First week in coop

[nuthatched]

This may be a dumb question, but how to keep water from coming in by adding more ventilation up there?

Rain rarely blows sideways, but you can add eaves or a ventilation shielding

 

[BarnyardChaos]

They are 1ft horizontal and vertical. May just be the angle I took the photo from. But I’m thinking I may need the hubby to take it down and put one long bar for them. That seems to be the consensus

Tell hubby we're sorry; it looks like he put a lot of work into that arrangement. Hopefully there's no need to take it down - just add one or two longer bars and let them use the ladder arrangement for access to those longer bars. It would be best to remove the top couple of steps and make their longer bars lower down, so that you can add ventilation high above their heads.

 

[nuthatched]

I have 40 chickens in my coop, with 4 roosting bars 11' long, 3 bars 7' long, and an open cabinet above the bars at one end. Half or more of those birds cram themselves along one top bar and someone invariably falls off. They play musical roosts for some time everyone trying to get on that top bar, before they all settle down for the night on the top 2 bars or in the cabinet. Easily 3/4 of my roosting space goes unused. Go figure.

I have 18 feet of roost bars, they mash themselves into into the corners.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

This may be a dumb question, but how to keep water from coming in by adding more ventilation up there?

You can add louvered vents, so that rain won't blow in. These are available with the option to tilt the louvers, and to match the pitch of your roof.

 

[rosemarythyme]

So i kind of just cut the other 3 but the one that came precut (turned shed into coop) is 10.5x10.5. The one you see below the roost is about the size of the other 3. Not sure exact dimensions. They’re all open 24/7. Just built a little overhang to divert water. And I have 12 birds. The entire coop is 8x8

Ok I see it now. Yes too small, and too low. Some ventilation at or below roost height can be good depending on set up, but you really want most ventilation up high, as ammonia rises, and you want warm, moist air in winter to escape as well.

Coop size is definitely good and the fact that it's a walk-in helps add air volume and gives you vertical space to add ventilation, which helps.

This may be a dumb question, but how to keep water from coming in by adding more ventilation up there?

Top hinged vent covers work well in many set ups. Couple of examples:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/coop-ventilation.1452812/page-2#post-24868607

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...do-members-think.1498249/page-2#post-25025344

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Another idea might be to add some roof turbines or box vents.