I used an attic vent that I bought from Habitat for Humanity for $5. It is on the west facing wall. We get some big winds here that typically will blow in from the southwest - so that wall will get a lot of wind. My two roosts are close to that vent. As far as I can tell, the way the attic vent is made hardly any wind blows in but it allows for ventilation. I climbed in the coop just now & just stood there & no wind blew in from the vent & it is very windy today with gusts to 50 mph! (but I do feel drafts from the roof - see further in this post) In the winter, should I make a covering for the top of this attic vent to keep cold air out? We get into the 20's at night and sometimes into the teens. I could make it so that the bottom stays open for ventilation. Here's the outside of the vent - it is 24" wide x 30" tall. Here is the inside - you can see the roost in front of the vent (there are 2 - 2x4s, 2 ft apart): I am having drafts from the opening under the roof - any suggestions with the roof area? You can see the attic vent to the left. The older vents are from interior ac vents that do close. The drafts I feel seem to be coming from under the roof. Thanks everyone!
Nice coop, I really enjoy getting ideas from pix, but I'm very new to all this. I found some vinyl soffett vents I plan on covering my large vents with when it gets really cold, they just need to be trimmed to fit and held in place.
Temps in the teens and 20's are really nothing for chickens. They actually need good ventilation in the winter when they are spending more time (aka pooping more) inside the coop. What you are calling roof drafts, I call soffit vents -- so long as the drafts are above the chicken's heads (and they hunker down in the winter) it shouldn't be a problem.
If you really want to seal the area around the roofing, I believe they do make a gasket material for sealing the gaps between sheet roofing and patio cover material and the supporting boards. You do want to keep drafts off the birds in the winter while maintaining ventilation. I think the leaks at the edge of the roof would be the biggest problem - also you may get rodents through those gaps.
Thanks everyone for the responses! I do think I need to "fill in" some of the gaps under the roof line - I will work on that this weekend - I'm think a 1x4 or 2x4 under the roof between the supporting 2x4s. That will fill in most of the larger gap but maintain the smaller gaps that are due to the natural undulations of the roof. How about covering up part of that big attic vent? Do you think I should?
sorry to be hitching on to your post, but I have the same question about closing up the attic vent. I will also have one of these attic vents on my coop. I'm thinking that it can just be left as it is because you do need the ventilation all winter and the wind shouldn't come up into the vent. Maybe if it got brutally cold out, we could temporarily staple some thick mil plastic over it on the inside just in case, but I'd like to know if that is even necessary. Any ideas anyone?
