Does anyone have building plans for a chicken coop constructed of straw bales? I've finally got my hubby to compromise...we don't have to sell our farm and build a strawbale house, we'll just build our barns and stuff out of strawbale...but I sure would like to see a picture of a nice chicken coop first! CJ

-- CJ (cjtinkle@getgoin.net), November 20, 2001

Answers

Ha, ha. You sound like my thinking. "If I can't build my own house, at least let me build my own chicken coop my own way." Where are you located? I remember reading a couple's experience at their northern farm with this, I believe they eventually abandoned the idea. I'll look for the address and try to post later.

Are you interested in straw bale because of the insulation?

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), November 20, 2001.

Mainly because of the insulation yes, it doesn't usually get too cold here in southern Missouri, but the heat is bad, and we don't have many trees in the pasture. Also though, we really dislike metal barns, and wood ones are simply too expensive to build. We don't want to frame these, they would be loadbearing (more cost effective) and of course stuccoed. I would be very interested in anyone's input if they've had any experience with this type of building. CJ

-- CJ (cjtinkle@getgoin.net), November 20, 2001.

I have been wondering some of the same things. Would stucco work in the high humidity of your area? We have about the same humidity here. I was wondering about a well house made of strawbales.

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), November 20, 2001.

Our thinking too. We would like to do the strawbale house but thought we'd start with a chicken coop or something similar and see how that goes first. I am looking forward to seeing people's ideas/plans.

-- Trisha-MN (tank@Linkup.net), November 20, 2001.

In the book "Chicken Tractor: The All New Straw Bale Edtion" by Andy Lee and Pat Foreman, there is a whole chapter on building straw bale chicken houses with pictures and diagrams. Here's their pulishing website Good Earth Publications

-- Bren (wayoutfarm@skybest.com), November 20, 2001.

In the book I mentioned above, they don't stucco the coops. When the coops start to decompose, they tear them down and use the hay as mulch for their gardens. Then they build new coops probably in a different spot. If you are interested in experimenting with stucco, I recently saw a show where a garden "chair" was straw bale constructed and then stuccoed. It could be as plain or decorative as you wanted adding mosaic pieces or dyes to the stucco. That would probably be a good project to see how well straw bale/stucco held up in your area.

-- Bren (wayoutfarm@skybest.com), November 20, 2001.

OK, here's the site for the garden seat. It has step-by-step pictures and instructions.

Stucco Garden Seat

-- Bren (wayoutfarm@skybest.com), November 20, 2001.

I found what I was looking for but it's not about strawbale. I think you might find it interesting as a design for solar chicken house though:

http://www.manytracks.com/ look around for solar chicken house under "homesteading"

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), November 20, 2001.

Don't you run into a rat problem with straw bales and chicken feed to draw them in? How do you control them in this situation around the hens where you can't use poison?

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@nospammail.com), November 20, 2001.

I'm wanting to know what this sites about . I saw the straw chicken coop , then a MIT graduate ..lol I aint makin' it to MIT at 38 , but I do like the strawbale chicken coop ?!

-- Laura McCumber (testiclesnpurse@yahoo.com), May 02, 2002.