Strawbale Coop?

If you live in an area of lots of snakes I would be concerned. Whatever building material, allow for ventilation...Joan

It would be interesting to see how un-plastered bales made out, and whether the chickens destroyed them or not. If so, no big deal. I would hate to go to all the trouble of plastering though, if it wasn't the right approach.

I think conventional plaster/adobe need the large overhangs, and are more popular in semi-arid climates. If you ever wanted to hose it out, that would not be good. A couple of guys in Ontario use a cement based stucco on the exterior, as snow tends to pile up on the house in Canada, and you can't always keep it off the wall.

I think i would avoid the alternative coverings like wood or bedliner spray. If you are going to all the trouble of covering the bales, you want them to last. The plaster or stucco does give strength (like a stress skin panel), and is also air-tight, preventing bugs, decomposing, and making it a lot less susceptible to fire.

Just an idea here off the top of my head - haven't thought it through . . .

What if you plastered on the outside but on the inside used plywood? Using a sawzall, cut vertical grooves in the bales for a vertical 2x2 member every 8 feet and attach the 2x2s to horizontal rebar deadmen buried under the bales for shear strength. Then attach the plywood to the vertical 2x2s.

Worst thing that can happen, no matter what you do, is that you rebuild the coop and use the straw bale building for a shed.

That is my understanding as well (doesn't mean it's true of course). Using something like wood siding, leaves air gaps... less structural integrity, easy access for bugs and rodents, etc.

Obviously, stucco types/mixtures is an area that needs more research. Which is why we want to pratice on the outbuildings before moving on to the house.

But I love the idea of strawbale barns/coops. Much nicer for the critters in the weather extremes. Ventilation of course is always necessary (even for me)!

And they're so wonderful to look at.

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thats the kind of thinking I like to hear! I have considered the deadmen idea in various ways. I was thinking along the lines of how retaing walls have anchors of various sorts.

fire resistence in straw bale homes is primarily thought to come from the "sealed" nature of it. offering little to no air for the fire to breathe and take hold, so any product used to skin it would have to achieve the same thing. in most designs I have seen, rebar is already through the center to spike the next layer of bales on, some its bamboo with the same idea. so there really are ready made deadmen in most plans. I would like to play with actually plastering on flagstone or something similiar and using the deadmen to help insure that it is held tight to the bales. think of ceramic tile on a wall. that would give it a completely different look, it might make it even more fire resistent and it certainly would be more wet weather resistent. a plus is that you can possibly use native rock. which is more along the lines of ecologically friendly anyhow. useing materials that are at hand. that is likely how plastering got started. in the sw people could dig their walls out of their backyard

wether or not you need the assistence of the skin for structural integrity might depend on wether you are building load bearing walls with the straw bales or just using them for the fillers/insulation. all plans I have considered do not use the bales as load bearing walls, so I don't really consider this, I want something that will be standing for my grandkids to live in and slowly compacting and sinking walls could seriously affect the structural integrity of the whole thing. although obviously it can be done its just too much of a risk in my mind for my situation.

this is one of my favorite subjects, can you tell? any more ideas?

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A mystery is not an explanation..... on the contrary....no sooner is a myth forged than, in order to stand it needs another myth to support it.

They are, aren't they? I think I am going to let you all test out the coop idea and I am going to concentrate on a dog house. There's some good information tobe found here and on the Internet. I think in Missouri you can use the clay that is naturally there, I was going to get mine from our pond and add sand and I think some lime ('ll have to double check that). Anyway, I hope to work on this in the next 2-3 weeks. I'll post pics if you will!

Why put a floor in a chicken coop? I'd put down wire covered with earth and run the wire up the walls a bit to prevent dig-in by skunks, etc. I think you have to seal the straw inside something to keep it from deteriorating so plaster would probably work. Maybe put a concrete footing and good overhangs and you should be in business.

Good luck and please post pics of the work in progress so we can see how it's done.

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The 2 x2 furring strips and deadmen set up you describe is how most straw bale homes hang kitchen cabinets when they want them on exterior walls.
The only difference is that they insert the deadmen, plaster around them, and then set the furring strips in the plaster.

If you set up the same furring strips, plastered and then attached plywood you would have a peck-proof interior, and the wall would be airtight etc.

Please do post your dog house pictures! We're a ways out from building yet. We're home in Missouri this weekend to meet a contractor to have our 1/4 mile driveway estimated, then hopefully put in whenever he can get to it. The well is next however, and it will be a strawbale structure. Really hoping to make that happen this year yet, but it depends on my husband's work schedule.

We only get to squeeze in time to come out here once a month or so, that if we're lucky. The first time hubby is between contracts, we plan to stay out on the land and hopefully get more work done on it.

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Here are some pictures of us building a strawbale dog house, just for everyone's viewing pleasure.

This is very rough, were it my dog house, I would have done more plaster inside and more stucco outside, as well a build a drop roof and insulate it, not to mention put roofing singles on. However, this was a weekend class, maybe a team of 6 that built these two dog houses in about 10 combined hours of work. A couple could build one of these in a weekend no problem, if all the materials needed were already on hand.



Resizing the bales
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...Picture045.jpg

Starting to stack the bales
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...Picture051.jpg

Screwing down the roof --- all thread
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...Picture059.jpg

weed wack the sides
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...Picture079.jpg

Roof & tar paper on, starting chicken wire
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...Picture086.jpg

Inside plaster almost done
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...Picture138.jpg

starting to stucco the outside
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...Picture102.jpg

Outside stucco almost done
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...Picture118.jpg

Finishing touches (roof shingles aside)
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...Picture136.jpg

Well, said I would build my coop strawbale but it's working out to be more $'s than I want to spend on this project - especially since I have enough other scavaged materials. Wheat straw bales here are now $2.50 - this would mean almost $40 for the size coop we need 3 courses high. With the drought here everything that can be fed over the winter will be so I'm not finding any junk/old stuff to play with. Good luck to everyone else with your projects.

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Those are very cool, thanks for sharing!

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I considered straw bale construction but after having done experiments I have a lot of hesitation about it for anything more than temporary winter construction in our wet climate here in northern Vermont. It may be fine in dry areas like New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and such. But here there is too much moisture. I have also heard of horror stories of disassembly of straw bale houses that were built in wet climates.

We do use straw bales for winter animal shelters and that works great. In the spring the animals eat the houses or the house (e.g., chicken hoop house foundation) becomes a compost pile. See here:

http://hollygraphicart.com/misc/haybalecoop.html
http://hollygraphicart.com/misc/haybalecoop2.html
http://hollygraphicart.com/misc/haybalecoop3.html
http://hollygraphicart.com/misc/wirehoopcoop.html
http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2005/12...-hen-coop.html
http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2006/01...om-how-to.html

Cheers,

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org

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those chicken coop pics are a great help, but I wonder, how many chickens in each house, and what are the dimensions of one?

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In the smallest hay bale coop there were about 30 hens and a rooster.

In the pole shed with the hay bale wallsthere were as many as 100 hens and a couple of roosters and a brooder for winter raising of more chicks.

In the hoop house on the hay bale foundation, which is we currently use, we have about 30 hens and a rooster and a goose right now. It has had as many as 100 hens, a couple of roosters, ten ducks and a goose. Realize they don't spend their days in there - most of the time they come out and walk around on the snow on hay I've spread during the winter. The hens lay eggs on the shelves in the back. At night they go into the coops to sleep. Inside the coop it stays quite warm and I rarely ever close the door. Rather, venting is important to prevent too much moisture buildup.

The dimensions of the hoop house are 10' long x 4' wide x about 4.5' high (?). In the winter we make a foundation of hay bales to lift it up we can keep adding loose hay on the floor for carbon. This creates a compost pile that warms the coop in addition to the body heat of the birds.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids