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

[beckella]

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Yeah, we were a bit concerned about the flooring and have it lined w/ vinyl flooring. He's also going to caulk around all the edges and has 3 inch or so edge going up the side of the wall. He also painted everything with a thick coat of paint to help seal it.

 

[patandchickens]

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For wintertime in a cold climate, you don't want vents near the floor (although you will automatically have at least one during the daytime whether you like it or not -- the popdoor

) because indeed they cause draft and unnecessary coldness. You want your vents high atop the walls. Honest.

This is different than in giant commercial livestock barns, where there is so much ammonia being produced, and the buildings have such a small ratio of edge to area just because of their large size, that you *do* need floor-level ventilation. Small backyard coops work DIFFERENTLY, honest. (I mean, physics isn't different, but the whole rest of the situation is)

(I'm not keen on floor-level vents for summertime either, frankly -- IMO you're better with a whole wall, or large portion thereof, being mesh. Rather than a solid wall with just a bit of low-down vent.)

Pat

 

[tonini3059]

Thanks. I have the vents close to the floors and am not worried about drafts. The vents are about 4' apart so there is room in between where the ducks can get out of the air flow as well as another three walls. The chickens roost so they are not in the draft area. In addition I will not run the fan if it is really cold and rely more on the passive air flow.
I would not be concerned with heat loss with the air being blow up into the attic. Yes you will loose heat but there will be heat loss regardless if you have air flow which is a must. The chickens are rather well insulated so they seem to be fine witht the cold, in my coop at least.

 

[gsim]

Beautiful coop. I would add louvered gable vents, say, 12" x 12" on each gable, at their peaks. If sides/soffit will allow, I would do soffit vents too, both sides. Then I would open the cupola so that it turns into a vent stack. Use hardware cloth mesh and not screening. Screening gets too easily plugged with dust in a coop. Then, since you already did a ceiling inside, I would cut/frame a vent directly below the cupola. You might consider using a ducted attic fan above auto-louvers that auto-open when a draft hits them. They can be permanently be left open when warm weather comes, and the fan can only be turned on when it is really hot. You could close the center vent all night maybe and open in daytime, but only in subzero weather. Do not be concerned about retaining heat. Be concerned about air quality and low humidity as Patandchickens said. You can safely do an uninsulated coop in Chicago as long as it is dry and vented well. I used to live there.

As an example, presently in Tennessee, I built an 8 x 16 coop for 24 pullets. I did 6 sq feet of permanent 24-7 ventilation ABOVE the ht of my 8 ft walls. I did two 12" x 12" gable vents, one turbine vent in center near peak of roof, and two inch-wide continuous soffit vents, each 16 ft long. I have no ceiling so I have continuous ventilation 24-7 taking place overhead and that takes care of methane and ammonia gases. I can shut my 4 windows and pop doors and entrance door tight at night and still have the healthy ventilation that I need and no drafts whatsoever on my chickens.

 

[big medicine]

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Here's something that's working pretty well in my coop in Ohio. My coop is 32' by 12' with about 6' of one end sectioned off for feed and equipment storage. Standard shed roof about 7' tall in the back(west) and about 10' in the front(east). This coop was built in the 60's of tongue and groove pine, with a tin roof. One window, and one man door, on each short side, and four windows down the front.
When we bought this place about eight years ago the coop had been empty for years, except for the coons, possums, and the ground hogs, who had a good start on a full basement under the cement floor. After patching and coating the roof, splicing in some sideing to repair rot and varmit holes, and paint, I had tight, sound coop. And there lies the problem, it was too tight, built with no vents. I suppose they had used the windows to try to cotrol moisture and condensation, but I could never find the sweet spot, water dripping off the ceiling, respiratory issues with the birds.
I came across the idea in an old poultry book. I installed a (whirlygig) turbine vent in the roof, close to the front wall(high side), about center of the long side, spaced to fall between windows. Below the vent I built a plywood "duct" about 16" square from the ceiling to about a foot above the floor, using the outside wall as one side, and open on the bottom. At the top of this shaft I hinged about a 20" piece of the plywood that would fold flat up against the ceiling, allowing the hottest summer air to draw out the vent. Come winter, close the flap and draw the cooler air off the floor while retaining most of any heat generated by the birds. I installed three modified dryer vents as cool air inlets spaced along the top of the back wall, carefull to avoid placing them above any roosts. This helped alot, but calm nights were a problem. As my coop had electricity, I found some garage sale fans that would fit my purpose. I mounted an older window fan on a slide directly below the vent for the warm flap up weather. I mounted it on a slide for ease of removal for maintenance, about every 30 days I take it out, brush off the feathers, blow it out with the compresser, oil it, (about a 10 minute job). For cold weather I mounted a heavier attic fan near the bottom of the duct, remove the upper fan, close the upper flap, and this keeps a good air mix that has eliminated condensation and respiratory problems.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

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I wouldn't pull air from the barn into the attic. It's way too moist, will saturate your insulation and woodwork and lead to mold and rot up there. In the winter the moisture will condense on the bottom side of the roof and drip down onto your ceiling from above. It looks as though you may have a ventilation shaft going up to a cupola. That would be ok, as long as the moist air can't get to the rest of the attic area.

For powered, negative pressure ventilation, you want adjustable intakes at the top of the wall, say a 4 inch slot along the entire top of the wall with a board for an adjustable louver. The louvers need to be closed off enough to force the air to come in at a high velocity (maybe a one inch gap). The cold air needs to be brought in with enough velocity to force it flow along the ceiling and mix with the warm air up high. If it doesn't mix well, the cold air just sinks to the floor, chilling the animals.

You must remove the moisture, carbon dioxide, ammonia, and other gases from the barn. Yes, this also means removing some heat along it. If you use a variable speed fan, a fan on a percentage timer (so you can set it to run a certain number of minutes out of every five minutes), or use several smaller fans, you can customize the ventilation to keep the humidity and ammonia down without removing too much heat.

 

[stuckinthecity]

LOVE LOVE LOVE your chicken house!