How much ventilation?

[fmernyer]

I don't know the proper terms for construction - er - stuff - so I apologize ahead of time for any confusion I cause....

I want to know how much ventilation to include when building my coop. Its going to be roughly 40sqft give or take. (we definitely have 6 chicks...might be taking on 2 more...and round up for good measure)

I imagine a lot of answers will be 'as much as you can' but my dh is afraid that we'll compromise *heat* for airflow. Something that could be a problem during a Connecticut winter.

*I'm* thinking that we're better erring on the side of 'too much' because we can always block or cover up a vent if it's too much - and that would be easier than sawing a hole in a finished coop if we find we made a miscalculation.

**BUT** - dh is NOT a carpenter - and the less 'fancy things' we have to include - the better. (admittedly he's not an animal person and doesn't inherently understand good airflow = health - we're teaching him). So yeah - err on the side of too much but overkill is a relative term so what are we talkin' here?

We're thinking that our coop walls will be higher on one side than the other - creating the sloped roof. To support the roof we'd have to put 2x4's across the top of the structure before laying the roof. Like a house or a shed - there'd be a space in between the walls and the roof created by the 2x4's...

So he's wondering #1 (after covering up for critters, of course) would that be ventilation enough? Or would we have to include ventilation more towards the middle of the walls to create a cross breeze of some sort.

which brings us to #2 IF WE DO have to include more vents - how do I distinguish 'good airflow' from 'drafty'. I have some ideas but I don't want to muddle the thread just yet.

Thank you all! Such a wonderful resource and the few times I've researched elsewhere I get pointed back here!!

~Dawn

 

[Ridgerunner]

Here is something Beekissed wrote about it recently in another thread.

•Insulated, closed coop structures with poor air flow. For some reason, many people on this forum equate chicks/chickens with children/humans. They want those chickens to be in a toasty warm house during the colder months and they feel they will "catch" illnesses if they are not. At the very least, they won't "produce well" if you don't keep them warm. Chickens were created with their house on their backs, just like wild birds. Yes, in extreme cold climates chickens may need some extra measures but I find the healthiest flocks are those that have very ventilated and even open air housing. Also, for some weird reason, people are going by what they read in books as being the guidelines for proper ventilation when every single coop is different, according to where it is standing. Wind currents are different in every single yard, field, etc. Whereas one coop with little vents near the roofline and some near the floor just may be a well-ventilated coop, another will stand there without a single, small current coming through or flowing out of the coop....it's all relative to climate, coop, area of the coop, seasons, etc. A coop really can't have too much ventilation as long as the birds aren't subject to cold winds blowing directly on them with no way of escaping it. A coop really doesn't need insulation at all unless it is under the roof to keep out heat or hold heat in.

Cold is not your enemy. Heat and bad air is. Chickens wear a down coat year round. The danger from cold is frostbite, not them freezing to death. High humidity in the coop can cause frostbite at just below freezing, but if the humidity is not high, they are fine in temperatures below zero.

What I suggest is that you leave the area under the overhangs on both ends open and cover it with hardware cloth like you planned. That will keep the rain out and provide airflow. This should be permanently left open. Put your roosts low enough so they are not in the cross airflow. This is good airflow instead of drafty air flow.

You can, if you wish, put vents on the other two walls. You can get louvers form Lowe’s or Home Depot that will work to keep the rain out. Just put them up high enough so no cross breeze is created where they are sleeping. Whether you need something like this or not kind of depends on your prevalent wind directions. In Connecticut, you can get some pretty warm days, but you generally have nice nights. The heat issue is mostly at night when they are sleeping. You don’t have the nighttime heat issues many of us further south do.

For the summer, provide other ventilation lower down, at or below where they are roosting. A warm breeze hitting them won’t hurt them. There are a lot of different ways to do this, usually involving windows and openings covered with hardware cloth.

 

[fmernyer]

Oh thank you so much - so informative - really!

1. So I will put vents on the other walls in order to get some airflow - (I will take into consideration where we are placing the coop) - and I'm wondering what kind - louvres like you mentioned - or I was originally thinking about small screens that could be shuttered close, if necessary. Is this overkill or unnecessary? Forgive me if I'm asking the same question different ways (that you've already answered)...but I see a lot of coop pictures and they're either REALLY OPEN or have no windows/ventilation at all. Even considering climate and placement of the coop - it seems odd that they are just a closed box. Or is the ventilation cleverly hidden?

2. What about windows? Small basement like windows? Allowing light? With a (heavy duty/heavy gauge wire) screen so it would double as ventilation? Is this something that would make the chickens happy? Or is a dark place (for the amount of time they'll be in there) what they want? The nesting boxes will be dark regardless and I plan on including a run and letting the free range whenever possible.

Thank you!!!

 

[amenfarm]

On the windows question, remember that sunlight is your friend!! It kills alot of fungus and bacteria before it gets out of hand and is important for making vitamin D. Any/ all openings in our coop get a screening of hardware cloth, mounted with washers and screws. When we move over the playhouse to convert into a coop there will be vents/or windows in every wall and a least 2 low down that can be shut in winter time. Humid conditions in a winter time coop is what you want to avoid, not just with chickens- any livestock suffers in humid freezing conditions, besides waste builds up a ammonia gas which weakens the lungs through enough exposure. We have windows in our barn, 1 or 2 I wish were somewhere else but for the most part when it's hot here I can always slide open a window for extra ventilation.

 

[fmernyer]

I agree! Thank you for helping me hash that out!

 

[amenfarm]

Well, I'm new to Me keeping chickens, but my grandfather kept them for years. Everyone has a learning curve, that's why I've been reading about coop set-ups-- the poop deck I copied from thespoiledchicken has saved me a lot of work and smells so much better in the temporary coop. I'm down to spent 5 to 10min. per day on maintaining the coop and 20/30 minutes once a week to sanitize everything and reinstall the feeders/water font.

 

[fmernyer]

By poop deck you mean poop trays? I've been downloading pictures of them and thinking about how we can include them in ours. How high are your roosts and where are the poop trays in relation to them?

 

[amenfarm]

Poop board convert *warning-graphic/gross poop... this is the thread where I got the idea, they have sizes and heights listed ( my roost is 10 inches from the base of the poop deck, 2 5 gallon bucket height off the floor--I have to be home to get correct measurements) and No, it's not a poop tray, more like a over-sized kitty litter box with a roost down the middle. Mine is 3 inches deep and filled with 1 bag of stall freshener sweetPDZ, I scoop the poo with a large kitty litter scooper every morning.The sweetPDZ breaks down the ammonia instantly, so the dreaded chicken manure smell is no more. The girls turn the floor litter over every day in exchange for a handful of Black oil sunflower seeds (BOSS), or scratch. My husband worked as a teen in a layer house and fought to NOT have chickens. I had to do a lot of research to change his mind, a years worth, I think the smell was the biggest draw back to his wanting them.

 

[fmernyer]

I've just been over to that link looking at her coop pictures! I like the idea of the large surface to catch all the poop and even more - the fact that they are so wide she has the food and water hanging under it - definitely makes for more space in the coop!!

The only other way I could wrap my mind around it was a removable roost with a shelf bracket a few inches under it and trays set on that - both could be removed, scraped, disinfected and returned...only they'd have to be pretty wide in order for the space underneath to be useful for food or resting.

Thank you!

 

[amenfarm]

I liked it for almost the same reason, my husbands going to mount the poop deck/roost over the interior openings to the exterior hung nest boxes when we get the play house here and begin to convert it, or hang the feeders under it, possibly both?