? about using fans for ventilation

[Dawn419]

We are busting butt getting the little details worked out in our main coop. We have a small fan on the south side to pull hot air out of the coop and will be adding another fan on the north side to help pull cooler air in.

My question...should we place the north side fan up high or down lower?

Thanks!

Dawn

 

[MissPrissy]

Cool air sinks. Heat rises. Intake low. Exhaust high.

 

[Dawn419]

Thanks...that's what I was thinking!

Just wanted a second opinion before I did anything!

Sheesh, by the time we get it ready for the gang to move into it'll be time to winterize...

Dawn

 

[Galaxie_Man]

Dawn419 wrote:

We are busting butt getting the little details worked out in our main coop. We have a small fan on the south side to pull hot air out of the coop and will be adding another fan on the north side to help pull cooler air in.

My question...should we place the north side fan up high or down lower?

We were in the same boat as Dawn419 trying to get the coop finished, but the birds are no longer living in our basement.

They are out in the finished coop, free-ranging during the day, while I finish working on the outdoor "aviary". We used an attic fan from Home Cheapo, and mounted it through the roof to ventilate the coop by power when necessary, or by convection normally. The photo below was from right after it was installed. Even though we used the least expensive and lowest powered fan, it sucks so hard when running that it pulls the door shut! I had it running one night while I was out working after dark, and there were all kinds of bugs stuck against the outside of the window screen, pulled inward by the fan.

 

[greginshasta]

Hi Dave -any chance you could post more photos of this project?

 

[Galaxie_Man]

Quote:
You bet! My coop design, which existed only in my head before I sketched it out and then built it from scratch, came out better than I imagined. My plan is to upload my sketches, the materials list, and all the photos of every step of the build. This will include things I learned that I might have done differently. My entire project cost a little over $1600.00, but that's because I "over-engineer" things and use solid, heavy duty construction. Our coop will be here long after I leave the planet. This was the largest construction project I had ever done, and it has given me the confidence to build a tool shed next spring. I'll start re-sizing and uploading the rest of the photos soon.

 

[Galaxie_Man]

Quote:
Rather than make you wait until I had more time, I quickly put these few shots together.


The first photo below is the exterior of the finished building.

This next shot shows the exhaust fan and light.

This is how the floor looked right after we laid it.

This is the finished nesting boxes/perches in my garage before they were mounted. (My wife is happy, she can park in the gararge again!)

 

[greginshasta]

This looks excellent. What are the dimensions? One image (the floor?) apparently didn't link up correctly.

 

[Galaxie_Man]

Quote:
In a nutshell.........

The footprint is 6' X 8', built on leveled concrete blocks, with three 4X4 P.T. skids. On that I built a deck of 2X4 P.T. covered with 3/4" P.T. plywood. The rear wall is 6'6"H X 8'W, front wall is 8' X 8'. The roof was designed with a 10" overhang in front and back and 6" on the sides. The eaves were closed in with 1/2" CDX. It was then covered with 90# roll roofing due to the shallow pitch. The side walls were framed to fit between the front and back walls. The walls were all built with 2X4 kiln dried douglas fir studs, and the roof was built with 2X6's bird-mouthed into the top of the front and back walls. The exterior walls were covered in T-111, trimmed in 1" X 3" pine, and painted by my wife to match the house. The door is 24"W X 78"H cut from the solid sheet of T-111, and the window is a 2/0 X 2/0 sliding vinyl replacement window. The side walls and roof were insulated with Owens Corning pink R-13, and covered with a white masonite paneling. The floor was a vinyl floor remnant. WHEW!

That link for the floor picture should be OK now, it showed up on my PC. I did have trouble with it last night, too.

 

[greginshasta]

Fabulous. It's really gorgeous. So if the idea is 4' of floor space per hen, I guess this is good for up to 12 birds?