A Grad School of Chickens

I got a circular saw for christmas, which has me musing about:

1. 1. Tree-houses.
2. 2. Chicken coops.

Fergus tells me I have between March 20th and September 22nd to design and build a treehouse. That's the Vernal Equinox and the Autumnal Equinox, respectively. What is he, Wiccan?



Perhaps to avoid the pressure he has put on me I find myself thinking more about chicken coops than tree-houses of late.



I have never owned chickens, so research must be done.



Sometimes we must rely on Wikipedia to remind us that there are schools of thought and controversies surrounding most everything these days:

There is a seemingly permanent controversy over the basic purpose of the chicken coop. One school of thought is that chickens are generally hardy creatures, but can brought low by confinement, poor air quality, and darkness, and need a highly ventilated coop to provide conditions more like the outdoors, even in winter. This is the "fresh-air school."

...would we call this a Post-Structuralist school of chicken thought?

The other school of thought is that chickens cannot tolerate outdoor conditions and are prone to illness from drafts and poor weather, and need a controlled-environment coop. The two schools of thought lead to radically different housing designs, with fresh-air houses featuring large, permanent openings with only wire mesh between the chickens and the weather, even in Northern winters, and the closed houses featuring doors, windows, and hatches that can be shut to eliminate most ventilation."

...and this school could be called--what?--the John Crowe Ransom "New Criticism" school of chicken tending?