I have a lot of ventilation in our coop but it's up high, 6 ft (the roosts are at 3 feet). The ventilation is open hardware cloth on three sides of the coop (coop is 8x8). At what temp do i need to cover the open hardware cloth?
I wouldn't cover them completely. Ventilation is the most important feature of a winter coop. Not enough and you will have high humidity possibly resulting in frostbite. Without seeing your coop I would restrict the vents on the prevailing wind side and possibly close some so there are no straight through drafts but you need good ventilation. Some go as far as to say about 1 sq ft per bird...It will be simple enough to gauge. Frost inside=too humid-need more ventilation.
If you cover your ventilation, the moisture will build up and you will have real trouble with frostbite.
Quote:x2 Never close it completely. Your chickens will have more problems from moist cold than dry cold. They can really handle low temps.
We have already seen near zero here in middle TN and in the single digits for several days in a row and it's only early Dec...more like late Jan...You never close the ventilation completely or your asking for trouble..ventilation doesn't mean draft and breeze that needs to be addressed since that is very bad on them.We never use plastic because plastic can't breathe but our chicken houses are house wrapped and where we have open wire-converterd 3 sided shed all open wire on the front and the eves are all house wrapped.It will stay on until Spring and no ill effects to the chickens since it won't allow moisture build up.
