chicken coop ventilation

[randy1713]

i am new with raising chickens I have a fully insulated coop 4ft x 12 ft 5.5ft high at highest side, and 4.3 low on lowest side. our winter temps average about 0 degrees to 20 below, how much ventilation do I need for the coop.

 

[patandchickens]

As much as possible. Then you will always have enough available

Seriously, build as much as you can and have it closeable with weatherstripped sliders or hinged flaps, then you can adjust it according to what the weather requires.

I don't know how many chickens you have in there, but a reasonable ballpark # that's likely to be 'enough' would be something like 5-10 square feet total vent area. For wintertime (summertime needs are somewhat different) you will want to make sure that a sufficient amount of this is on the usually-downwind sides of the coop, but the ideal thing is to have vents on at least 3 sides of the coop so that no matter which direction the wind is coming from, you wil be able to open vents downwind. You want your vents at the very top of the walls, ideally protected by the roof overhang, and if some of them are right next to or over the roost, make sure there are sufficient *other* vents elsewhere to get by even with the ones over the roost closed on real cold days.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat