Year-Round Hoophouse on Extremely Windy Farmland?

[goldenoldiesfarm]

Hi there! We're planning (hoping?) to house our chickens in a hoophouse coop (when I say "hoophouse", I mean ACTUAL hoophouse--the kind used for vegetable growing, covered in poly) year-round, or as year-round as we can. We're fortifying the bottom 3-4 feet with wire netting to keep our (non-existant) predators out. There isn't any tree cover within a good five to ten square miles of our house. We have coyotes, but they moved on when our dogs got out and about, and I haven't seen or heard them for a good eight to nine months. My real concern is that with the crazy prevailing wind we get up here, probably around 15-20 mph, I'm having a hard time figuring out how to arrange ventilation for them. I'm afraid the wind will get sucked into any big open spaces, and don't want it to be cold.

I guess I'm just having a problem designing the dumb thing to begin with. The wind comes from the south and the east, and sometimes the north and the west, with as much force as it can. Would it be possible to plant tall plants to use as windblocks?

Gosh. Hooooow confusing! Any help is sooooo appreciated. Our chicks will be here April 12 and I'm really nervous!

- Sierra

 

[patandchickens]

Uh oh, that is going to be difficult to do. The problem is that the plastic will absorb/pass NO humidity at all, and only the ends can be effectively vented (except in much fancier hoophouses than you're likely to have). Those things are made to be HIGH humidity, which is Bad.

The only way you are going to be able to keep the humidity down enough for chickens is likely to involve having most of one end be open. (It'd better be the downwind end, and this had better be STRONG material it is covered with, ideally the woven stuff they use for coverall-type barns rather than greenhouse plastic, or the wind may just blow it right off when the wind gets inside the structure). Yes, it will be cold. OTOH having it shut tight is going to be cold *anyhow*, as a hoop greenhouse does not hold more than a couple degrees of heat at night (above ambient air), and with the humidity you'll get from inadequate ventilation you will get frostbite at a much milder temperature.

Honestly, if you have any other alternative you can explore, that would probably be better, especially if you care about frostbite and loss of some chickens. Could you wire-cover the hoophouse to use as a *run*, and build a wooden shed-type coop that could be properly ventilated?

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[cobrien]

Quote:
I am an engineer and know a little about wind loading on structures. You definitely should not leave one end open, it could result in a total wind failure of the structure (roof blowing right off). This is why people board their windows in a hurricane - if one window breaks and wind blows in, the entire building can pressurize, and the roof can be blown off or other serious damage can occur. Openings should be as balanced on all sides if possible. I don't know much about these hoop structures and how they are ventilated, but I would try to create balanced openings. I like the idea of using chicken wire or hardware cloth around a lot of it and using the poly as a roof. They would need to be locked in a predator-proof coop at night.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
I should have been clearer. It is desirable to have an openable vent at the opposite end too, with the remainder of that end being wooden not plastic.

You most certainly CAN have a hoop-style structure with the usually-downwind end wholly open and the other end wholly or nearly-wholly closed (with wood), they are quite common in farm use. Again, this is with stronger fabric and stronger construction than your cheap little hoophouse, but still.

I don't know much about these hoop structures and how they are ventilated, but I would try to create balanced openings.

The problem is, you can't create balanced openings in the wintertime without ending up with poultrysicles. Too much crossdraft. Also you can't put openings in the sides of cheap hoophouses, only in the ends, giving you a wind tunnel, giving you *worse* frozen chickens.

It's just really not a structure well adapted to chickens.

The (few) people who use them tend to have LARGE structures, relatively few chickens in them, open one end up all the way whenever the wind is not totally prohibitive, and find it is still just not a tremendously healthy way to raise chickens. They *can* make nice wire-covered runs, though.

Pat​