post your chicken coop pictures here!

[MeepBeep]

You can't really see it here, but there is ventilation under the soffits. Enough to vent, but not too much for our cold winters. The windows all prop open for warmer months.

Even in extreme cold, you really can't have too much ventilation, you just want to avoid drafts... It's the lack of ventilation that causes exponentially more health issues then cold temps for most breeds of chicken...

You should have about 1 square foot of permanent ventilation per bird, so in your case about 6 sqft of vents, the soffits don't appear anywhere near that amount of area...

You might want to consider some roof jack vents or possibly a dormer style or cupola style vent for the roof...

 

[BertieBott]

Even in extreme cold, you really can't have too much ventilation, you just want to avoid drafts... It's the lack of ventilation that causes exponentially more health issues then cold temps for most breeds of chicken...

You should have about 1 square foot of permanent ventilation per bird, so in your case about 6 sqft of vents, the soffits don't appear anywhere near that amount of area...

You might want to consider some roof jack vents or possibly a dormer style or cupola style vent for the roof...

There is about a 2" gap all the way around the house where the soffit meets the roof. The roof overhang should prevent the drafts & it is up quite high since the coop is 8' in the front and 7' in the back. Is this really not enough venting?

 

[cavemanrich]

There is about a 2" gap all the way around the house where the soffit meets the roof. The roof overhang should prevent the drafts & it is up quite high since the coop is 8' in the front and 7' in the back. Is this really not enough venting?

Here is the math. 10 +10+8 +8 + 36 36 X 12 = 432 432 X 2 = 864 square inches. Now divide by 144 (1 square foot) equals 6 square feet. So you do have the venting required of 6 square feet. You should have the following feeling.



BTW..

WISHING YOU BEST

 

[BertieBott]

Here is the math. 10 +10+8 +8 + 36 36 X 12 = 432 432 X 2 = 864 square inches. Now divide by 144 (1 square foot) equals 6 square feet. So you do have the venting required of 6 square feet. You should have the following feeling.



BTW..

WISHING YOU BEST

Excellent, thank you so much for all your help!

 

[Beekissed]

Hate to burst that bubble, but that math doesn't mean diddly if you want to do deep litter in the coop. Take any supposed calculations about "adequate" venting and times it by 10 and you just might have enough ventilation to have deep litter and, beyond that, to prevent frostbite issues during the winter months, deep litter or not.

That coop is mighty cute but I'd open up venting all along that roof across the front...easily done by the use of heat vents, as they are cheaply found and easy to adjust and install. And then I'd do the same about a foot or so above floor level in a couple places. Good air in the bottom, bad air and humidity out the top.

Heating vents...look nice, adjustable, predator proof, don't cost much.

 

[bruceha2000]

Plus, if ALL the ventilation area is up top, you aren't actually going to exchange much of the air in the coop. It needs someplace to come in before it can go out. Coops really need some openings down low so the warm moist ammonia ladened air can move up and out.

I've been Blooied!

 

[BertieBott]

Hate to burst that bubble, but that math doesn't mean diddly if you want to do deep litter in the coop. Take any supposed calculations about "adequate" venting and times it by 10 and you just might have enough ventilation to have deep litter and, beyond that, to prevent frostbite issues during the winter months, deep litter or not.

That coop is mighty cute but I'd open up venting all along that roof across the front...easily done by the use of heat vents, as they are cheaply found and easy to adjust and install. And then I'd do the same about a foot or so above floor level in a couple places. Good air in the bottom, bad air and humidity out the top.

Heating vents...look nice, adjustable, predator proof, don't cost much.

Please forgive my ignorance on this subject, but is there any reason why I can't just open a window? They are covered with hardware cloth, so they are predator proof. One in particular would be protected from winds, and would just vent.

 

[bruceha2000]

Assuming the roosts are in the back, not crossing front to back, yes you can open those side windows. There shouldn't be any significant airflow over the birds on the roosts. It would certainly help get more incoming air in the coop.

 

[BertieBott]

Growing up we had 100+ chickens at a time and they lived in a metal building with a dirt (straw covered) floor, so this is all very foreign to me as our chickens were fine. I'm a little disheartened hearing that this coop we put a lot of time, thought, and money into is less than adequate for our 6 chickens.

 

[Beekissed]

Please forgive my ignorance on this subject, but is there any reason why I can't just open a window? They are covered with hardware cloth, so they are predator proof. One in particular would be protected from winds, and would just vent.

Sure could...I'd leave one open all winter. But, you'll never know what ventilation you'll need until you get to that point, especially for summer and winter nights...the humidity and temps do crazy things then and you'll want air moving passively through and that's hard to do with all the ventilation at one level in the coop...unless you were planning on keeping your pop door open 24/7? That would help move air.

Growing up we had 100+ chickens at a time and they lived in a metal building with a dirt (straw covered) floor, so this is all very foreign to me as our chickens were fine. I'm a little disheartened hearing that this coop we put a lot of time, thought, and money into is less than adequate for our 6 chickens.

That metal building was probably pretty tall? Tall and bigger structures like barns and such don't have to worry quite so much about ventilation issues...they tend to have their own airflow created by all that space, though they too need airflow when packed with thousands of birds like they do in commercial setups.

That coop is very sweet and pretty, so don't get discouraged, and it may do just fine...you'll never know until you actually use it and you don't have many birds at all, so it may not even be an issue.

But folks around here know that 6 birds quite often turn into 12 birds in a short time on BYC and they also have learned that what seemed like good ventilation at first often failed the test when hard weather sets in, so they often tell folks to err on the side of caution when creating ventilation. Much more difficult to be fiddling with the coop in the dead of winter, trying to get that ammonia smell to dissipate, than it is to just create options beforehand.

Only you can tell if what you have built will stand the test of time, so you can take all advice and file it for the future...if you start having issues with frostbite, bad smells, etc. you can remember what folks said here. If you never have those problems, then you'll know that what you've created is exactly right for your weather/stocking rates/humidity levels, etc.

I think it's very pretty, BTW....love the colors you've chosen!