16x16 Coop/Barn ... Need Ventilation Ideas!!!!

[beckella]

Hi all,
My husband and I have been looking at your site for months...we got our first chickens over the summer, unexpectedly, and threw together a temporary coop. We now have 10 chickens with 5 chicks & 5 ducklings on the way and have decided to build a bigger coop/barn. It is 16x16 and on the left side there is a 6X16 area the chickens. There is a 3 foot hallway and on other side we have a duck room, goat room, and storage area. It has an attic and is fully insulate and has double paned windows ... it looks more like a house than a coop/barn!!!

Anyway, I mentioned ventilation last night and now he's concerned about how to do it and keep the girls & other animals warm enough. We live in the Chicagoland area and temperatures can get pretty cold, ranging from 0 to 15 in the coldest part of the winter. I'm attaching some pictures of the coop/barn and we would love you help/advice!!

Thanks so much!
Becky

 

[ryanroth]

Is there a ridge vent in the roof. You said attic, is it sealed from the bottom. If so a ridge vent won't work. You need fresh air in the bottom and hot air to escape high. Ammonia is heavier so you need the lower air to move it upward. Looks like you have enough windows I would just add some vents along the lower part. You can make them with a door so that you choose when they are opened and closed based on ammonia levels. Good luck. You could always put an attic fan that pulls air in and up through a ridge vent or the cupula.

 

[jenjscott]

When can I move in?

 

[tonini3059]

I put an attic fan on one of the inside walls as high up as I could. On the opposite wall I put three vents close to the floor. The attic fan pulls air through the vents and outside again, providing ventilation. The fan is hooked up to a thermostat and has a manual overide swith incase I want to just turn it on. Even when the fan is not on just the positioning of the fan and vents causes an air flow. Check out the pics of my coop and see if that helps you see what I am talking about.

 

[ClairedeLune]

And that's a beautiful coop!!! I don't really know... you could cover the windows with hardware cloth and leave them open in the summer... but winter...

 

[beckella]

Thanks so much for your response! The ceiling is closed off and we do have a ceiling mounted ventilation fan to the attic, which has ridge vents in the roof. My husband is very worried that the fan will remove any heat that's in the coop/barn. If we run the fan 24/7 is it going to get too cold for the chickens?

Thanks!

 

[beckella]

Quote:
Haha...my parents keep joking that they're going to sell their house and move into the coop!! It is a little fancy - but he's having fun building it.

 

[Lensters]

My barn is a bit bigger than yours but I use blowers that suck air from the floor level through the walls and out. They are thermostatically controlled so that the ventilation decreases as it gets colder. Funny thing about manure is that it quits decomposing and generating methane and ammonia when it freezes so all you have to remove is the CO2 from the animal's breathing.

Very pretty building. Just make sure you seal the floors really well as it doesn't look like they are setup in the old barn style to be replaced every few years.

 

[beckella]

Quote:
I looked at your coop pics and showed it to my hubby...we have the same type of fan just on the ceiling. He's worried about having vents neer the floor causing drafts...your property is beautiful by the way!

 

[patandchickens]

Cold is not near the enemy of chickens that HUMIDITY is. They are much better off in cold and dry air than in barely-below-freezing but humid air. Ducks do not care about cold, period, AFAIK; not sure what kind of goats you have.

Really, though, the general principle in livestock housing is to ensure good air quality (proper ventilation) FIRST, and then *see if* you even *have* to do anything about temperature. Which, in this case, you quite well may not... that is a decent sized barn, well insulated, so it will hold its temperature fairly well overnight and through the first half of the winter at least.

I would not, btw, rely on a fan for your ventilation. Far better IMHO to add passive-ventilation openings, preferably high on the S wall (and others too, ideally), with flaps or sliders or whatnot that you can use to close 'em down. Fans break, lose power, get clogged with dust, are a bit of a fire hazard, frost up and refuse to work if turned off, and are an ongoing maintenance issue. A hole in da wall, you just open and close as the weather warrants, nothing to go wrong

and assuming it's properly designed, passive ventilation works JUST FINE on this size structure. Not to say you can't have a fan but you don't NEED one, they can cause problems, and in my opinion it is better not to be in a situation where the fan is your only good ventilation source.

As far as cold temperatures and suchlike, you might take a look at the 'cold coop' link in my .sig below. Also possibly the ventilation link.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat