Woods Fresh-Air coop build

[Ted Brown]

On a bright day, the sun will heat a coop with an open side to the south faster than the airflow will dissipate the heat. Or heat the contents, maybe. I had darkish brown leaves as bedding when I measured it. That warmth doesn't last through the night, of course.

With respect that is not my experience.

It is the case that my birds will "follow the sun" when it shines in during the winter. This whether the sun falls on the bedding or on the roosts, I believe they get some warmth from the sun falling directly on their bodies but this is not enough to raise the temperature inside the coop relative to the outside. I have been inside doing cleanup/egg collection on the brightest of days and have never seen the thermometer rise.

I will qualify this by saying I am far enough north that the angle of sunshine is relatively "flat" during the winter months.

I chose to make my comment as I did not want anyone to build a Woods thinking that it will magically be warmer than some other coop style. The advantages are a guarantee of fresh air without drafts using a very simple design (ie the open front) without the need to add venting using windows or open soffits/fascia. If one uses the original Woods build techniques it can also be more economical per square foot than modern stick framing methods as there is no inner frame required. Since very few people who build a Woods choose to use the original approach this latter point is moot.

 

[Ktlyn 41]

Just finished building mine (6*10' build) a little over a month ago, it's a very satisfying build. I actually live in Southwest Michigan so hello from the Trolls . I started building mine in November And I can tell you his design works wonders. There were days where I was working out there and It was close to zero outside and I could work inside the coop without gloves . My best advice is make sure you build your window openings for the windows you have lol. I had gotten it into my head that I was going to follow his plans exactly and build my own windows and everything.... Yeah, my ambition was a bit bigger than my abilities to say the least. So I ended up having to reframe my window spots in the coop. Another trick I used is I used clear plastic sheeting, 3mil, to wrap the coop (like poor man's house wrap) before putting on my siding and roofing to cut down the drafts as much as possible and to try and prevent leaks. I used fence pickets, 1*6*6, to board up my coop though so there were plenty of small gaps that I wanted to have covered.

 

[Ted Brown]

Couple questions for you:
1. Is your coop on skids, piers or how is it elevated?
2. What did you do underneath it? I mean, landscape fabric, mulch, plastic, gravel or just plain old yard underneath?

I have a 4" by 4" frame atop 4" by 4" posts into concrete patio blocks. Posts make adjustments for terrain height trivial. I put 6" galvanized drip edge between frame and coop to deter water and critters.

My ground is thin topsoil on porous gravel. I added course mulch and then blown in fall leaves; rinse and repeat. Each fall I fill the space, flock goes berserk with joy. Maintenance free, I never touch it.

 

[saysfaa]

... don’t understand why everyone says nest boxes need to be up off the ground. Ours never have been elevated and the hens almost always lay in them. And in nature they would nest on the ground, so elevated nest boxes dont seem like a necessity to me. They would allow more floor space though, so that is one reason.
...

The chickens like ground level nests well enough although they do pick elevated places sometimes when they are free ranging and have lots of attractive choices at all levels.

I need the nests to be elevated because I have a lot of back issues.

I liked the idea of the extra floor space under the nests, too, when I designed the coop. They don't use it much. Silly chickens.

I also like that they have several levels so they can get out of the lines of sight of each other.

 

[saysfaa]

The Woods Coop is a very specific design that's engineered precisely to create the correct airflow and air cushion to work properly for the chickens' good health.

Messing with the window placement would mess with the airflow.

No need to worry. Correct airflow and air cushion is important in the winter. Since the side windows are closed during the winter, it will have the correct airflow and air cushion with only the front open.

In the summer, the extra ventilation is not a problem, even so far north.

 

[Beej7]

Progress!

I built the skid foundation and floor. Then my dad came and helped me get the coop framing done this weekend. Still lots to do!

 

[gtaus]

I have an elevated coop, so nothing can dig underneath the coop and then into it. But I don't let my chickens go underneath the coop. IMHO, I must be able to access anywhere my chickens might go.

At my age, I don't want to be crawling around on my belly trying to pull out a dead or sick chicken, and I don't want to have to bend myself in half to clean out an area that the chickens may be littering with their poo.

I do like the idea of having a chicken coop elevated enough to provide shade for the chickens, and if you are limited in space available for the chicken run, then you gain all that space under the coop as more run area. I think it would work better with a small coop where it would be easy to clean out if you only had to reach in maybe a couple feet from any side, either with your hands or a rake. For a larger coop, I did not want to have to crawl underneath.

I suppose whether you decide to let your chickens under the coop will determine what method you will choose for growth suppression under the coop. Chickens are going to scratch up all the dirt, so I would lay down a nice layer of wood chips and clean and maintain as neccessary. If you don't let your birds under the coop, then maybe some good quality weed blocker mat and something on top (sand?) to keep it down.

FWIW, I think the best litter to go inside the coop is to have a deep bedding/litter system. I only clean out my coop twice a year, once in the spring after the snow melts, and then right before the snow starts in late fall. I could probably easily get by with only cleaning out the coop in the spring, but I am using the spent coop litter for making compost. I think you will find that frozen poo is as hard as concrete, and you probably will not be cleaning out your coop during the cold winter months.

Everyone I know around here uses dry deep bedding in their coops. I start off with maybe 3 inches of litter in the fall, and then add additional litter throughout the winter to cover the poo and keep the coop looking clean and smelling fresh. By spring, I might have 10-12 inches of litter in the coop. With deep bedding, the chicken poo mostly automagically disappears into the deep bedding. I designed my coop floor to hold up to 12 inches of litter because I wanted to use deep bedding from the start.

I can get all the free wood chips I want from our local county landfill and that worked great for me the past two winters. This winter, I used paper shreds I shred at home and that has worked out really well. I am a big believer in using as much free resources you can because those "free" eggs will cost a lot of money if you don't watch out how much you spend on your setup and maintenance.

I have heard good things about the Woods coop design, so I hope you come back and start a thread on your build and share your progress.

 

[gtaus]

Sounds like linoleum it is!

Linoleum worked for me. But I know there are people that swear by BJ57.

Where do you live? Sounds like you’re farther north than me if you’re still getting that much snow. Most of the recent predicted snowstorms here turned into ice/rain these last couple weeks.

I live in northern Minnesota. We got snow/slush yesterday, today, and more expected tomorrow. Should start melthing this weekend.

I get - 30C several times per winter. BJ57 does NOT freeze and crack and can be refreshed with another coat. I started with linoleum on my drop boards, my birds destroyed it within 2 months.

I have never used BJ57 and I don't mean to bad mouth the product. I had read reviews that BJ57 had cracked and needed to be repaired. As for my linoleum, I laid it down on the floor board and covered it with 3-4 inches of wood chips. The chickens have not destroyed my linoleum in 3 years, so I think I came off pretty good on that decision. And, I bought the absolute cheapest linoleum I could find. At that time, the linoleum for the coop was about half the cost of the BJ57 I would have needed.

I also considered just laying down sacrificial OSB board on top of the floor board and then replacing it later if needed. I'm glad I did not go with that option. When I built my chicken coop 3 years ago, a 4X8 OSB was about $7.00 per sheet. Last time I looked at Home Depot, that same OSB sheet was like $42.00! No such thing as cheap wood where I live. Probably not anywhere, anymore...

 

[Ted Brown]

Did they peck it and eat it or did it fall apart just from them shitting and walking on it?

The birds pecked/ate(?) the linoleum to shreds. This may have occurred because it was covered by only half an inch of sand+PDZ.

After @gtaus replied I searched. BJ57 is water based and if it freezes in the can it is unusable. Other than that there are no references to it freezing/cracking after proper installation. It is rubberized asphalt with fiberglass mixed in. Goes on the thickness of paint, I did two coats. From my personal experience it does NOT crack even with a 5 gallon bucket of water spilled and frozen for months on top. It is flexible when dried and made to seal roofs. It is bullet proof. Here is my coop with the floor+12" of wall done.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1941/1941059-53e82873061ed735f221c759a50ff292.jpg

 

[Beej7]

Im so torn between making this thing mobile or not. I really like how we can move our chickens around based off of the seasons (shade, forage and wind blocks) and based off of how they are affecting the yard. The downsides are that its a little more work.

I found a hay wagon for $100. It needs a bed, and I have lumber to do that. But its still half buried in snow so I cant move it at all. I need to see how easily it rolls and turns before committing. But even if it rolls and turns relatively easily, that doesn’t mean it will with a chicken coop built on top! And I have no idea how much this coop will weigh. It sure would suck to build it on the wagon and not be able to move it by hand or with our 4 wheeler. Plus, if we blow a tire, now the entire coop is unstable. And with it being probably 9’ tall or more if built on the wagon, it would be bad if it tipped over!

Another option is to keep our current small mobile coop for summer use and use the Woods for winter. This was the original plan but Im always trying to simplify things and having a brand new coop and not using it for half the year seems goofy.