Moisture Ventilation

[suderm]

So I am approaching my first winter with chickens (Eastern PA, USA) and I was getting everything ready in my coop and run last weekend and I have a question about ventilation.

I purchased this prefabricated coop from Tractor Supply

I modified it so that my chickens have a protected run while they are not free ranging so I modified the end to attach to a run.I am going to put plywood on the 3 sides underneath the roost/nesting area so the brutal winds at my house don't sap too much heat from the deep litter inside. However I need to cut in ventilation. The wall on the left hand side of the above picture has an egg door with a small slide open vent. I was going to close that because it faces the direction where I get most of the wind at my house. So I was going to cut a small (maybe 1.5 inch diameter) hole above their entrance door to allow moisture to escape but it will be in the wind protected area so wind doesnt whip through at night.

Is that a big enough hole? Should I make a bigger one? Should I buy a small slotted air duct to make it less of a wide open hole? Any specific vents people have used to modify their coops?

Thanks for any help!

 

[wamtazlady]

A little hole is not enough to get the moisture out of your coop. The vent issue is one of several reasons the coops you can buy at the store are not recommended. I have about 10 square feet of vent that is open year round for a dozen chickens. You will have to figure out a way to get more vents in your coop, however, the vents should not allow a breeze to blow on the birds. My vents are up high, about 5 feet. The roost is down low at about 20 inches. A good way to cover up your run is to use clear shower curtains on 3 sides to block the breezes. The one open side is to allow ventilation. When the sun shines the run gets warmed up. My girls are out in the run all day, even when the temperature went down to -22. The run was noticeably warmer than outside when I'd go in there to feed them.

 

[aart]

Is that your actual coop/run....you have 4...5...6 large birds?
Would you also post a pic of the larger run?

You might be better off modifying that coop/run to a larger coop.

don't sap too much heat from the deep litter inside.

Not sure you could do a true heat generating deep litter in a raised coop, let alone one that small.

Ventilation is much more important than 'holding heat'.

 

[suderm]

Is that your actual coop/run....you have 4...5...6 large birds?
Would you also post a pic of the larger run?

You might be better off modifying that coop/run to a larger coop.

Not sure you could do a true heat generating deep litter in a raised coop, let alone one that small.

Ventilation is much more important than 'holding heat'.

I donthave a proper picture of the attached run on me, here is a screenshot of a video of my daughter putting the girls away at night

I have four rhode island reds. They are 8 months old or so.

The run is 10'x12' with a covered hardware cloth roof over 3/4 of it and then one area with an aluminum roof to give them a dry area if its raining.

Thoughts on dropping that roosting area down to ground level(or slightly above)? I could cut larger vents then (farther away from the roosting bars.)

My thought was to get the pre-fab coop for a few years because I have never had chickens before and then build a custom one once I figured out what I liked and disliked about this one.

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

@suderm What did you do with regards to ventilation?

 

[suderm]

@suderm What did you do with regards to ventilation?

I actually went to go cut a vent in and realized that the peak of the roof has a soffit style vent at the peak where the walls meet the roof. I have beeen checking during the cold nights and I dont notice any moisture and everyone seems fine. Seems like all is well.