issues with adding an additional 2 large windows on the back wall where the roost would be?

 

[Kusanar]

I'm following to see what others say, I too am interested in the woods coop design. But, I wanted to suggest something since you said you would be moving the coop. In one of my college classes we made small buildings for a project, but they had to be easily taken down, hauled, and put back up. We used door hinges to hold the panels together, then, when it was time to move it, we could knock the pins out of the hinges, then just line it back up and put the pin back to set them back up. I wouldn't do the ENTIRE coop like that, but maybe make it so you can break it in half into 2 6 x 5 sections for easier moving a hauling.

 

[squadleader]

The Woods is a great design, very pretty, and very functional.

With proper framing, certainly your coop could easily be moved. The slam dunk easiest way to move a small building, whether it's an 8x20 conex container, an 8x20 prefab storage building on 4x4 skids, or a 6x10 Woods coop is the simple everyday, common roll back wrecker, you see picking up broken down, and wrecked cars on every highway.

They have a flat deck and powerful winch, not to mention the deck has several points of articulation which allows the deck to be lowered to the ground, and the item to be carried, simply pulled by the winch right up onto the deck.

I just moved my 8x16 chicken tractor like that.

By the way, this tractor fully uses the Woods principles, so you're not limited to a single design, however pretty it may be, to take advantage of the ventilation, light, and open air of the Woods principles.

Here's a link to the post with more pictures and details about moving the Flying Fortress Chicken Tractor

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-the-flying-fortress-tractor-3-miles.1217645/

Your climate is wonderful for a Woods design. If your interested in his principles check out reply 16 on this page.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ods-semi-monitor-10-x-16-house.1220460/page-2

You can also read his book here for free.

https://books.google.com/books?id=o...X&oi=book_result&ct=result#v=onepage&q&f=true