chicken door opening and ventilation

[tom evers]

we just got 6 baby chicks and im in the process of building the coop. the coop dimentions are 8foot by 5. would 14 by 14 inches be big enough for the chicken door, the chickens are all hens and the bigest will probobly be a new jersy giant.
how much ventilation should i have in the winter, the eaves will all be open and covered with chicken wire. should i close off some of these in the winter months. we live in northeast ohio.

 

[ChickensInTheNorthWoods]

I have jersey giants - my chicken door is 9" wide and 12" tall. They are able to go through with room to spare. As far as the ventilation is is going to depend on how air tight your coop is - I am unsure about the weather conditions in Ohio - hopefully someone in your area will be able to help.

 

[BantyRooster]

First of all, welcome to the forum! You'll find a wealth of info here.

To try to answer your questions:

A 14 x 14 door is plenty big.

Eve vents work great. I would seriously use hardware cloth for covering the vent, as opposed to the chicken wire. I coon can go thru chicken wire fairly easy.

In the winter you may want to use some plastic sheeting to close up some of the vents to help keep some heat in, depending on the size of your overhang/eve opening. You definately need ventilation, but dont want excessive drafts in your coop. I wish I could be more specific, but with out seeing your set up it's hard to.

There is an excellent post here on ventilation. I will find the post and attatch a link for you.

Mike

 

[patandchickens]

You will definitely need a lot more ventilation in the summer than winter, thus yes you will need to be able to close some off. Because of winter storms I'd suggest being able to close *all* of your vents, not because you'll often (if ever) want them all closed at once but so you will always be able to close the upwind side(s) no matter which direction a winter storm is coming from.

I would suggest some very large, oversized-window sized openings (screened with ahrdwarecloth, and closeable with weatherstripped panels) for maximizing summer cooling; and also have some good-sized vents up under the eaves on as many sides as possible, perhaps 6-12" high and most of the length of the wall, with flaps that can close them down entirely or partially as the weather requires. These latter vents will be what you rely on in wintertime. Without sufficient winter ventilation, you get humid air in the coop and lots of frostbite even at relatively mild temperatures.

(e.t.a. - for more discussion of ventilation see the link in my .sig below)

Good luck, have fun,

Pat, who lived in SW OH for a while

 

[BantyRooster]

Well there ya go, that's the gal who wrote the post I was refering to.

Ask away. There are plenty of folks on here willing and more than able to help answer all your questions.

 

[tom evers]

thanks for all the help, you answered all my questions and then some. as soon as i can figure out how to get pictures that dont come out blurry on my home page i will post pictures of my progress. right now the roof, floor, and framing of the walls are done. baby chicks seem to be growing by the minuet.

 

[CityChook]

from MN!

You've gotten some great advice so far. I have vents in the gables that I can close when temps don't come up to 0 as well as ridgecap/soffet vents that are obviously open year-round. I also have open windows in the summer, but they are closed and sealed for the winters here in MN.

Just so you know, you can ALWAYS do a subject search (see the blue bar above) and find TONS of information. And of course, we BYC people love to help.

good luck!