Can we talk about humidity in coops? For us first year keepers

[PhantomSlayer]

I've been doing alot of research into upgrades for our coop interior. I've covered roosts, isolation/broody pen, nesting boxes. While working on looking into what I thought was a final upgrade idea, lighting for our coop. I noticed a few high humidity issues from people because of weather and it made me curious. I haven't noticed it in our coop but I did see that the recommended humidity is 40-60% in most forums. Which made me curious. Can we discuss humidity? For people who are first year keepers like me.

What type of meters for temp and humidity do you find best? Placement to avoid birds having access.

Do you find it important to monitor them?

I saw alot of fix ideas for lowering humidity but what about raising humidity?

What was your experience in dealing with humidity issues. ETC.

I'll be definitely look into getting a full time thermometer and humidity reader for out there because I know I definitely need something for summer as I remember it got soo hot in our coop during summer. But I only thought about ventilation and not actual humidity so I'm sure other first timers might overlook it as well.

 

[Penpal]

You will want to be sure that snow and/or ice are not melting into the coop. It means that the dry frigid air is warming up you are going to get high humidity in a cold coop.

Keeping water in the coop can make it too humid. This would be a problem where I live, but may not be where you live. Keeping water in the coop if you live in a hot dry place might be a good idea. This is where monitoring the humidity would save you some grief.

 

[Penpal]

Okay, just read your avatar. You probably won't need to add humidity.

 

[PhantomSlayer]

Okay, just read your avatar. You probably won't need to add humidity.

I won't know until I get something to read the humidity. I don't feel like we have a high humidity but I won't know until I can buy something to read it. Do you have any suggestions on placement for such things. I feel like it should be out of reach of the birds but I worry it might affect the readings.

 

[saysfaa]

I have these two kinds.

The square one is better as long as the temperatures are above freezing. Better because it responds faster and shows how high and how low the temperature and the humidity went. I tried it in the coop then bought the other kind shown here. We use the square one in the house - checking the refrigerator, the basement, and from room to room or within rooms. The temperatures in our house are very uneven.

The long one works well below freezing. It also costs less. I have two - one for inside the coop and one for outside the coop. I have been very happy with this kind.

Edit to add: the square one I have isn't designed to transmit. It looks like the kind that does.

 

[aart]

You'll never need to raise humidity.
Goal is to keep it near the same as outside the coop....and with adequate ventilation that shouldn't be a problem.

I have something similar to the digital model saysfaa shows, mine no longer transmit to house base station but it still works out in coop.

 

[Sefirothe]

I’m using wireless sensors by SwitchBot to monitor temp and humidity in the coop and run. Eventually I’ll have them control an exhaust fan in the coop via a WiFi controlled plug to turn the fan off and on as needed.

I’m pretty happy with the accuracy I’m getting from them at the moment.

 

[K0k0shka]

I tried a couple different brands of remote thermometer/hygrometer combos that I could supposedly check from inside my house, but they both stopped working after just a few weeks (the coop unit and the house unit stopped talking to each other) so I gave up. I also realized that after I made my initial modifications to the coop, and had a good sense of how things stand, that I didn't actually need to monitor the temperature and humidity constantly. Both temperature and humidity are very dependent on your ventilation, so if you focus on the ventilation, the rest will sort of fall into place. I've found it very helpful to have additional ventilation you can open up in the summer and then close up in the winter, but keep plentiful year-round ventilation that's always open. And aim to have the temperature/humidity inside the coop even out with that outside of the coop, if they do then you've done your job. Chickens spend their days outside so if they are okay with whatever the ambient humidity is outside, then they'll be fine if it's the same inside the coop. So I don't do anything extra to raise or lower the coop humidity, I just make sure there's always lots of ventilation so the inside can even out with the outside. And summer is always more of a problem than winter, contrary to popular belief - a lot of people tend to worry more about winter. In the summer, I have my year-round ventilation open (1-2 square feet per bird), plus both windows are open all the way, plus I replace the human access door with a screen door, and add two fans - one in a window, and one up at the vents, to move air through the coop. We have high humidity naturally in the summer, and there's nothing I can do about that, but if I can keep the air moving and keep the coop from retaining and building up heat, that helps a lot.

 

[PhantomSlayer]

I tried a couple different brands of remote thermometer/hygrometer combos that I could supposedly check from inside my house, but they both stopped working after just a few weeks (the coop unit and the house unit stopped talking to each other) so I gave up. I also realized that after I made my initial modifications to the coop, and had a good sense of how things stand, that I didn't actually need to monitor the temperature and humidity constantly. Both temperature and humidity are very dependent on your ventilation, so if you focus on the ventilation, the rest will sort of fall into place. I've found it very helpful to have additional ventilation you can open up in the summe hand then close up in the winter, but keep plentiful year-round ventilation that's always open. And aim to have the temperature/humidity inside the coop even out with that outside of the coop, if they do then you've done your job. Chickens spend their days outside so if they are okay with whatever the ambient humidity is outside, then they'll be fine if it's the same inside the coop. So I don't do anything extra to raise or lower the coop humidity, I just make sure there's always lots of ventilation so the inside can even out with the outside. And summer is always more of a problem than winter, contrary to popular belief - a lot of people tend to worry more about winter. In the summer, I have my year-round ventilation open (1-2 square feet per bird), plus both windows are open all the way, plus I replace the human access door with a screen door, and add two fans - one in a window, and one up at the vents, to move air through the coop. We have high humidity naturally in the summer, and there's nothing I can do about that, but if I can keep the air moving and keep the coop from retaining and building up heat, that helps a lot.

Yeah I realized need to have two seasonal ventilations options lol. One for summer to have a cross breeze and one for winter to avoid the cross breeze. Finding a way to properly close off the west ventilation for our coop during winter but open it during summer is on the to do list for coop upgrades XD The east is fine as the wind very rarely comes from that direction and all the trees and brush help but west became a problem lol. Our is a metal shed so I should notice if we have a humidity issue but I have yet to notice any moisture on the walls so I like to believe we dont have high humidity. I'm just not sure if we have low humidity or what its actually at lol

 

[K0k0shka]

Yeah I realized need to have two seasonal ventilations options lol. One for summer to have a cross breeze and one for winter to avoid the cross breeze. Finding a way to properly close off the west ventilation for our coop during winter but open it during summer is on the to do list for coop upgrades XD The east is fine as the wind very rarely comes from that direction and all the trees and brush help but west became a problem lol. Our is a metal shed so I should notice if we have a humidity issue but I have yet to notice any moisture on the walls so I like to believe we dont have high humidity. I'm just not sure if we have low humidity or what its actually at lol

I don't think low humidity can be a problem. Not like they have all this exposed skin like we do, that needs lotion And they are constantly raising the humidity in the coop with their breath and poop.