Woods Open Air Coop Design - Amish Built

[Jenny Loves Chickies]

Hi everyone!!

I began researching coops a year ago and after reading JackE’s amazing thread about his open air coop and WthrLady’s thread about her adorable coop...I decided this was the way to go. Afterall aren’t so many thing reverting back to the “good old fashioned” way? This idea has been in existence since the early 1900’s which is all the more reason to make one!

We decided on 8x14 for several reasons and hope to end up closer to 8.5x14 as it seems the closest you get to the magical ratio of 1.6 the better.

After pricing out the supplies we contacted several contractors just to see how much it would cost. We were just about to give this thing a go ourselves when I happened to see a garden shed on Craigslist built by the Amish in New York about 2 hours from us. The craftsmanship of Amish built anything is so obvious for anyone that has seen their work. I called the guy and told him what we were looking for, he quoted me a very reasonable price...they are working on it now and it will he delivered just after Christmas!!! The Amish build everything on a skid as they can pull it around with a horse. They will bring it in on a trailer and drop it into location if accessible or you can drag it with a tractor wherever you’d like.

I will post pictures as we receive them, if anyone would like the specs I provided to them just let me know. And if you are anywhere near Oriskany Falls NY I’m happy to share their contact info with you as they said they will be building lots of these coops!!

 

[Jenny Loves Chickies]

I’m loving the discussion and the thought that the Amish are catching onto this idea!!! Here are the most recent pictures of our coop...we are almost there!!!

 

[Howard E]

Looks really good!

If not too late, have them replace the chicken wire with welded wire. I like 1/2" x 1" x 16 gauge. Sold in some places as cage wire.

A whole lot of predators can get through the chicken wire.......will just rip it apart. Not so with the welded wire.

Edit: Sorry, didn't see the last paragraph. I'd still go with the heavy cage wire over even hardware cloth.

 

[squadleader]

I'm with @aart on this one, eaves everywhere, the wider the better.

Keeping moisture off the structure, slows down rot, and extends its life. If the eaves are wide enough, they allow you to open your windows, even in the rain, without wetting your bedding or the building framing.

Eaves will have no negative effect on the Woods system, only a positive effect on the durability of the structure itself.

Eaves will never block winter sun, which is warmth you want, because the sun is too low in the sky, the sun is coming in sideways in winter, not from above.

Summer is the opposite, the sun is directly overhead, so eaves keep the hot summer sun out.

It's inexpensive and easy to overrun the sidewalls and create eaves, so considering all the benefits, I would.

I've read Woods book, he has a great system, which he was proposing for mass adoption. He wanted to keep it as simple, and inexpensive, to implement as possible, to have a larger appeal, he stressed how inexpensive his houses were to build.

Adding eaves increases the cost and trouble a little bit, isn't necessary for his ventilation system to work properly (the main point of his book), but does offer extra benefits to the owner. As expensive as building things is today, personally I'll spend a little extra upfront, while it's easy to do, to head off long term maintenance issues like rot.

I'd also keep everything salt treated, again it'll last longer.

Anything on the south face of the structure is going to face a lot more weathering than the other sides of the building, because it gets more UV, so the monitor windows, and its framing, is a weak point, because of that UV and moisture degradation, and the fact there's a good chance the framing wood is lighter and less able to stand that assault over the years. Keeping the moisture, and the summer UV off them with eaves will extend their lives.

I've spent most of my career selling land in the country, go look at any old barn, there's significantly, and very noticeably more, UV damage on the south sides of those buildings, with siding boards cracked and curling, and that's with significantly better wood than we have available today.

The wood in those days was old slow growing, first growth wood, denser than the fast growing yellow pine we use so much today.

I'm a huge fan of the Woods design, in my opinion it's the very best design in looks and functionality. You're making a very good choice selecting it. @JackE and @Howard E have done a tremendous service to this community, by building, and sharing with us the Woods concept. They've both spent a great deal of time and effort, helping others understand the concept, people like that, make this board great.

People attracted to the Woods design aren't slap dash people, they want the best design possible, eaves improve the functionality and durability of the design. You're going to have a significant investment in a coop as nice as a Woods, protect it with eaves.

 

[jthornton]

Thank you! That's a great point I didn't even think of and it makes complete sense. 3 of the chicks are 3-4 weeks old so I have them separated in there from the 2 that are only 1-2 weeks until they get a little bigger. The part the littlest ones are in I can access from the sides and they have been really sweet and not scared of me, the side the bigger ones are in I have to access from the top and they are scared to Death of me! I'm hoping I can merge them soon so I don't have to keep scaring them.

Yea, my first group were scared of me and I figured out that I needed to be on their level to not scare them the second group thought I was a big chicken.

JT

 

[Jenny Loves Chickies]

It’s finally here!! They drove through some very heavy rains and crazy winds to get it here so it needs some cleanup but my gosh it’s gorgeous! The trailer they brought it on was like something out of a transformers movie, they were able to place it just where we wanted it...which I certainly didn’t think would be easy. I tried to post a video but it said it was too large, it really was so cool to see!

 

[Howard E]

Scanned that photo again and noticed something I would suggest be changed, but may already be too late. I'd have them put insulation under the metal roof on the back part above the roosts. Otherwise, you will get condensation in there and have water dripping on the birds. That is an issue that has been known even in Woods time.....his plans call for boards as roof decking, covered by felt paper and asphalt shingles. It was known even back then that uninsulated metal roof in livestock buildings was a mistake. Not critical over the front scratch shed, but I'd want it over the back part under the monitor.

As for what type of insulation, I'd have them use 1/2" foil faced hard board polyiso stuff, with foil side out and white side in and have them place it over the purlins and under the metal. They will need about 3 sheets of it.

In addition to helping with the moisture and condensation, insulation under the roof creates a "thermal break" to prevent radiant heat from being lost to the outside. The birds themselves are the source of the heat. With a load of birds, coop will be warmer and dryer inside with insulation under the roof......no supplemental heat needed.

I have an "Amish" built horse barn, which is very good, but either they didn't know to put insulation under the roof, or were told not to (to save on cost), but either way, if horses are left inside, it will literally rain inside and leave a lot of stuff wet.

 

[Howard E]

Wonder if this might also be helpful? This is how I did my side windows......which are cheap plastic window frames I got from Lowes......about $20 each.



Windows are mounted on the horizontal framing of the front scratch shed. To open and close, they simply slide sideways. Slid all the way to the right, this window will pop out for cleaning or repair. It is held in place by the framing. To close it, left edge simply slides into a blind pocket made by nailing a cleat to the veriticle monitor framing.



An cage wire was nailed to the framing before the siding when on........window slides back and forth just behind the wire.........

 

[Howard E]

And speaking of Amish built, met with a young Amish lad yesterday to arrange to have him do some barn repair work for me. I was explaining the Woods house and he had never heard of one. I offered to share with him plans and photos of my build....hoping he might get the idea to start building these and offering them for sale. His home is on a heavily traveled highway and they already have a roadside produce stand. If this comes to pass.......may be an option for those in the Midwest who want an Amish built Woods of their very own.

A buyer would have to make arrangements to transport it, but it could be either the 6' x 10' (up to a dozen birds) or 8' x 12" (up to 2 dozen birds).

 

[squadleader]

Congratulations, what a terrific house you've got, beautiful and functional!

It's nice they're handling the delivery, it's easy for them, they do it all the time.

8.5 feet is 102 inches, that's not overwidth, there's lots of vehicles that wide, I used to have a motor coach that was 102 inches wide. I put a lot of miles on that thing!

If anyone is interested, now or later, the best and easiest way to move to move skid buildings, sheds, and conex containers is a roll back wrecker. They typically have beds 96 inches wide, but some have 102 inch wide beds. The rails on the sides simply lift out, so you can have a perfectly flat bed.

If what you're moving is a little wider than the bed, you simply place a cross-timber beneath the frame, on top of the wrecker bed.

The wrecker has a tilt bed, and the bed can moved back several feet hydraulically. The wrecker has a powerful winch to pull your building up onto the bed, and when unloading, they simply tilt the bed and the structure slides off. A rollback is perfect for this kind of job, and the operator has probably done it several times before, ask him and make sure.

I moved my 3,000 plus pound chicken tractor several miles on a rollback wrecker in January, and it only cost $125.

When you build anything on skids try to keep the width 102 inches or less, my tractor is 16 feet long, and they can handle even more length than that. Call around and find someone local and with some hustle, to get the best price.

Here's a few photos of my tractor being moved on the rollback wrecker.

This wrecker had a 96 inch bed width. You'll notice he's removed his side rails to create a perfectly flat bed with no obstructions. My tractor did hang over the sides a few inches, but he had it well secured with straps. These guys know how to secure a load.

It really worked out well, I didn't even have to remove the anti-dig mats, just folded them up and tied them in place with rope during the move.

After the move (the last photo), I simply released the mats and they went right back into place without any kinking. I use a couple of cinder blocks on each corner to keep the mats down firmly, and I recently found I didn't even need to take the blocks off the mats for the weekly drag of 8 feet. That's all I have to pull the tractor to keep fresh grass under it. Takes five minutes, just throw the chain over the trailer hitch and it's an easy pull.

The key to that is the plastic I wrapped the skids with, because of it slides so easily, I can pull it in any direction, forward or sideways.

This drag system can work with any strongly built coop, the key is a flat skid wrapped in 60 mil PVC sheet roofing, that creates a very slick skid with nice rounded edges, so they don't dig in during the pull.

Look at the skids, you'll see they're wrapped in 60 mil PVC sheet roofing, secured with screws and washers every six inches.

If anyone is interested in more details on that, I put a link to a thread with more information on it at the end of this post.

If you happen to have the space, and a vehicle to pull it, your Woods House could easily be placed on flat wrapped skids, and could be a chicken tractor you drag 8 feet a week.

That would be the end of poop management, you'd be leaving it behind for grass fertilizer every week. I have plenty of room and have my rotation set up so I never occupy the same ground with the tractor, more than once a year. That gives the ground plenty of time to absorb all that nitrogen in the poop.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-easier-less-expensive.1220330/#post-19519592