Ammonia smell

[cmom]

Do you have any pictures of your coop you can post?

 

[lfoose]

About 8" of pine shavings.

 

[lfoose]

Thanks for all of the replies. Last night I was able to open the top of the couple of lower windows. So that should help. The DH reminded me of the real reason for not using the upper windows. They are tarred shut, not painted. His thought is that the previous owners had trouble w/rain coming in when it rained. This weekend we will be going to Home Cheapo to get some vents. He was thinking some gable and/or roof vents.

Sorry, no pics of the coop.

 

[mdbokc]

The commercial screened gable vents allow only a little air to flow...the fine screen and the louvers are very restrictive for air flow. They are better than nothing but not much. An earlier poster said to be sure that your birds are in a draft...they accidentally left out the word "NOT" as they are not to be in drafts in the winter.

Now, in the hot summer, a little night breeze is greatly appreciated by the girls and mine position themselves right in front of open windows to be in any available.

 

[Intheswamp]

Quote:
Thank you for correcting me on that, mdbokc!!! I've corrected my earlier post. Brain short circuit, I guess.

I agree, the gable vents will help a little but are not the complete answer.

Ed

 

[patandchickens]

See "Big Ol' Ventilation Page" link in my .sig below for some useful thoughts on accomplishing ventilation

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Intheswamp]

Quote:
First thing, as mdbokc corrected me, be sure the chickens are NOT in a draft!!! I guess I was thinking ahead of myself or something. Sorry for that big mis-type!

The trick to chicken ventilation is that you need LARGE expanses of ventilation with wire mesh covering the openings. The gable and roof vents will help, but you will need several of them to equal a 2' window and a 2' window really isn't adequate for the number of birds that you have and will have.

Does the building have any soffit ventilation....basically an open area between the wall and the roof junction where the roof rafters rest on the wall and create a gap?

Is the building concrete block, wood sided, tin sided?

What is the roof? Tin, shingled, ???

If you have to cut the old windows out and replace them with some recycled windows from Craigs List or salvage yard it would end up probably costing the same but would be more worthwhile. You could even add a little homemade awning over the window to block the rain.

Whatever the case, I think you pretty well know what the problem and the direction you must go in to fix the problem. Install the vents as ya'll are planning and see how it works, then proceed on to the windows if you need to.

Best wishes,
Ed

 

[mdbokc]

Right, depending on your design. Here are my gables open with hard wire to keep critters out (with an end window opening)...


soffit ventilation between each rafter/truss...


Big windows which they love to sleep beside in the warm weather but I reduce or completely close the exposure in cold, windy weather.....


jmho but don't be afraid to use a saw and create some openings....have fun!

 

[ilovechickens]

I live in Wisconsin and I had a problem with the icky smell, My coop has 6 windows, and 4 run openings, but, when it was so cold I was unable to open the windows. When It got above 20, I would open a couple of them. So I just kept changing the litter, and my first mistake was that I used hay, icky and hard to move Now I use pine shavings. And I have the windows opened. It is just hard to keep windows open in the Winter

 

[Opa]

You mentioned seeing frost inside the coop during real cold spells. To me that would indicate excessive moisture. You need to find a way to improve your ventilation. Chickens introduce moisture into the air when they exhale. Since water molecules are heavy they fall to the floorl and are absorbed by the litter. Improving the ventilation will help the coop vent this moisture laden air and well as the ammonia vapors.