Anyone have good luck buying/modifying a prefab or some other structure? (Seattle area)

[Offshoreorca]

Until you can write about it, can you post some pictures?

I don't have any pictures of this on my phone unfortunately and I'm down in the city for work trip, so I can't get the photos until I'm back up with the flock. Here's a description in the mean time.

We have to worry about snow blowing in the coop here so conventional ventilation is difficult (as we want something we can keep open during blizzards). We installed a series of larger hooded dryer vents that have an outside meant to protect against incoming snow without sacrificing ventilation. We have 7 of these in total - which may not seem like enough, but for our climate it has been working well. They are placed up near the peak on both ends of the barn. I spend a lot of time in the coop and we reassess moisture levels every fall depending on flock size. This year I will likely be adding a few more vents as we have had an increase in flock size.

In addition to the venting, we have a window that opens into the run when more ventilation is needed (e.g. in the heat of the summer), as well as the option of opening the main "human" door to the coop, as we have little predation risk during the day and the coop is divided.

We do winterize/tarp in the run during the winter to minimize moisture transfer into the coop and to give the chickens more space on the bad weather days. They free-range under supervision when we are home as the aerial predators (hawks, etc.) are our greatest risk in terms of diurnal predation.

 

[MTKitty]

We installed a series of larger hooded dryer vents that have an outside meant to protect against incoming snow without sacrificing ventilation.

Thank you for a marvelous idea! I’ve been struggling with how to increase ventilation w/o letting in more moisture. This would work beautifully.

 

[DickMidnight]

while not a gambrel roof, i just finished up a ventilation project this weekend. i opened up 7 vents at the roofline of my coop (4 in the front and 3 in the back) giving me an additional 13sqft of ventilation to add to the 4 from my window and 1 from my pop door.

you can see the 4 vents in the front. they’re 24x15 openings. i also added a picture that caught one of the vents in the back. those are 24x6 openings.

ive got about 10,000 tiny holes in my fingers and hands from the hardware cloth for my troubles

to block windblown rain and snow i’m adding a 1x6 board screwed to the ends of the rafters on the front side of the coop. it’ll sit flush with the end cuts at a 45* angle. i painted it yesterday but since it was so cold the paint didn’t dry before i ran out of daylight.