Coop Ventilation

[fototek1]

I am in the process of building my coop. It is 5'x8' and has 5"x 8' windows (that dont open)installed high and on one side (there is a roost bar 8' long installed 10" below the window). I also made 4 nest boxes on the side opposite the windows. If I knew how to send photos I would........Okay now my questions...... So I put a small soffit vent in one side that is 2"x8'. I was also thinking about adding a vent low and on the opposite side of the coop, It would be located just under the nest boxes. Should I do it this way or not? Should I add another vent high on opposite side of current soffit? Do I need more windows?

She loves the chicks. I wonder what she will think when they get older.

This is where the nesting boxes will be and the wall is going to flip down (easier than roof flipping up in the winter) I was planning to add ventilation under the nest boxes

This is the venting that is in the sofit. It is just above the windows.

Any Critique is welcomed and appreciated.
Thanks
Scott

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Can you tell us where you live, so we can get an idea of your summer and winter weather?

 

[Ridgerunner]

How to post pictures/avatar
http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=26838

 

[fototek1]

I live in New Hampshire

 

[fototek1]

Photos are now up. So what do you think? Should I just have 2" soffit vents on the two sides? I also have to build the Roost which is going to be 3' off the floor. Can I just have a roost at 18" and then the one at 36"? Will the chickens jump/fly from floor to roost? I am not sure how to build a ladder to get up to the 3' roost from the floor since it would be very steep.........It is hard for me to visualize space when I just have things drawn on paper.

 

[patandchickens]

Gee, that seems like you may find it a rather awkward design to operate but it's what you got (and it does *look* cute

) so hopefully I am mistaken in my misgivings.

If you put it in a shaded location, and don't get real hot summer days where you are, you may get away with just your soffit (but see below) plus some other vent somewhere, e.g. what you propose. If it will be sitting in the sun, though, I suspect it is going to get *real* hot in there without quite a lot more ventilation.

I would suggest removing that vented soffit material, at least for summertime, because it seriously decreases the amount of airflow you get and in summer believe me you're going to need ALL you can obtain. Still have hardwarecloth there, obviously.

It may have some real advantages in wintertime, though, since you are forced to have the wintertime vents right over the roost. THis is not generally a good setup -- you may end up wanting to close off one half (or so) of it during the coldest part of winter, so the chickens can all squish down to that end of the roost and not be directly in the cold draft -- but although the "holey" soffit material will seriously impede airflow it will at least decrease the strength of the draft falling on the chickens. You'll want the coop facing so that the vented soffit is on the usually-downwind side.

You may have problems with all those leetle holes frosting up, though, depending how humid your coop is. I would suggest doing everything humanly possible to make the coop as dry as possible during wintertime because I worry about humidity/frostbite risks.

Is there some sort of intermediate 'step' to help them get up on the roost, or how are they supposed to get up there?

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[fototek1]

The Coop will be in a shaded area and will never be hit by direct sun except in the winter when there are no leaves on the trees?
I don't understand how to vent and not have drafts. Should I put a ridge vent on roof? Gable end vents? Vent near floor to allow cool air in and warm air to go out soffit? Are there any photos and how to vent articles you can point me to? I keep reading make sure you have good ventilation but I can't see any great examples of good ventilation.
My coop is still open on both gable ends and I can add ventilation there.

I was going for the nice looking and functional coop but apparently I am failing on the functional side. This is not good. I am in a spot now where I can still make changes but I am not sure what I should do.

 

[Monk]

Ventilation wise??? But I would put a good size window to the right of the nesting boxes. It would provide ventilation and additional lighting. Winter time you could face this window to the south to take advantage of some of the solar type heating. The sun would warm up the nesting boxes a little too, maybe??? Regardless very unique coop and a nice job!

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Ok, then you may be in good shape for the summer, although I'd for sure definitely add the second vent you described.

I don't understand how to vent and not have drafts.

In general, the principle is to have the air coming in slowly and not right onto the chickens. In wintertime, what works best is to have a long vent atop at least the downwind walls.

In your particular coop, however, that is going to be real real difficult to achieve, because the coop is very tall and narrow and pretty much the entire upper half is right over or adjacent to the roosts. Meaning there is no way to get rid of that warmed, maximally-humid air without *also* dumping cold air directly on sleeping chickens. You'd almost have to vent one gable end heavily, and then move all the roost footage to the opposite end, and I don't know how feasible that is.

Realistically, you can probably make it work to a reasonable degree, it just may involve a bit of experimentation and perhaps more-intensive management. Some options include decreasing # chickens; changing the roost so it is several parallel roosts all in one half (or 2/3) of the coop, and putting in a big gable vent at the other end; opening vents only during daytime and seeing if you can get away with having them closed at night; and/or very intensive coop cleaning (unfortunately I don't offhand see how to put a droppings board in there, but if you *could* it would help quite a lot).

Vent near floor to allow cool air in and warm air to go out soffit?

This is ok during summer (although a great big nearly-whole-wall opening is even BETTER), but DO NOT have a low vent open during a NH winter

Are there any photos and how to vent articles you can point me to? I keep reading make sure you have good ventilation but I can't see any great examples of good ventilation.

Look at the coop design pages, there are all sorts of examples there but quite a lot of them are pretty well-designed. Your difficulty is not really your ventilation, though, unfortunately, so much as the overall shape of your coop combined with living in NH (it would be great for a shady location in a *hot* climate though. Maybe you could move to California? LOL)

Good luck, have fun,

Pat​

 

[goldnchocolate]

I think that you may need more windows that open. Without more window space it will get super hot in there during the summer. My chickens have more problems dealing with summer heat than they do dealing with the cold.

Here is a good article for you to read:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1642-VENTILATION