Justin Rhodes’ chickshaw design – abundantpermaculture.com – became famous in 2015 with the release of his motion picture, Permaculture Chickens. The popular chicken shelter was widely embraced for it’s ease of mobility, it requires little cleaning, and it can sleep a lot of chickens. Over the years, Justin has tweaked and improved his original design but Justin lives in a warm, southern climate. Seldom does he experiece snow of any significance. For folks in a northern, cold climate, the flat roof on a chickshaw simply won’t do for overwintering chickens. The flat roof will accumulate snow and potentially collapse instead of sloughing off like a pitched roof.
That’s where Rob from Amiable Acres steps into the mix. Rob lives in north Idaho in a snow belt region. Rob wanted all the benefits of a having a chickshaw but needed to modify the design for a heavy-snow winter. Watch this video below to see how Rob re-designed the chickshaw to suit the needs of a cold-climate farmer.