Coop Advice-Venting, Insulation & Materials

[wtrsfam4]

We have started building our coop and have decided to use the plans from Ana White's website. We already had a 4x8 base, several 2x4's to get us started, a door and shingles for the roof. Her design calls for the door on the shorter side, but since we are using a regular size door we will be putting the door on the taller side of building. I need advice on venting, if we should insulate and certain building materials. We live in Illinois, so we have hot, humid summers and cold winters, with temps ranging from the teens (sometimes single digits or colder with wind chill) to 100 in the summer.

1. We plan to put 2 windows in which will be north and south facing. These will be open during the summer months, but what would you recommend for venting during the colder months? The door will be on the opposite side of this building from what is shown. A vent on the sides that will be west & east?

2. Insulation. How many of you insulate in the Midwest? The door will be facing the west, which is where most of our wind/weather comes from and we can get some strong winds as we do not have a wind break in our rural area. Do I insulate only that wall? Or do all 4? We don't plan on having a heat lamp out here.

3. We plan to use t1-11 siding on the outside of the building. We have been offered 3x3 panels of metal siding that was used on a machine shed. Would this be ok to use inside of the coop? Would the metal on the inside cause it to get too hot? Our thinking was that it would make cleaning much easier.

4. Nesting boxes on the outside as shown vs inside but with a door to access. Thoughts? Would I need to insulate the nesting boxes if we used them on the outside? Any tips if we hinged from the top to keep water out or is hinging from the side better?

Thanks for any tips!

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

Insulation is unnecessary. Your birds need to be kept dry and away from too strong of a breeze at night. If you do that you do not need to keep them warm. In fact I would continue to leave the windows partially open all winter.
Ideally you should keep your ventilation above where your chickens roost, so if you could just cracked the upper part of your window throughout the winter, closing during storms, you should be good.

 

[ChickenMammX4]

We have started building our coop and have decided to use the plans from Ana White's website. We already had a 4x8 base, several 2x4's to get us started, a door and shingles for the roof. Her design calls for the door on the shorter side, but since we are using a regular size door we will be putting the door on the taller side of building. I need advice on venting, if we should insulate and certain building materials. We live in Illinois, so we have hot, humid summers and cold winters, with temps ranging from the teens (sometimes single digits or colder with wind chill) to 100 in the summer.

1. We plan to put 2 windows in which will be north and south facing. These will be open during the summer months, but what would you recommend for venting during the colder months? The door will be on the opposite side of this building from what is shown. A vent on the sides that will be west & east? The Windows in our coop are also north & south facing. During the cold months we usually close the north window and leave the south facing one open. The Windows are awning-type so it doesn't rain in. There is also a 8" x 18" opening covered with hardware cloth near the roof on the east side and the pop door is open all day. The walk-in door is on the west side, it has a fixed window. 2. Insulation. How many of you insulate in the Midwest? The door will be facing the west, which is where most of our wind/weather comes from and we can get some strong winds as we do not have a wind break in our rural area. Do I insulate only that wall? Or do all 4? We don't plan on having a heat lamp out here. We don't have insulation nor do we heat. 3. We plan to use t1-11 siding on the outside of the building. We have been offered 3x3 panels of metal siding that was used on a machine shed. Would this be ok to use inside of the coop? Would the metal on the inside cause it to get too hot? Our thinking was that it would make cleaning much easier. The west wall is metal sheeting (this was an old shed we retro-fitted for the chickens), it hasn't caused the coop to be excessively hot. 4. Nesting boxes on the outside as shown vs inside but with a door to access. Thoughts? Would I need to insulate the nesting boxes if we used them on the outside? Any tips if we hinged from the top to keep water out or is hinging from the side better? Can't help you there, our boxes are inside. Thanks for any tips!

Hope this helps, welive in SW Ohio so our weather is probably similar.

 

[wtrsfam4]

Thank you both of you for the tips. I appreciate the advice.