Sounds like you and I are almost neighbors! My conditions sound just like that!Thanks for the linkWhere I live, the dusty air he discusses is a serious threat not inside, but outside. Three things combine to create this situation - "dirt" that is more like silt, extremely arid conditions, and frequent wind coming off the mountains. It is not at all uncommon to go collect a container that has only been outside 12 hours and find it completely coated with fine brown dust just from the day's breezes moving the dirt around. In the summer I lightly water the top layer of dirt around the coop after I'm done watering gardens and trees, because it creates a crust that holds the dirt in place in the wind, at least until I walk through it again. In the winter I can't do that.
My whole acreage, save the bit around the house where we've added topsoil to grow grass, is like one big dust bath. The drought conditions over the last several years have greatly exacerbated the challenges of the climate here. Today is a good example - the high today will be 40, which we will reach in the next 2 hours, but it will only be 40 for maybe an hour, then begin descent to 20-ish. No snow, just cold. The wind has been howling all night. It is predicted to blow all day with gusts as high as 65-70 in some areas. This happens at least a few times every year here, and it is rare to have a day where we don't have any wind at all during some part of the day. Wind here laughs at tarps. I had a 10x10 chain link pen lifted off the ground when I covered it with shade cloth. A gust once came up out of nowhere and tipped a coop over - a 4x4 3/4" OSB with shingled roof coop, which unfortunately is built with 2x2 legs which I really wish I had taken note of when I bought if from someone getting out of chickens. Fortunately no chickens were living in it at the time, and none are still, until I reinforce/add weight to the legs. Even then I'll probably anchor it.
So far I have not had any problems with adequate ventilation, but I also have hens who spend the majority of their time outside, they have only chosen to stay inside the coop 2 or 3 days this winter when it was both very cold and very windy. Just cold doesn't seem to bother them at all. They happily exit the coop when it's 10 degrees in the morning. I open the coop every day to check on the water (which will move back outside come spring) and to collect eggs, and it has never smelled of ammonia, or much of anything really, which I attribute in part to fermented feed and part to deep litter shavings. Maybe it's just due to the very dry climate. I don't know.
I love the concept of open air coops, I just live in an area I don't think they will work.
I went to Frank's website. His post said he had Andalusians but I didn't see any on his website.
Bob, you put your single comb males in cardboard boxes at night? Every night (below freezing)? That would be quite a project here. It's supposed to get down to 3 degrees here tonight. That's really aggravating because three days ago it was 45 degrees outside in the afternoon (for a very short time) and today we have a dusting of snow! So, you cut ventilation holes in these boxes?
I need to cull my herd and perhaps I could do cardboard boxes at night. I can feel my back aching already!
