Ventilation Choice

[SadieSue]

I know good ventilation is detrimental to the health of our birds. DH and buddies are building our coop now and I've been explaining this, so in the next few days will need to give them a firm answer on how our ventilation should work. One of they guys had built these vented deals to enclose under the roof eaves, but as I was looking at it today, I said, we might not even need these - maybe we should just screen in this whole area under the roof with hardware cloth instead. Please take a look and offer me your opinion? The coop is going to be raised 4X8 enclosed in an 8X12 run. You can see in the one photo where the cleaning door is framed in. Above there - the triangular shaped area is what I'm thinking of - should we install the two vents per side (pictured - it's about 18"X6"? I haven't measure it) in a solid wall, OR just leave that entire area open but for the hardware cloth?
We live in the Pacific Northwest - sometimes cold, usually wet, but seldom really freezy.
Thanks in advance!
Two views of the roofline -

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And the one of the 4 vent deals we bought to install -

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[4-H chicken mom]

If you haven't finished the roof yet, you can put in a ridge vent. That is what I have in my barn and it really lets out the heat.

 

[elmo]

High vents are great to let moisture escape from warmer air that rises inside the coop. I used Patandchicken's ballpark rule of thumb and built 1 square foot per chicken of vent that can be left open during the winter.

Ventilation can also help keep the inside of a coop from heating up like an oven in the summer, so I also built additional ventilation lower down, closer to roost level, almost 3 square feet per chicken, of combined vent and operable windows. These openings can be completely closed and even insulated for winter.

I would suggest measuring your proposed vents to see how close you are to the ballpark of 1 square foot per chicken, and think about adding more ventilation if you're on the short side. Also consider adding additional vents for summer, which can be in the form of one or more operable windows. If you build awning style flaps to cover the vents, you can always close them up when you need to. It's a lot harder to add additional vents later on if you find that it's getting moldy or drippy inside the coop from moisture, or too hot in the summer.

 

[mcfarmall]

1 square foot per chicken? I'd have to cut the entire roof off mine and still wouldn't have enough!!!!!!!!! 3 square feet at chicken level? There go the walls!!! Shoot, just let the birds live on your deck.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Quote:
Yeah, some really get carried away and make you wonder why they built a structure at all.

If I were you I'd return the vents you purchased and go with your plan of hardware cloth on your gable ends. Inexpensive, easy and breasy. Your location really determines how much ventalation is needed as WA does'nt have the overheating problems in summer as let's say TX. And locations of artic winters need to have enough venting without artic gusts getting in. Open gable in WA seems like the way to go, you don't get over 90 F in summer or below 0 in winter. Great climate you have if'n ya like rain.

 

[patandchickens]

I'd definitely leave those upper triangular areas all-hardwarecloth. You will have to evaluate whether it seems likely that a buncha rain will blow in -- I have no idea what your area or site are like -- and it is possible you might find yourself wanting to build a roof extension over the vent, or a hinged cover for it, or something like that; but when you are NOT getting sideways rain, for sure it will be very useful for air quality. If you don't get hot summers and don't stock the coop heavily, that alone would provide marginally-adequate ventilation; if you have more ventilation beyond that (the gaps between rafters left open and wired, and/or openable windows) you should be in good shape that way.

1 square foot per chicken? I'd have to cut the entire roof off mine and still wouldn't have enough!!!!!!!

Uh, no. Not unless you are giving your chickens less than 1 sq ft floorspace, which I very, very seriously doubt.

Come on folks, really.

For an 8x8 coop stocked at 4 sq ft per chicken (=16 chickens), 1 sq ft of vent space per chicken is just a 4x4 open window, or an open rectangle 2' high along the length of one wall, or the equivalent.

Still not enough for really hot climates, but the point is that if you have that amount of ventilation (and it is intelligently located) I guarantee you be able to manage your coop for good air quality during winter and minimize your chances of frostbite problems.


Pat​

 

[SadieSue]

Quote:
Uh, no. Not unless you are giving your chickens less than 1 sq ft floorspace, which I very, very seriously doubt.

Come on folks, really.

For an 8x8 coop stocked at 4 sq ft per chicken (=16 chickens), 1 sq ft of vent space per chicken is just a 4x4 open window, or an open rectangle 2' high along the length of one wall, or the equivalent.

Still not enough for really hot climates, but the point is that if you have that amount of ventilation (and it is intelligently located) I guarantee you be able to manage your coop for good air quality during winter and minimize your chances of frostbite problems.


Pat

Thank you all for your input. I think we'll leave the gable ends open and covered with hardware cloth. The end that I showed you faces our house and so is blocked that way. In addition, the guys are building an overhang on that side so rain shouldn't be dripping in. The other side of the henhouse will be facing a completely shingled roofed run, so no rain on that side either. Whew. I think that makes one more decision down now. I had no idea this could be so stressful. I appreciate everyone's help - if I knew where you were I'd bring you all cookies!

 

[elmo]

Quote:
It really works, though. And it's pretty easy to build that much if you do rectangle vents on the top walls of the front and back of the coop, and put in a couple windows.


https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=32217-the-just-right-coop