Straw Bale coop?

[tiki244]

I am wondering if anyone has built a straw bale house and if I could pick your brain? Winter is coming and the chickens need a better coop to survive the subzero temps in Wisconsin. I am low on funds because of my move so I am trying to think of a way to economise on a coop for a season. I am wondering what to put on the outside of the straw? Concrete? That cant be right. Well it will have to survive a lot of precipitation for at least a winter (6 months).

 

[Katy]

I built a small one for my call ducks the first winter I had them. At that point I probably only had 6 or 7 of them so it didn't need to be too big. I didn't put anything on the outside of it. I used straw bales for the sides, a tarp drapped over the bales to shed rain and then a sheet of plywood for the roof....weighted down with a couple of concrete blocks and more bales.

 

[Hen_House_Rocks!]

I once visited a community of straw-bale houses. They used some type of mud on the outsides and insides. They just smeared it on real thick and the heat of the sun baked it. By the end of the process it was like concrete.

Maybe you could build your structure with the haybales and hammer rebar supports in throughout. Then cover it with a sheet of plastic or metal corrogated roofing material. I think as long as it overhangs the sides 8 inches or so it should stay pretty dry. It takes straw a long time to rot if it stays fairly dry so you should be okay for a season or two.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
It depends whether you mean actual serious strawbale construction, like houses are built of sometimes... or just strawbales stacked to form a cooplike structure or the insulation thereof.

"Real" strawbale construction, a la houses, involves doing a proper foundation, then stacking strawbales on top, pinning them together with rebar +/or wire, covering with chcikenwire and then stuccoing. The strawbales can be structural, esp. for smaller structures; or they can be infill for a selfsupporting timber frame. It is not a major cost savings over normal house construction, and would be more work (though possibly same or less cost, esp if you produce good wheat straw bales on your farm) than a normal coop. OTOH it gives EXCELLENT insulation value, and has many other things to recommend it.

Anything short of that, where you're just stacking bales and hoping they stay put and weatherproof and predatorproof, is going to give you much less benefit. Stacking strawbales outside of a 'normal' coop can give good insulation value, although also has certain risks vis a vis rodents and rot. I would advise extreme caution, at *best*, if planning for stacked bales to be the actual structure of a coop -- they are heavy and if it falls over on you or the chickens, with or without the roof on, someone will get sincerely hurt. Or worse. If you have a pole shed type frame, strawbales could be used as infill, except they probably won't fit precisely to fill the walls and the same cautions about falling over still apply somewhat. I would not count on strawbales to be terribly predatorproof either, although they are certainly better than nothing.

For economy, your best bet would really be to put serious work into scrounging stuff -- you can get plywood, pallets, 2x lumber, old packing crates, sometimes even used sheds, for cheap or for free if you ferret around consistently enough.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[tiki244]

Thanks, Yeah I did scrounge the 'stuf' for my current coop and sounds like I may be doing a lot more scrounging. I was thinking of straw bales and then covering them with a substance that would be hard and then painting it, intsalling windows and a door with frame work.....but now after what you said Pat, I am rethinking that. I probably will be better off just putting up a frame and then scrounging what I can from places around here. I may still put bales inside to insulate, because it definitely needs insulating.

There is a nice big shed on the property, but, alas, it is filled with machinery that wont be moved anytime soon .

 

[briesberrypatch]

I built a straw bale coop (10x12) two years ago. Strawbale construction is kind of big around here, and I was really interested in it because of the houses that have been built.

One thing to keep in mind with straw bale construction is that you have to repair the stucco every year, no matter what type (natural or cement) stucco you use. Chunks will fall off, and if you don't repair it, you'll have rodents, birds, and humidity compromising your building.

We did a sloppy job building ours, and the finished coop isn't as solid or nice-looking as it could have been. It was a fun project, but I wouldn't do it again. I've realized that I'm just not precise enough to be a builder. And really, you can get the same insulating value out of a more traditional coop if you insulate it heavily. I mean, with a straw bale coop you've got walls 2-3 feet thick - you can accomplish the same thing with 6" of insulation on a wood wall.

Anyway, I'm planning on replacing it next year with a traditional wood-barn style coop and insulating the heck out of that.

Also, a straw bale coop is not going to be cheaper than a traditional coop. (I thought it would be.) I was disappointed in the final cost of our straw bale coop. We ended up spending around $1200 or $1300 (and that's with straw at $1.50/bale - CHEAP! - and not including the immense labor of six people), and we could have bought a nice wood coop for that kind of money. Our biggest cost was in the roof - wood for the trusses and metal roofing. I agree with the other poster who suggested scrounging for materials - you're more likely to save money that way.

There are a lot of books out there on building with straw bales - check out your library (or the internet). If they don't have them, you can get them on interlibrary loan. At least then you can see what you're getting yourself into and the books will answer most, if not all, of your questions.

 

[briesberrypatch]

A big advantage of straw bale is the thermal mass of the walls. It helps regulate the temperature inside the building. My coop generally stays about 10* warmer than outdoor temps during the winter. But I don't think the benefits of thermal mass outweigh the availability of other insulating materials that can be used in a traditional coop.

 

[Wifezilla]

What about an earth bag coop instead?

http://earthbagplans.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/mother-earth-news-earthbag-dome/

I am originally from Wisconsin and the moisture there would make the hay thing either high maintenance or a temporary structure at best.

Out here in Colorado, a hay bale coop would last quite a long time.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

If you have a lot of straw, and a lot of mud, try doing Cob. Its cheap-cheap-cheap, fun to work (remember mud pies?) and easy to get right. Great insulation, thermal mass, fireproof, termite proof. About the only thing that will kill it is a "gullywasher" flood. And if you put it on a decent foundation with an overhang on the roof, it could last hundreds of years. England has some that were built in the 1600s that are still being lived in (by people, not chickens

)

 

[chick4chix]

I haven't built one but there are some plans and photos in Andy Lee's "chicken Tractor- a guide to permaculture with happy hens" he also shows some for turkeys. Good Luck it sounds like a great project.