Girl built shipping crate coop. Ventilation ???

sillycmoy

Songster
6 Years
Joined
Mar 29, 2013
Messages
1,532
Reaction score
73
Points
153
Location
Utah~Utah County
I'm building another chicken coop out of shipping crates I got for free. I have an awesome regular coop that my DH built, so this one he said I'm on my own. I want to know if this is enough ventilation. Coop size is 6 feet long, 40 inches wide and is 4 feet high, with the roof as pictured 52 inches. I'm going to put the tin wavy metal stuff on the top to protect the roof from the weather. Nothing is attached yet, just wanted to make sure that is enough ventilation or too much ventilation.

I know its not the best looking coop, I've never used power tools till I started this project, so its been a huge learning curve for me. But I'm proud of what I actually was able to build all by myself, and I don't think the chickens are going to judge my handy work.

 
Last edited:
Karen, that’s a little hard to answer. I did a quick look at Provo’s annual temperatures and they get pretty hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Thanks for including your location, at least close enough to give us an idea of what you are working with. That helps.

I’d guess yours are close to the same, depending on your elevation. Look more at the extremes, not average when looking at this. It’s the extremes that cause the big problems. The records I saw were well into triple digits in the summer and maybe -30 Fahrenheit in the winter. Pretty extreme. You must be at elevation.

Heat is your big enemy but that’s cold enough to take precautions in the winter. There are two times that the heat could be the biggest enemy. If your nests are on a hot wall, they could become an oven if they are kind of closed in. If you can, have them on a north or east wall away from the worst sun. If they are in shade well protected from the sun, that’s a lot less of an issue. It doesn’t hurt a thing to have an opening on the nests up high so hot air can escape.

The other time they are trapped in the coop is at night on the roosts. At your elevation, nights probably cool off fairly quickly but the coop needs to cool down. Again, if it is in the shade during the heat of the day, that’s not as big a deal. What I suggest is having another opening down low so cooler air can come in. Hot air rises. You’d be surprised how much air movement you get with just a little difference in elevation in a coop like that.

The precautions I’d take in winter is to have a way to close that opening down low so you don’t develop a breeze to “wind chill” the chickens while they are on the roost. A cooling breeze is nice on them in the heat but mine really don’t like a cold breeze hitting them in the winter. With their down coat, they really can take cold pretty well.

Nice job, by the way. You are exactly right. The chickens don’t care what it looks like, but some people do. That looks a lot better than a whole lot of perfectly good coops I’ve seen.
 
Karen, that’s a little hard to answer. I did a quick look at Provo’s annual temperatures and they get pretty hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Thanks for including your location, at least close enough to give us an idea of what you are working with. That helps.

I’d guess yours are close to the same, depending on your elevation. Look more at the extremes, not average when looking at this. It’s the extremes that cause the big problems. The records I saw were well into triple digits in the summer and maybe -30 Fahrenheit in the winter. Pretty extreme. You must be at elevation.

Heat is your big enemy but that’s cold enough to take precautions in the winter. There are two times that the heat could be the biggest enemy. If your nests are on a hot wall, they could become an oven if they are kind of closed in. If you can, have them on a north or east wall away from the worst sun. If they are in shade well protected from the sun, that’s a lot less of an issue. It doesn’t hurt a thing to have an opening on the nests up high so hot air can escape.

The other time they are trapped in the coop is at night on the roosts. At your elevation, nights probably cool off fairly quickly but the coop needs to cool down. Again, if it is in the shade during the heat of the day, that’s not as big a deal. What I suggest is having another opening down low so cooler air can come in. Hot air rises. You’d be surprised how much air movement you get with just a little difference in elevation in a coop like that.

The precautions I’d take in winter is to have a way to close that opening down low so you don’t develop a breeze to “wind chill” the chickens while they are on the roost. A cooling breeze is nice on them in the heat but mine really don’t like a cold breeze hitting them in the winter. With their down coat, they really can take cold pretty well.

Nice job, by the way. You are exactly right. The chickens don’t care what it looks like, but some people do. That looks a lot better than a whole lot of perfectly good coops I’ve seen.
I guess I should have added the location of this coop. My first coop is actually under my 13 foot high deck. Its a very nice well built coop, that has tons of high ventilation, that we actually close off 1/2 during the winter because I live up in the mountains and when it snows it snows like 18 plus inches. They don't get much snow, rain or wind under our deck, this is why we placed it there. This new coop I really made was because I got 2 Silkies and at first I wanted them all by their selves, but now they get along, so it really doesn't matter. But I still wanted another coop. So when I found these shipping crates they were perfect. So this coop is in our side yard in the free range. It is in the northeast corner of our yard, right up against a 6 foot wooden fence. And it is under a huge, very huge pine tree, that has all the branches cut up to about 7 feet high so the chickens stay out of the tree. I put this coop here, so they are 1 out of the heavy snow. Those pine trees hold snow very well, and there isn't that much snow all year long that gets under those trees. And 2nd its pretty much in the shade 100% of the day. It does get the very tail end of the day light sun, but this is about 6-7pm ish, and it only the tail end of the coop. 3rd, we get tons of wind, and its in the corner of the 6 foot wooden fences, and plus under that tree, there isn't much wind that breaks through in that corner.

I was planning on placing two 5 x 7 inch vents in the back panels, that can be closed in the winter time, and I still need to add the chicken door, which I can leave open in the hot summer, they will be locked in at night though, usually drops down to the 60s at the hottest in the summer. And I need to add the egg collecting door. I was thinking of adding a window on both the long sides as well that can be closed as well.


I just wanted to make sure that 4 inches all the way across 6 feet, also runs down the 2 sides till the point of where it hits the back, was enough ventilation, and its about 2 1/2 feet above the roost. I just want to get the roof attached, and then I can place my wire so nothing can get in and cut out my chicken door, so that why they can move in if they want too. hahaha, I wonder who will move in out of the main coop. I do have a few chicks that are a week old, that I'm planning on making that there home coop. So I might just throw them in there with a light at night when its all done.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom