Help with vents

[Splinty]

Hi!! I'm new to chickens and I want to do right by them. My husband is going to make a tractor for them to live in soon and we are not sure where to place the vents. Our tractor will be 3 x 3 x 3 for their sleeping area, 3 feet wide, 7 feet long and 6 feet tall for their run. He was going to put two vents on top across from each other and then one lower vent on a side wall. Should he continue with this plan? Any help would be appreciated. Thank You!!

 

[spike844]

What you say sounds like it will be fine. If it is going to be like a triangle as the top ( sleeping area) you can out vent holes in the tops of the triangle, But this might be what you are doing already.

-Noah

 

[Splinty]

My husband is going to make their sleeping area square not a triangle. Their sleeping area will be raised off the floor 3 feet up on stilts. We were going to hang their feed and water under the coop. Is that ok to do?

 

[bryan99705]

So far it sounds fine for 2 birds. You don't say where you are but as long as the birds are draft free and dry you should be fine. How about an outside mounted adjustable cover over the vents, if you are in a windy area, so you can adjust the air flow to keep the birds out of the draft while venting off the moisture and ammonia fumes

 

[Splinty]

Our tractor is going to have 3 chicks living in it. 1 barred rock, 1 buff orph & 1 white rock. My husband was going to use heating floor vents this way if it gets windy we can close then a little. If these are not good to use can someone tell me what is? Thank You

 

[spike844]

Putting the water and food under the coops is fine. The heating floor vents sound like a good idea. Just make sure there is no draft, maybe you could make it where you close them all the way in the winter.

-Noah

 

[patandchickens]

What you describe sounds good to me, for 3 chickens, as long as the vents are pretty large but at least somewhat protected by roof overhangs and you have some mechanism to close some of them down or shut them entirely. In wintertime you will probably want only one vent open, the one that opens to the roofed run, and have that positioned downwind and perhaps with plastic staplegunned to 3 or 3 1/2 sides of the run as well.

Floor heating registers are pretty small though. I'd go with something larger, especially for summertime use. You don't need to buy anything prefab, just cut an opening and cover securely with hardwarecloth and there ya go

If you are in a warm part of NY such as NYC or LI, water and food outside might be ok; but in the rest of the state you will want them indoors in wintertime. I would suggest designing wall-mounted waterer and feeder so you don't lose floorspace unnecessarily.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Splinty]

Thank You so much Pat. We live on Long Island. Does he need to put vents across from each other to get a cross ventilation or just the 1 facing the run area under the roof? He is going to cover the entire run roof with plywood to protect them from rain/snow. He was going to put another vent on the bottom of a side wall. It would be under the roost. Does he need to do that? Are we doing too many vents? I'm trying to keep all types of weather in mind.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
For summertime you will want a crossbreeze (and I still think you may want at least one of your vents much much bigger, like window-sized, for summertime)

For winter, in the cold weather (although it is not like LI gets *so* cold) you will probably want to close all but the downwind/covered-by-run-roof vent. You need less venting in cold weather for a variety of reasons.

He is going to cover the entire run roof with plywood to protect them from rain/snow.

That's a good plan.

He was going to put another vent on the bottom of a side wall. It would be under the roost. Does he need to do that?

I would not do it that way myself -- I *had* low vents in the side walls of my original tractor but you know what they didn't really do much if any good and made it a terrible whirlwind in there when the wind would kick up (b/c of being down at bedding level). IMO you get much much more "bang for your buck" having a large window-size or most-of-wall size vent. It just does a lot more good. Put it where it'll be sheltered a bit from W storm winds, and sheltered a bit from rain by roof overhang or etc, and the coop will stay nice and cool in summer. Then you can close that off when it gets col.d

Are we doing too many vents? I'm trying to keep all types of weather in mind.

Nope, not too many at all, I'm not sure there is such a thing

(You can certainly, in some situations, have too much ventilation OPEN, i.e. b/c you are freeze-drying your chickens in January cold winds; but of course a sensible person just CLOSES whatever vents they need to close under a particular set of conditions). It's a matter of personal taste but me I'd rather build the coop to be easily manageable no matter what conditions you get, rather than repeatedly discovering you have to quick modify it before your chickens get frostbite or heatstroke.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat​

 

[Splinty]

Thank You again Pat. I read your link you posted, thank you. I told my husband about the heating vents and one he is just going to cut out the vents and use hard wire to keep critters out. I will let him know about the lower vent. He is going to insulate the sleeping area. Maybe 2 vent openings up top across from each other (1 facing the run, 1 facing the back door) and how about 1 side wall with a 12 x 12 inch cut in the wall with hard wire on it for summer and he can use plywood to close it up in the winter? I'm sorry for all the questions, we just want to get it right. He is going to build a nesting box on the outside and I didn't think a window above that was good. (when I say window we were not going to use a real glass window)