...you know, that 1924 book by Prince T. Woods MD that Robert Plamondon has reprinted.
I finally got around to ordering and reading it over the holidays, since it sounded interesting and plus people keep rediscovering it excitedly about every two weeks on this forum and posting all in a swoon (or swivet) without apparently having actually read more than the sample chapter available for free online
So, I thought it might be of interest to summarize the book's main points, discuss its arguments in a modern context, and offer a few opinions on what the 'take home message' might be for us, today.
OVERVIEW OF BOOK
Apparently, in the first few decades of the 20th century, it was customary to keep chickens in fairly crowded and fairly "tight" (un- or poorly ventilated) coops. Frostbite and "roup" (which includes a nutritional deficiency and also Infectious Coryza; it is not clear to me whether these were distinguished between at the time) and other contagious respiratory illnesses were severe problems at the time, causing a lot of wintertime mortality. This was exacerbated by the fact that vitamins were not yet well understood and thus feed was not necessarily always nutritionally adequate.
The author, continuing the work of a rather woo-woo and excess-prone bandwagon of the era advocating open windows and lotsa fresh air for everybody, has written this book for three main purposes: to convince readers that chickens are healthier in quarters with lots of fresh air, to recount his own experiences and coop designs, and to look at what a variety of other poultrymen had independantly built along those same lines.
Contrary to what some earlier posts have said, the author did not live in Canada; he lived in eastern Massachusetts (Spring Lake, Plymouth Co.). He advocates a half-monitor-roof coop, 10x16'ish with the south-facing narrow end being "open" (albeit screened with hardwarecloth). The open front is only a little over 4' high, owing to the roof sloping down. There are seasonally-open side windows, and the windows on the half-monitor roof are also kept open most of the time, except only a crack in the worst winter weather. (A half-monitor roof is as if you took two shed-roofed buildings of unequal height and shoved their high sides together; or as if you took a normal gable-roofed building and dropped one side of the roof down several feet at the ridge, creating a vertical half-wall up there above the top of the lower roof. Woods is adamant that the extra sunlight admitted by these half-monitor roofs is a vital part of his design, though other peoples' designs are apparently successful without them). The roosts are along the back short side of the building, furthest from the open side. He describes a design for a 6x10' miniature version but does not consider it very satisfactory.
He spends a couple chapters discussing his own designs in great detail, and devotes most of the rest of the book to a similarly detailed description of other peoples' coops in this style. Most of the people whose coops he describes were reasonably prominent in the poultry world of the era, from the way he talks about them. Designs include a 12x12 enclosed coop with an always-open doorway into a 12x12 roofed shed whose south wall is open, covered with a burlap or canvas curtain in bad weather; a 10x20 house, made from the old "closed" type with the 10' south-facing wall knocked out; a 10x20 house with the middle of the top half of the 20' south-facing wall always open; an 8x12' coop with the south wall mainly open but covered nearly fully with a canvas curtain in bad weather; some very large industrial-size long houses; and other similar variations on the theme. He gives lots of measured sketch plans, and goes into wonderful detail about construction and management details. I wish I could summarize it at more length here, there is a lot of good stuff. I would highly recommend this book for anyone contemplating constructing a largeish (by backyard standards) house for a good-sized flock.
Alas, the author relies very heavily, in the style of the time alas, on quotation after quotation after quotation from people (both academic authorities and 'joe smith' type folks) saying basically Hey yeah, fresh air is the way to go. Glowing testimonials were probably a lot more persuasive in a less cynical age than they are now
, but unfortunately this takes the place of having anything much in the way of empirical evidence to cite in the book. I am willing to believe that at least a lot of his quotes are genuine and correctly report the writer's situation; still, it would have been nice to have more than just vigorous and repeated assertion to "prove" his points. What empirical evidence he does cite is pretty weebly, e.g. "here is a sketch of places in the coop where a wetted finger failed to detect a directional breeze on a windy day". Sigh.
DISCUSSION OF SOME OF THE BOOK'S MAIN POINTS AND WHAT THEY HAVE TO DO WITH US TODAY
As you might imagine since I am the Big Ol' Ventilation Page person, I do not disagree in general Woods' overall recommendations or designs. I think it is beyond sensible question that lots of air exchange is best, especially in a hot or temperate climate, no matter what you may see other people building around you (then or now).
That said, I think it is pretty important to view this book in context when contemplating coop design for Northern climates.
First, I would like to point out that the author's descriptions of "fresh air coops" for northern climates are often not nearly as fresh air-y as BYCers who've not read the book often assume. His own design, for instance, involves having a house about twice as deep as it is wide (or 20 x 20'), and when windows are shut, as he says they are in the wintertime, only some (not all) of the fairly low front side remains open. On his 10x16' house for instance, the always-open portion is only about 9' wide x 3.5' high, as the roof slopes down and there is solid boarding at the very bottom of the wall. Many of the others he cites have even less area open in winter, to the point where my first reaction to a lot of the designs is "jeez, that's barely more than what I've been saying
"
The depth of the coop, and limited size of the opening, combined with no other openings elsewhere in the coop (when windows are closed in cold/bad weather) buffer the further-in portion of the coop from winds. All the other designs he reports on have similar features -- either the house is very deep and narrow away from the open front, or only a portion of the front is open, or curtains are used to further block the open front off in bad weather, or a combination of these things. Thus, he is talking specifically about coops designed to maximize ventilation while minimizing drafts inside... not just "any ole" open-sided coop. And I notice that the only fairly-small coop he describes -- an 8x12 design with the south-facing long side mostly-open, with a curtain available for nasty weather -- was used only for Wyandottes, not a large-single-combed breed. Those wishing to build coops along the lines of those detailed in the book -- and many of the designs seem, to me, to be quite good ones, and reasonable plans are given -- need to think long and hard about the physics/engineering if you're wanting to scale things down or modify designs.
Secondly, Woods is clearly reacting (in fact he explicitly says so) to the *particular* style of poultrykeeping common at the time, involving heated closed coops with very poor if any ventilation and (not surprisingly) quite a lot of health problems, exacerbated by an as-yet-incomplete understanding of poultry nutrition. Because Vitamin D was only newly discovered when the book was published (in fact I don't recall Woods mentioning it at all?) and certainly it was not being supplemented in chicken feeds during the time period covered by this book, a significant amount of the poor fertility and poor survivability of chicks that his fresh-air houses seem to "fix" is likely due to vitamin D deficiency among chickens housed in the type of closed houses he describes as common. Clearly contagious diseases were a severe problem in those underventilated damp closed coops he's contrasting his to. He lauds his designs as producing litter that is so dry, it will burn! -- which is a kind of scary thought to me in terms of what it implies about those other coops, you know?
So, with a bit better understanding of poultry biology it is not even remotely surprising that fresh air coops were often an improvement.
But just because "fresh air" coops are reported by many of his correspondants to work "better" than the heated-and-underventilated coops that were common in that era, does not in and of itself make Woods' designs necessarily ideal. IMHO, the sensible question is "what level of ventilation is adequate to ensure freedom from health problems, without causing problems of its own or exposing birds to undue cold stress". Not only does Woods not discuss this question, he seems never to have considered it from that angle at all (in keeping with the tendency for the whole fresh-air movement of the times to go rather overboard). But I think this question is KEY.
Woods admits that he (and others) have had some frostbite in these houses, although he dismisses it as 'no more than would have come out of a closed house'. He also makes repeated and somewhat cryptic reference to those who have tried fresh air houses and had bad results and gone back to closed houses (he is adamant that this be attributed not to the houses but to the people managing them), so clearly even as "vigorous" a booster as Woods is not prepared to claim they are foolproof.
IMHO, it is an absolutely fascinating book in many ways (providing you can tune out its excesses and sometimes-strident tone), and offers a variety of good sound TESTED designs for those contemplating constructing reasonably large coops. I think it would be a mistake to assume that more is always better, or that Woods' testimonials and anecdotes are the last word on anything. After reading the book, I do not feel that I have any much better idea of a rule of thumb as to what is the minimal cold-winter ventilation that one can reasonably have with good results. But hopefully the book will encourage people to feel more confident in experimenting in this regard, both in cold climates and in milder ones. (He does btw include description of a rather effective-looking coop design for Texas, oriented towards providing shade and preventing rain blowing in too badly).
So, it's a good book. Buy or borrow it, and read it, several times. But DO read the actual book -- not just the online sample chapter nor some BYCer's summary of it
-- before committing to construction of something with a large open area in very cold-winter climates, because all is not as simple as a one-line advertisement may make it appear.
(BTW, Robert Plamondon is my absolute HERO for reprinting this and other old books.)
JMHO,
Pat
I finally got around to ordering and reading it over the holidays, since it sounded interesting and plus people keep rediscovering it excitedly about every two weeks on this forum and posting all in a swoon (or swivet) without apparently having actually read more than the sample chapter available for free online
So, I thought it might be of interest to summarize the book's main points, discuss its arguments in a modern context, and offer a few opinions on what the 'take home message' might be for us, today.
OVERVIEW OF BOOK
Apparently, in the first few decades of the 20th century, it was customary to keep chickens in fairly crowded and fairly "tight" (un- or poorly ventilated) coops. Frostbite and "roup" (which includes a nutritional deficiency and also Infectious Coryza; it is not clear to me whether these were distinguished between at the time) and other contagious respiratory illnesses were severe problems at the time, causing a lot of wintertime mortality. This was exacerbated by the fact that vitamins were not yet well understood and thus feed was not necessarily always nutritionally adequate.
The author, continuing the work of a rather woo-woo and excess-prone bandwagon of the era advocating open windows and lotsa fresh air for everybody, has written this book for three main purposes: to convince readers that chickens are healthier in quarters with lots of fresh air, to recount his own experiences and coop designs, and to look at what a variety of other poultrymen had independantly built along those same lines.
Contrary to what some earlier posts have said, the author did not live in Canada; he lived in eastern Massachusetts (Spring Lake, Plymouth Co.). He advocates a half-monitor-roof coop, 10x16'ish with the south-facing narrow end being "open" (albeit screened with hardwarecloth). The open front is only a little over 4' high, owing to the roof sloping down. There are seasonally-open side windows, and the windows on the half-monitor roof are also kept open most of the time, except only a crack in the worst winter weather. (A half-monitor roof is as if you took two shed-roofed buildings of unequal height and shoved their high sides together; or as if you took a normal gable-roofed building and dropped one side of the roof down several feet at the ridge, creating a vertical half-wall up there above the top of the lower roof. Woods is adamant that the extra sunlight admitted by these half-monitor roofs is a vital part of his design, though other peoples' designs are apparently successful without them). The roosts are along the back short side of the building, furthest from the open side. He describes a design for a 6x10' miniature version but does not consider it very satisfactory.
He spends a couple chapters discussing his own designs in great detail, and devotes most of the rest of the book to a similarly detailed description of other peoples' coops in this style. Most of the people whose coops he describes were reasonably prominent in the poultry world of the era, from the way he talks about them. Designs include a 12x12 enclosed coop with an always-open doorway into a 12x12 roofed shed whose south wall is open, covered with a burlap or canvas curtain in bad weather; a 10x20 house, made from the old "closed" type with the 10' south-facing wall knocked out; a 10x20 house with the middle of the top half of the 20' south-facing wall always open; an 8x12' coop with the south wall mainly open but covered nearly fully with a canvas curtain in bad weather; some very large industrial-size long houses; and other similar variations on the theme. He gives lots of measured sketch plans, and goes into wonderful detail about construction and management details. I wish I could summarize it at more length here, there is a lot of good stuff. I would highly recommend this book for anyone contemplating constructing a largeish (by backyard standards) house for a good-sized flock.
Alas, the author relies very heavily, in the style of the time alas, on quotation after quotation after quotation from people (both academic authorities and 'joe smith' type folks) saying basically Hey yeah, fresh air is the way to go. Glowing testimonials were probably a lot more persuasive in a less cynical age than they are now
DISCUSSION OF SOME OF THE BOOK'S MAIN POINTS AND WHAT THEY HAVE TO DO WITH US TODAY
As you might imagine since I am the Big Ol' Ventilation Page person, I do not disagree in general Woods' overall recommendations or designs. I think it is beyond sensible question that lots of air exchange is best, especially in a hot or temperate climate, no matter what you may see other people building around you (then or now).
That said, I think it is pretty important to view this book in context when contemplating coop design for Northern climates.
First, I would like to point out that the author's descriptions of "fresh air coops" for northern climates are often not nearly as fresh air-y as BYCers who've not read the book often assume. His own design, for instance, involves having a house about twice as deep as it is wide (or 20 x 20'), and when windows are shut, as he says they are in the wintertime, only some (not all) of the fairly low front side remains open. On his 10x16' house for instance, the always-open portion is only about 9' wide x 3.5' high, as the roof slopes down and there is solid boarding at the very bottom of the wall. Many of the others he cites have even less area open in winter, to the point where my first reaction to a lot of the designs is "jeez, that's barely more than what I've been saying
The depth of the coop, and limited size of the opening, combined with no other openings elsewhere in the coop (when windows are closed in cold/bad weather) buffer the further-in portion of the coop from winds. All the other designs he reports on have similar features -- either the house is very deep and narrow away from the open front, or only a portion of the front is open, or curtains are used to further block the open front off in bad weather, or a combination of these things. Thus, he is talking specifically about coops designed to maximize ventilation while minimizing drafts inside... not just "any ole" open-sided coop. And I notice that the only fairly-small coop he describes -- an 8x12 design with the south-facing long side mostly-open, with a curtain available for nasty weather -- was used only for Wyandottes, not a large-single-combed breed. Those wishing to build coops along the lines of those detailed in the book -- and many of the designs seem, to me, to be quite good ones, and reasonable plans are given -- need to think long and hard about the physics/engineering if you're wanting to scale things down or modify designs.
Secondly, Woods is clearly reacting (in fact he explicitly says so) to the *particular* style of poultrykeeping common at the time, involving heated closed coops with very poor if any ventilation and (not surprisingly) quite a lot of health problems, exacerbated by an as-yet-incomplete understanding of poultry nutrition. Because Vitamin D was only newly discovered when the book was published (in fact I don't recall Woods mentioning it at all?) and certainly it was not being supplemented in chicken feeds during the time period covered by this book, a significant amount of the poor fertility and poor survivability of chicks that his fresh-air houses seem to "fix" is likely due to vitamin D deficiency among chickens housed in the type of closed houses he describes as common. Clearly contagious diseases were a severe problem in those underventilated damp closed coops he's contrasting his to. He lauds his designs as producing litter that is so dry, it will burn! -- which is a kind of scary thought to me in terms of what it implies about those other coops, you know?
But just because "fresh air" coops are reported by many of his correspondants to work "better" than the heated-and-underventilated coops that were common in that era, does not in and of itself make Woods' designs necessarily ideal. IMHO, the sensible question is "what level of ventilation is adequate to ensure freedom from health problems, without causing problems of its own or exposing birds to undue cold stress". Not only does Woods not discuss this question, he seems never to have considered it from that angle at all (in keeping with the tendency for the whole fresh-air movement of the times to go rather overboard). But I think this question is KEY.
Woods admits that he (and others) have had some frostbite in these houses, although he dismisses it as 'no more than would have come out of a closed house'. He also makes repeated and somewhat cryptic reference to those who have tried fresh air houses and had bad results and gone back to closed houses (he is adamant that this be attributed not to the houses but to the people managing them), so clearly even as "vigorous" a booster as Woods is not prepared to claim they are foolproof.
IMHO, it is an absolutely fascinating book in many ways (providing you can tune out its excesses and sometimes-strident tone), and offers a variety of good sound TESTED designs for those contemplating constructing reasonably large coops. I think it would be a mistake to assume that more is always better, or that Woods' testimonials and anecdotes are the last word on anything. After reading the book, I do not feel that I have any much better idea of a rule of thumb as to what is the minimal cold-winter ventilation that one can reasonably have with good results. But hopefully the book will encourage people to feel more confident in experimenting in this regard, both in cold climates and in milder ones. (He does btw include description of a rather effective-looking coop design for Texas, oriented towards providing shade and preventing rain blowing in too badly).
So, it's a good book. Buy or borrow it, and read it, several times. But DO read the actual book -- not just the online sample chapter nor some BYCer's summary of it
(BTW, Robert Plamondon is my absolute HERO for reprinting this and other old books.)
JMHO,
Pat
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