How much ventilation ??

[leighks]

The outbuilding we will be using for a coop is about 15'x 15'. We have 6 pullets that will be moving in there soon. We live in a true 4 seasons climate with some hot and humid days w temps in the low-mid 90's and cold snowy winters with lows around 0 with a wind chill up to -15 on the coldest of days.
How much ventilation should we add? Is there a formula to figure out how much we should have?
There are some holes at the top on all 4 sides, but from what I've read that's probably too little.
Anyone have any tips? Thanks!

 

[LizStreithorst]

The cold doesn't hurt them as long as they can stay warm and dry. Where I live I have to worry about too much heat. My coop has two windows. I put a box fan in one during the late spring and summer. It vents to the outside. It keeps the air moving and moving air is cooling.

 

[PD-Riverman]

My coop has a storm type window with hardware cloth--on each side as well as the space between the rafters BUT that space has hardware cloth in them. I open my windows all the way for summer, partly for spring and fall and closed in the winter. They do good, We get in the teens but very rare to see single digits. Let me see if I can find a pic.

 

[Molpet]

minimum of 1 sqft per chicken much more in summer...Great article on VENTILATION, one of THE MOST IMPORTANT aspects of coop design.


I have a 8x 24' cattle panel hoop coop with a tarp over the top/sides.. back is to the north and was mostly covered in the winter, south was completely open all winter.. there are 2 small coop/doghouse inside they did use as a huddle box at -15f before windchill...at 0f they were not in the boxes except the one on a molt. no frostbite

 

[leighks]

Lots of good info, and Thanks for the link!!