Draft free, but vented?

[ams3651]

i have vents of a similar size in the picture, they are in the eves under the roof line. Though this winter I had to put a small board on the inside to cover part of the bottom so the wind didnt go straight in.

 

[Sissy]

I too have vents at the top just below the roof line
I hung a second ceiling. tacked in, about 2 ft. from the roof
a tarp so the heat stayed near the ladies and gents
and got no drafts.During our cold months.

 

[lalyswishytail]

Is anyone going to mention any advice on the mesh floor from archangel1003's original design? As I keep saying in every thread I write on, I'm not an expert and I haven't even gotten my first chickens yet. However, a bunch of people advised me that a mesh floor hurts the chickens' feet and that plywood would be much better. Also, mesh lets in an awful lot of cold in the winter!

Someone please confirm or disagree!

 

[waynesgarden]

I have no idea what archangel1003's original design is but I will agree that, in my opinion, wire mesh is not a good choice for flooring in a northern climates. (I've been in Chicago in the winter and you should consider yourself to be in a Northern climate.) True, a wire mesh floor will provide all the ventilation you will ever need, but when your chickens are standing on a wire floor all day at temps hovering around zero, your chickens will wish that you provided a more suitable mens of ventilation for the coop.

In my opinion, wire floors are only suitable for warm climates where the birds are never confined to the coop for any period of time.

Chickens need to be able to stand on a surface that does not involve wires that abnormaly press into their feet. And as I said in other posts, other than eating, pooping and procreating, chickens have only scratching around in the coop litter to keep their little bird brains amused. Why deny them this one little pleasure?

Wayne

 

[patandchickens]

It actually never occurred to me that the wire floor was going to stay, rather than being covered or replaced by plywood

Yeah. Not gonna work in a northern winter. And while some people say their birds are fine with it, in warmer places, I wouldn't see me using it myself, for a variety of reasons, even in summer.

Pat

 

[archangel2003]

If you read it again, you will see that it was a coop located in California and it rarely got cold enough to freeze over night and almost never stays that cold after sun up.

Today in Chicago it was in the low teens, today in that part of ca it was 70 (those miserable bastiges!).

The mesh was rather fine and her chickens did not seem to mind one bit using it to get to the various perches, and a door was never installed at the top of little chicken entrance ramp.

There was a fenced area around the coop that was ample and was going to be made much larger after the coop was finished.

 

[Sissy]

I have a plywood floor and change out
of the soiled wood shavings twice a year works out great. inbetween add more shavings if it get to wet..and i stir it up avery so often.
but i would not have my ladies on wire mash.. its too cold on the bum which I have read needs to be warm to be better layers..

 

[archangel2003]

I am not a chicken coop engineer, at least no yet.

I copied a design that was selling rather well in the area even though the price was higher than I thought any one would pay.

It had 4X4 posts on each corner that were cut to length to match the slope of the ground and set on flat cinder block that were set into the ground so they were flat.

It was made out of plain 3/4 plywood on all sides and top, and had a wire mesh floor.

It was so god awful heavy that once the sides, floor and posts were put together, it was placed where it will stay!
Then the roof, nest boxes, windows, doors and perches were installed.

There were 2 windows, one was removable and had mesh covering it as well, one was on the front, one on the right.

The main access door on the left with the chicken door and ramp next to it.

It was 4 foot wide by 4 foot long and 3 feet tall on the front and 4 feet tall on the back where there was a wall long hatch/door to access the four nests from the taller back wall.

I used home building style of shingle roofing.

I used some left over latex paint she had left over from painting the house and looked as good as the ones the hardware store was selling.

And even though she lived in a upper scale area the local hardware store was also the feed/animal/farm supply store.