Hello! My family and I just got our first chicks a couple of weeks ago. We decided to take our kids' swing set and convert it to our coop. We have removed most of the wood to the frame and hubby has put up a couple of walls on the lower portion. We plan on keeping the lower side wall hardware cloth only, the opposite side open to the run. The top portion will be the coop. It's 5x5 with the roof at 67" at the highest point. When we put up the walls of the coop, how much space should we leave at the top corners of the larger side walls of the coop for cross ventilation? I'm not sure if I'm describing it right. My husband will cut the boards where they don't go all the way up to the corners. There will be 2 triangles on each side at the top. We are planning on using leftover roof shingles, so there will be no overhang. Our questions are: *What height should we leave for the ventilation triangles on each side? *Will we need extra windows, if so, where? *Should we use different roof material for overhang (corrugated plastic)? *Should we have some sort of way to close the vents during our Oklahoma storms? They are quite high up,btw. Thanks so much for your help! This us quite a project we have started! Your help is much appreciated!
Welcome to BYC! Deep roof overhangs can be great for keeping at least ventilation and maybe windows open during rain/snow....seriously consider it. Combo of eave and gable venting would work great with what you have. There's a great article on Ventilation linked in my signature...check it out...the one on Space is good too. Windows are god for extra ventilation, light, and even heat gain in winter. Top hinged so they can stay open during rain in summer is a great way to go. How do you plan to utilize the 2 levels? How many birds do you have? Here's a couple searches that might give you some ideas... read thru a few of the threads found with those. . advanced search>titles only>swing set coop advanced search>titles only>playhouse coop
Thanks so much for your reply! We have 4 girls, 2 buff orpingtons and 2 barred rock. The lower level will just be extra space for them to hang out during the day, extra shade. Right now the roof line is flush against the frame. My husband doesn't want to completely tear it all apart and wants to work with what we have. That's why I'm trying to figure out ventilation with the existing set up.
