Ceiling Fan in Hen House?

[pgras123]

When I built the hen house last year I added a cheap residential ceiling fan from home deopt. We have two good windows in a 64 square foot hen house with the ceiling fan in the middle. It also acts as the light.

It is getting quite dusty. Maybe this could be a fire hazard? I am trying to keep it clean, but maybe I shoud have a good fan built for a hen house? Are thre any type of farm fans that can take the dust of the henhouse? Or maybe I should go for the window fans and just have a light only on the ceiling?

Just thinking of the hot weather soon to come. Any thoughts on hen house fans - wether for the windows or ceiling?

 

[fairladi_chick]

what about the kind of fan you would put in the attic to remove heat? it comes on at a certain temp.

 

[pgras123]

Didn't even think of that , very good idea, thanks.

 

[fairladi_chick]

besides removin the dust it will also remove the heat from the coop as well.

two, two mints in one lol

 

[flopshot]

i'm trying to find a fan like a bathroom exaust fan but with a better duty cycle. maybe a wall mounted kitchen exaust fan. the thermostat is pretty easy to come up. it would be usefull for cleaning time if nothing else. "ceiling fan n a hen house".... kinda laughed at the thought of them trying to roost on it.

 

[FlashPointFarm]

Farm Tek will probably have something you're looking for.

http://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies/home

 

[patandchickens]

I am not a fan of fans in small coops (and I can only think offhand of 3 people on BYC who have coops I would not consider 'small' in this context

)

First, because there is just no reason whatsoever unless you are in a super hot climate, and if you *are* in a super hot climate, you don't need a fan to ventilate the coop you need a properly-designed coop plus shade for the chickens plus, *possibly* the chickens might benefit from a fan *on them*. For any other situation, correctly designed passive ventilation works COMPLETELY FINE.

Second, because 95% of the fans people talk about using are not designed for high-dust high-humidity conditions, and tend to quickly stop working properly, and yes, they CAN become a fire hazard. (I've known a horse-barn fire started by dust in the works of a fan...). IMO if you are going to use a fan for some reason -- and as I say, I don't think that even one percent of people have *any* reason for one -- it needs to be one *designed* for high-dust high-humidity situations. The problem there is that while agricultural fans are certainly on the market, they tend to come in sizes larger than you'd want for an 8' coop. I believe there are some smaller fans on the market for wood shop use etc, but can't point to specific sources. Anything quasi-appropriate will be a lot more expensive than yer basic cheap Home Depot ceiling/attic/bathroom fan, though.

That said, for the record, because my chicken building used to be a dog boarding/breeding kennel (not built by me) it does actually have three ceiling fans in it. I don't use them, because of ALL the reasons above (no need, and I no longer trust them after all this chicken dust). I did accidentally hit the wrong switch and turn them on once though. Either roosters have a special instinctual call for "danger - ceiling fan!" or they identified it as the Greater Northern Rotary Eagle. Awesome panic ensued

(I am positive they would get used to it, but it sure was funny)

Good luck, have fun, really I do not think you need/want a fan,

Pat

 

[Mahonri]

I replace my fan about every 6 months (due to dust) ETA: [I'd never ever considered it a fire hazard!]

It is hooked to a timer. It comes on at about 11PM and goes off at 11AM to try and cool the coop.... get's dang hot here in the summer!

It's cheap. I have it sitting on a shelf pointed out one of my ventilation holes on the north side of the coop above my door.

 

[flopshot]

if you feel you really need one mount it so it pressurizes the coop instead of evacuates. not quite as effective but much safer as far as the dust issue goes.