Humidity in the coop

[ND Sue]

What should the RH be in the coop? When I search, all I find are humidity ranges for incubators.
Is there a range to be in or a number that it shouldn't exceed out in the coop?

I finally found a LaCrosse thermometer that tells outside humidity, so I can see the temp and humidity of the coop, here at my desk! I'm excited about that! Now I'll know during the next cold snap at a glance if my coop is ok. They're kind of hard to find! I could only find one model on Ebay, but then found the same thing 8 bucks cheaper at our local farm supply store.

In case anyone is interested, this is the model that tells outdoor humidity, so the sensor can be placed in the coop and the display station at your desk or wherever. Maybe take a look and then check your local farm supply store. The store I found mine at is called Mills Fleet Farm and I think they may be just in MN, ND, Wisconsin and Iowa or SD. But I would think they may also be carried by Gander Mtn or other hunting stores too.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-La-Crosse-T...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item518fcd64d8

So what range do I need the humidity readings to be in?

 

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

I've never read/heard anything about needing to be concerned with the humidity in the coop.

 

[teach1rusl]

I'm happy if it can be maintained at 50% or lower right now (winter time), because when the temps drop, I close off some ventilation. I use an old weather station sensor out there w/the monitor in my house so I can keep an eye on temp and humidity. I'm not sure where I read that, but 50% is what I had in my head. I know Patandchickens has a link that talks about ventilation, so that may be where I saw it??? Look her page up and I bet you'll find something.

 

[patandchickens]

Humidity most certainly is of importance in climates that get cold winters; chickens will get frostbit at much milder temps in humid air than in dry air. Humidity is also of some importance in dryish climates, in the sense that too-dry litter gets unnecessarily dusty.

Commercial chicken barns aim for around 55% relative humidity. For us backyarders I don't think it's crucially important as long as you are staying away from high humidities (75-100% r.h.) and are aware that if your r.h. is real low and the coop is dusty, a spritz of water may fix it for a while.

All hygrometers should be tested using the salt method (see incubating/hatching eggs section of BYC forum for instructions), as both the cheap and fairly-expensive ones are notoriously unreliable out of the box and may be as much as 20%++ inaccurate. THe salt method lets you figure out what correction factor to apply to your particular hygrometer's idiosyncrasies

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[ND Sue]

Thank you for your responses.
Yikes, now that it has been a few hours, it has pretty much settled on 68-69%. That is with the coop door open all day. It has been in the 30's lately, a melting heat wave! So I think with all the snow melting, the humidity is higher than usual. I'll keep an eye on it to see if that is the case!

 

[gsim]

Quote:
What is the situation with your ventilation? I did 1 sq ft for every 4 chooks of permanent full-time 24-7 ventilation. That way I can completely shut all doors and windows on my coop if it is really cold and still safely exhaust the fumes and humidity. That brings me to the next question: Do you have a poop plank and if so, do you scrape & remove it daily?

That will determine a lot about humidity inside the coop. If you are leaving it there and just turning the litter over daily, you will have a source of humidity there. Another thing is, do you water the chooks inside or out. Water spillage will contribute to coop humidity too.