ASD Dad
Chirping
New owner - 11 birds.
One of the #1 things I kept reading about when looking at buying or building a coop was ventilation. I was even going to convert part of our shed into a coop and was told I needed way more ventilation.
Problem I had (still have) is if I see all these "Commercially sold" coops like at TSC, my local feed store, even online - none seem to have much ventilation! They are all fully enclosed boxes with a small access door for the birds, maybe a couple small windows and maybe some venting along the ridgeline or soffits. Maybe on those last two, I have seen plenty that look pretty sealed up.
I also live in nice and toasty and rather humid South Carolina. Plenty of days with heat indexes over 100*. I assumed that more ventilation was better than less so I went all in on ventilation and airflow!
I need to take some photos but what I built is a hoop coop and it mainly just for protection. It is 4 x 8' for my 11 birds. It is wide open inside! Nothing is enclosed. I have 5 roosting bars along with a roosting ladder that they all use. I have a platform as well that is about 30" square in the rear. The top of it is covered about 3/4 of the way with a heavy duty tarp, the rest is open ventilation. The rear is also covered with the tarp. I have ventilation holes near the bottom of the coop on two sides for crossflow. Whole thing is covered in chicken wire (top) and hardware cloth (bottom) with a full sized door in the front.
Is this bad? Do they need that fully enclosed dark space? Do they need more coverage? The birds seem fine with it. They go in voluntarily at dark and I just shut the door (it is open all day). The coop sits inside our large run which is covered on all sides with fencing and has hawk netting over top. They free range in the run all day mostly hanging out in a small garden we have in there just for the birds and then go in and roost when the sun goes down. We have friends on a farm that have No coop at all. Their birds free range all over and they just have some covered nesting boxes along the outside wall of their stables. They have guardian dogs so the only predator is hawks to worry about there.
They were still hot in my coop and I had a box fan running to make more air flow when needed. I cant ventilate it more than it is! It keeps the majority of rain off unless we get a storm and it blows sideways into the coop. It is facing West so the East side is the back covered area.
If this is NOT bad - is this design OK for the winter? It will get cold and we can get snow/ice at times. I know egg production will go away unless we keep them warm and I may revisit that since we would like eggs year round but I didnt know if what I am doing is dangerous or bad for our birds.
One of the #1 things I kept reading about when looking at buying or building a coop was ventilation. I was even going to convert part of our shed into a coop and was told I needed way more ventilation.
Problem I had (still have) is if I see all these "Commercially sold" coops like at TSC, my local feed store, even online - none seem to have much ventilation! They are all fully enclosed boxes with a small access door for the birds, maybe a couple small windows and maybe some venting along the ridgeline or soffits. Maybe on those last two, I have seen plenty that look pretty sealed up.
I also live in nice and toasty and rather humid South Carolina. Plenty of days with heat indexes over 100*. I assumed that more ventilation was better than less so I went all in on ventilation and airflow!
I need to take some photos but what I built is a hoop coop and it mainly just for protection. It is 4 x 8' for my 11 birds. It is wide open inside! Nothing is enclosed. I have 5 roosting bars along with a roosting ladder that they all use. I have a platform as well that is about 30" square in the rear. The top of it is covered about 3/4 of the way with a heavy duty tarp, the rest is open ventilation. The rear is also covered with the tarp. I have ventilation holes near the bottom of the coop on two sides for crossflow. Whole thing is covered in chicken wire (top) and hardware cloth (bottom) with a full sized door in the front.
Is this bad? Do they need that fully enclosed dark space? Do they need more coverage? The birds seem fine with it. They go in voluntarily at dark and I just shut the door (it is open all day). The coop sits inside our large run which is covered on all sides with fencing and has hawk netting over top. They free range in the run all day mostly hanging out in a small garden we have in there just for the birds and then go in and roost when the sun goes down. We have friends on a farm that have No coop at all. Their birds free range all over and they just have some covered nesting boxes along the outside wall of their stables. They have guardian dogs so the only predator is hawks to worry about there.
They were still hot in my coop and I had a box fan running to make more air flow when needed. I cant ventilate it more than it is! It keeps the majority of rain off unless we get a storm and it blows sideways into the coop. It is facing West so the East side is the back covered area.
If this is NOT bad - is this design OK for the winter? It will get cold and we can get snow/ice at times. I know egg production will go away unless we keep them warm and I may revisit that since we would like eggs year round but I didnt know if what I am doing is dangerous or bad for our birds.
