Ridge vent, plus gable vent

[IvyBeans]

Hello,

My husband is currently building our chicken coop for 5-6 hens. We’re struggling with ventilation a bit. How far over the roost bar is high enough to put ventilation to not chill the chickens at night?

He was really trying to not get the coop to stick too far over the 6 foot fence, but also started the floor 2 feet off the ground. With a roosting 2x4 going along the middle at 18 inches across the ground, I’m worried about how much head room they’ll need. He was planning on floating the roof a bit, but it’s a peaked roof, with the roost going the long way of the structure, if that makes sense.

I’m thinking a ridge vent is the best option, but everything I read says that if you do gable vents it cancels out the ridge vent and makes air circulation poor. However, I worry soffit vents are too low. Would it be okay if they were covered instead of just hardware cloth over them?

Could you do gable vents, ridge vents, and just a few soffit vents? Or skinny soffit vents?

We live in the Seattle area, so lots of rain, not a ton of snow.

We are raising 3 orpingtons, they’ll be our tallest type. Thank you!

 

[saysfaa]

I would do soffits and ridge vents and not gable vents. I did and the air flows up the underside of the roof from the soffits to the ridge vent. It does not flow across from side to side unless the windows and doors on more than one side are also open. This is so even though 7' of the 8' of one side of the coop is permanently open.

The open side works well too, whether or not there are other vents or open windows in the non-snowy parts of the year. In your climate, I would probably either leave the other vents open all year (since there isn't much snow) or have only the open side (thinking it doesn't get very hot)

You are doing nice wide eaves, right?

 

[EddieSalita]

Gable vents would be a bit redundant with a ridge vent I would think. There would be some circulation between soffit vents and a ridge vents though. Perhaps not much down low in the coop though.

I've often thought a mini louvre window down low near the floor with hardware cloth and a ridge vent would be ideal for total convection ventilation. Drawing from down low out wide pulling all the way to the narrow centre ridge.. Essentially accelerating the air. It certainly is effective in houses built that way.

The louvres have the advantage of being able to keep rain out and still be open to do their job. Or be closed when it's cold.

 

[aart]

Seattle area

Well then you probably don't have to worry about frigid winter breezes freezing combs.

 

[3KillerBs]

View attachment 3532381

Are you sure you can't raise that roof another foot?

It's really difficult to get everything stacked up in less than about 4 feet of vertical space:

• Floor with 4-6 inches of bedding
• Nests, which are at least a foot tall, with their bottoms above the max height of the bedding
• Roost above the nest,
• Chicken on roost about 10-14" tall when sitting down (roosters may be larger).
• Vents above the top of the roosting chickens' comb.

 

[aart]

but it does show how a low roost can work.

Well....it shows they sell them.

 

[aart]

Think of it as a whole floor of roosts.

I see it as a plastic grate.

 

[Krugerrand]

Why? Because of ventilation placement?

Yes.

I'm a huge fan of this article as it pertains to coop building:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/yakisugi-coop.76398/
@Yakisugi Coop did a great job of doing research prior to building. Much of that research is linked in the article. And, while you may come to different conclusions, the article does a good job getting you 'thinking the right way.'

So, that BYC article links to this page about height:
https://www.thefeatherbrain.com/blog/how-tall-should-a-chicken-coop-be

It advocates your roost be 18" below your lowest vent and explains why it believes that to be good advice.

Of course, 100 people have 150 ways to build a coop ... but I would vote for lower roost bars based on how you plan to managing the floor and what you can manage from a cleaning / usability standpoint.

 

[aart]

Another reason to lower the roost a bit is the limited area they have to jump off of it.
But I see that may interfere with the pop door.

 

[mowin]

Gable vents would be a bit redundant with a ridge vent I would think. There would be some circulation between soffit vents and a ridge vents though. Perhaps not much down low in the coop though.

I've often thought a mini louvre window down low near the floor with hardware cloth and a ridge vent would be ideal for total convection ventilation. Drawing from down low out wide pulling all the way to the narrow centre ridge.. Essentially accelerating the air. It certainly is effective in houses built that way.

The louvres have the advantage of being able to keep rain out and still be open to do their job. Or be closed when it's cold.

I like soffit vents. Can never be covered in snow like a ridge vent, making them useless.
I did add a 1x1 foot ventilation to opposite bottom corners covered on the inside with HC. I used a furnace filter on the outside to control drafts. Those two lower vents were critical in getting the coop to vent properly.