A Ventilation Equation

[swift4me]

This got me wondering about my coop. I just posted pictures of it, "my second try", and it is a 200 year old stone building about 4 meters square, (inside dimensions are about 3 meters square). Obviously I have alot of temperature stabilization from the stone walls. There was no way to put in vents or windows into the stone walls, and I needed to protect from weasels and martens, so I put pieces of wood between the top of the stone walls and the roof sheathing, (inbetween the rafters), and each piece of wood is about 2 feet long X 5 inches high and has 5 1" holes drilled in it, so that is 25 1" holes on the downhill side of the roof, and 25 on the top end of the roof.

I agree that holes are not the best way to move air, but in my case, the coop door stays open to the run, as I leave them alone for the weekends when I come back to town. Our climate is prety mild. Not too hot in the summer, and freezing temps in winter do not stay for long. It is fairly humid around here though due to our rainfall.

I'm figuring that with the door, (3' X 2'), open all the time, plus the holes, there should be good air movement.

Any thoughts?

Pete

 

[patandchickens]

Extremely neat structure! I love it. You are lucky to have that in such good shape!

Regarding a bunch of 1" ventilation holes plus the popdoor -- well, it's better than nothing, and possibly the best you can do anyhow. If the structure is about 3m on a side, that is something like 100 sq ft which is a bit more than 10 sq ft per chicken, which is reasonably generous so *that* is certainly on your side. The drier you can keep things inside the coop (esp. in terms of preventing roof leaks or incoming runoff water), the better. What's the floor, is it earthen or stone, how dry does it tend to be?

I would suspect that your biggest enemy will be condensation on warm days in winter and spring, when all that stone is cold and you get a day or two of warm moist air coming in from the south and it can make the entire inside of the structure absolutely *wet* with condensation. Sometimes it can actually be worthwhile, in those particular circumstances, *closing off* as much airflow as possible til the weather changes back. (This is strictly a damage-control strategy for temporary weather-related problems in stone or thick-concrete-walled buildings, NOT something generally applicable to normal coops). If it should get to be too-frequently a problem you could consider lining the walls with plywood; but the structure is small enough and your winters warm enough that you may not need to go that far.

So in terms of ventilation, IME I would say that it looks potentially-workable (or anyhow manageable) an in any case you may not have a big lot of CHOICE in the matter anyhow, so, just do the best you can

And it certainly is one of the most historical and picturesque coops I've seen on this forum

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[swift4me]

Thanks Pat for the reflections. We do get those condensation events you spoke of. The floor is well trodden earth, and I put down a bedding of local fern that we cut and bale for bedding. When I had the chickens last year, (March, April, May), I had no problems with it, and that is our worst time of year for humidity, so I'll keep an eye on things.

Pete

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Quote:
I bet it did! We've found our barred rock is our most inquisitive bird. Though all are and do follow one another

I'm an advocate of obstacles or what have you for birds to play with. Sounds wonderful to watch Lynne.

As for open and closed vents- I'm for them too! The minimum equation was somthing I'd posted to truley show a min. Many had asked recently about venting and myself building a coop was curious...there it was. A minimum within spec. of slope and providing eave venting (i.e. a venting system with minimums). So happy and me coop is done. Complete with a ornimental yet rain sheilding shingle roof

I could of turned the siding sheets around and stained then silliconed the roof peek but think the shingles made it not only 30pounds heavier but pretty and that "finnished" look

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I'd promised a pic and had to verify my facts so came back to this thread.

Entered the coop contest and kinda want that t-shirt yet threw out some physics #'s off the top. Here now to double check what was researched.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=69907

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

Quote:
Instead of stuffing newspaper in the vents cut up an old camping mat (or yoga mat) a couple of inches larger on all four sides and push it in. It makes it easy to push in and pull out and it's super efficient!