Chicken Coop Vent Placement

[bantiebabe1200]

I'm going to be building a coop sometime this winter, and I had a thought I hoped someone here could help me with. I live in a climate where in the winter the wind howls at between 15 & 30mph until spring and the snow will fill up almost anything with a 1/4" hole in it. The wind blows mostly from the south but this makes the wind and snow always swirl wind on the north side and create monster snowdrifts.

Does any one else have much experience with this problem in the winter? If so, what would be your suggestion for vent placement on your coop so the chickens don't have to go sleding?

 

[patandchickens]

The ideal situation would be a windbreak on the upwind side of the coop (or multiple sides if there is no one upwind side -- I'm in a rather windy location too, tho not as bad as yours, so I can *sorta* relate

).

Failing that, your best bet is vents on three or four sides of the coop so you can close all but the day's "mostly-downwind" side, and then some sort of baffle over the vent to reduce windspeed. A hood (like they use over livestock-barn ventilation fans, you know?) might be sufficient; or you might need something more, either added to the open part of the hood or differently-engineered, to further slow the wind. There are too many options to list here; my suggestion would be that you experiment with it. You've got the early part of winter to fiddle around with different arrangements before the REAL cold arrives, by which time you will probalby have it worked out

Another thing to consider, if the problem is really intractable, is to build a wide shelf or ledge under the vent opening, on the INSIDE of the coop, to catch most of whatever snow blows in. Then you can sweep it off every day and remove it from the coop, as opposed to it landing on the bedding and making the bedding chronically damp. I would not plan on this as a *primary* defense but as a "tidying up the loose ends" type solution I've seen it work pretty well in a small horse barn and I bet it would work in a coop too.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[bantiebabe1200]

That sounds like a great idea!

The vents on all four sides with a large shelf might actually make a huge difference in my situation. I'll look into vents that close also so that I can control the way the coop vents from day to day. I think the wind break idea is a hard one for us though. I'll look into it but I'm almost betting on it making a great big drift. Thanks for the great advice on this so I can get a start on my coop without as much concern.