COLD WEATHER- Ventilation?

[Welshies]

We've had a low of -52°F a few days ago, excluding windchill. My coop is 6x8, and I have 5 adults in it. 5 10 week old babies, segregated under a heat lamp in a dog kennel. After 4 fatalities I've decided to actually use a radiant heater to heat my coop. However, here's my ventilation:

6" by 8 feet. Now, it's at the highest point. I've still had frostbite. Last year my roo in a 3 sided coop lost his entire comb from just the cold.
We live in the rockies. It'll be -45°F tomorrow. Without windchill.
After placing the heater in there, frankly I'm not sure what to do. I've always followed the rule of thumb to leave my coop open, and I air it out during the day. But my birds are perishing. Now that I have a heater should I close up 4 out of 6 of those vents? Maybe use plastic gently draped over them, or something (versus actually building a mini door to close over them). I need to close the heat in, and my SO and my dad have been telling me the same. After much consideration I've finally relented to the idea that what works for you US folks just can't work for me.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I personally close off most of my vents, and windows, especially to the prevailing winds side. My bantam coop gets closed up with door cracks considered my ventilation. I see zero frostbite in it. My large shed has an open door facing east, and a flapped door facing south. Plenty of ventilation but I will see frostbite on multiple birds, and they look colder.

My advice is close stuff up, but not enough that there's a buildup of moisture, or fumes from the manure. You will definitely need to figure what that is for your particular situation.

Our lowest temperatures tend to run in the -20's with an occasional -30. Your temperatures may be too low for chickens to be okay without extra heat. I personally wouldn't be keeping young birds in that low of temperatures.

Your situation is way different than most keepers in America, so finding other Canadians on this site to help you would be a good idea to see what works for them.

I'm in Wisconsin, I can't really take advice from people more south than me because they don't experience what I do. They can only share what works for them, but it probably won't work for me.

 

[Welshies]

I personally close off most of my vents, and windows, especially to the prevailing winds side. My bantam coop gets closed up with door cracks considered my ventilation. I see zero frostbite in it. My large shed has an open door facing east, and a flapped door facing south. Plenty of ventilation but I will see frostbite on multiple birds, and they look colder.

My advice is close stuff up, but not enough that there's a buildup of moisture, or fumes from the manure. You will definitely need to figure what that is for your particular situation.

Our lowest temperatures tend to run in the -20's with an occasional -30. Your temperatures may be too low for chickens to be okay without extra heat. I personally wouldn't be keeping young birds in that low of temperatures.

Your situation is way different than most keepers in America, so finding other Canadians on this site to help you would be a good idea to see what works for them.

I'm in Wisconsin, I can't really take advice from people more south than me because they don't experience what I do. They can only share what works for them, but it probably won't work for me.

Interesting!
I'm not sure what the best material to close it up would be. I hatched my young birds in October in +20°C... It snows all year round here, and unfortunately I didn't know that the winter would be so bitterly cold. I was unprepared for 10 week old birds in -30° temps.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I might use some plexiglass or clear roof panels to still let in light. We actually use them a lot.

I don't think I would want to keep chickens in that type of climate, I would always feel bad for them, heck I wouldn't want to keep myself in it either. Wisconsin is cold enough for me.

 

[lcwmt]

Interesting!
I'm not sure what the best material to close it up would be. I hatched my young birds in October in +20°C... It snows all year round here, and unfortunately I didn't know that the winter would be so bitterly cold. I was unprepared for 10 week old birds in -30° temps.

I'm in Montana USA. South of you but similar weather patterns I think. We selected bird breeds based on cold hardiness [so of course they had a rough go when it was triple digits above zero back in July ]

I'm not dealing with young birds - that presents a set of challenges for sure. Yours is not an enviable position right now. 10 weeks is young for adapting to extremes, IMO. I'm sure you are doing all you can! good luck.

We do get 30 below, F. Our coop is not insulated. We do not run supplemental heat or light. The water dish is a heated dog water bowl, same as we use for the birds we feed. It works (and should the electric go out, we can deliver liquid water as needed).

The ventilation in the coop looks like yours: 6-8" just below the eaves. Ours runs both on the North and South walls.
***On the North wall we baffle the opening with wool blanket - it keeps wind and snow out, and allows for air exchange.
So far, so good, this year. We had three weeks of double digits below zero. The girls quit laying, did not look happy, would not leave the coop. Now it's 60 degrees warmer and they are out in the snow, pecking about. Who knows what the next weather system will bring.

 

[TalkALittle]

At those temps I'd heat too. I'm in New England and we just had a long stretch of below 0 temps and I put a flat panel heater in on the coldest of those nights.

I wouldn't close off 4 of the 6 as you suggested. I'd close of the bottom half of all of them. That way you don't end up with a bank of moist air collecting at the roof.

 

[Welshies]

At those temps I'd heat too. I'm in New England and we just had a long stretch of below 0 temps and I put a flat panel heater in on the coldest of those nights.

I wouldn't close off 4 of the 6 as you suggested. I'd close of the bottom half of all of them. That way you don't end up with a bank of moist air collecting at the roof.

Hmmm, good idea.

 

[Howard E]

This stuff was all known and discussed by the chicken guys 100 years ago.

There are three bad things that accumulate in a closed up chicken house in winter. Moisture, ammonia and CO2. Ventilation is the key to ridding the house of all three of these.

Moisture and ammonia move up and out. CO2 is the silent killer. It accumulates down low on the floor. Get that wrong and birds down low die from it. So you need to maintain both high and low vents. To duplicate what the old timers did, you could put in something like a soffit vent down low. You already have vents up high, but how much do you need? That may be up to you to find out.

Best way to go about this would be to get some instruments in there. One to measure humidity levels and another temperature. There was a thread about this last winter and one guy from your neck of the woods monitored it and found he could get humidity levels lower inside than out, plus a heat gain of about 10 degrees or so. As I recall, he did it by adjusting the amount of ventilation.

Lacking feedback from instruments, I would start out by closing all but two of those top vents. If you don't see signs of moisture, close another. What are signs of moisture? Frost on surfaces exposed to the outside....or on the birds themselves. Keep adjusting until you don't see any more signs of moisture and leave it there to monitor. The fact that you have supplemental heat going will help keep things drier than they would without it.

BTW, where are the windows?

 

[Welshies]

This stuff was all known and discussed by the chicken guys 100 years ago.

There are three bad things that accumulate in a closed up chicken house in winter. Moisture, ammonia and CO2. Ventilation is the key to ridding the house of all three of these.

Moisture and ammonia move up and out. CO2 is the silent killer. It accumulates down low on the floor. Get that wrong and birds down low die from it. So you need to maintain both high and low vents. To duplicate what the old timers did, you could put in something like a soffit vent down low. You already have vents up high, but how much do you need? That may be up to you to find out.

Best way to go about this would be to get some instruments in there. One to measure humidity levels and another temperature. There was a thread about this last winter and one guy from your neck of the woods monitored it and found he could get humidity levels lower inside than out, plus a heat gain of about 10 degrees or so. As I recall, he did it by adjusting the amount of ventilation.

Lacking feedback from instruments, I would start out by closing all but two of those top vents. If you don't see signs of moisture, close another. What are signs of moisture? Frost on surfaces exposed to the outside....or on the birds themselves. Keep adjusting until you don't see any more signs of moisture and leave it there to monitor. The fact that you have supplemental heat going will help keep things drier than they would without it.

BTW, where are the windows?

On the back.

 

[Howard E]

Which side faces south to the winter sun?

Which side faces the direction of the winter winds?