Heres the chook house Im going to build.............

[Serpo]

http://thelivingfarm.org/?page_id=923



How to make it instructions.....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HucNXnpXsqshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HucNXnpXsqs
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HucNXnpXsqs" target="_blank">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMnyhoElUbs
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HucNXnpXsqs)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMnyhoElUbs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiDuFhy71ko

[Horn]

Those are some pretty nice windows for the chickens to look thru.

[Serpo]

More like for the morning sun to shine through the smaller one but the bigger window would face north ,in northern hemi its south.

Can get windows for practically nothing as our dump sells windows people dont want for 5 dollars or less.

Been building a sun room with some that just needed the paint taken off and they look a million dollars.

This chook house is one of the most interesting building projects for something that small it has a lot of variations and you shouldnt get bored doing it.

Chooks probably like to keep warm so the straw bales are good for that ,biggest bonus is the simple base and foundations ,its all good.

[Horn]

If there's any magnifying sections on the window panes, they could get very warmed by a hay bbq.

[Serpo]

Winter sun through windows ,summer sun over top.

A bit of work with the finishing of inside with plastering but it will be fun.

[Spectrism]

I don't see the practicality of this for a chicken coop. It is alot of work requiring many people. I built a bigger one- wood structure, mostly myself. The hay bales would be good insulation in a cold climate, but a sheet roof would disable that feature. Chickens have their own insulation for most habitable climates.

The inside is hay. The chickens will pick that apart uness it too is finished. The outside will continue to crack more since straw is not a structural material. Those walls will move.

That kind of structure is a good human emergency cabin but the inside needs to be finished/ boxed in, to prevent the extreme fire hazard. Besides fire, I would be concerned about wind. And unless the outside is kept perfectly smooth, you will have rodent problems. At least in North America, that would quickly become a mouse maternity ward.

[pitwab]

The straw appears to be from wheat or oats and as such is subject to breaking down rapidly. If you were to use Flax which takes significantly longer to decompose it would be a decent building for a bit. As far as building it for a chicken coop I wouldn't even consider it as one constructed from lumber is much easier and will last much longer.

[singular_me]

edit: sorry, I was so enthusiastic about this cabin that I barely noticed that this thread was dedicated to chickens.

so I am deleting the posting

[Heimdhal]

I've seen people ouses built this way. They are supposed to insulate very, very well. Seems like a LOOOOT of work and expense for chickens unless you live somewhere incredibly cold.

Im going with spec on this one, he made lots of good points.

We live in Florida, so insulation isnt a major concern of ours, keeping it cool and built to with stand a multitude of predators was our main concern. I built my by myself in the better part of a day with lumber and ply wood, hardware cloth covering the windows. In hindsight I may have even OVER built.

[Serpo]

Well it is plastered on the inside of course,more of an excuse to test straw bale.

By adding chicken wire and turning the plaster on the outside into ferro cement ,it wont move.

The sheet roof would need to be insulated somehow.

Its not really a lot of work(you should see the house I live in,now thats a lot of work)

and dosnt need a lot of people as one or two can easily build this.

Living in OZ temps can be very cold but not snow but also very very hot ,

Its more of an excuse to try out straw bale building technique.