post your chicken coop pictures here!

[MeepBeep]

They

The open upper half of these walls will be windows. Do any of you have input as to whether that might be to much light? I had never thought of that, until my dad mentioned it today.

They adore light and IMO you can't have too much, unless it's letting in so much light that it's really driving up the temp inside during hot weather requiring power vents to exhaust it, like in a green house... But, that generally requires a lot more window then you have... But instead of windows, why not just hardware cloth it and have some type of removable shutter like greenhouse panels that can be installed during the winter months to provide a wind break?

 

[gpeters3]

Humidity is a warm air thing. Cold air doesnt hold moisture so if the vents are near the top the heat and humidity should move out. OTOH, cold air sinks and if the vents are in the floor what ever is in tne air should move out as temps drop. Why do commercial coops have exhaust fans? They obviously want to control how and when air moves.

I put my windows above the roost height primarily to keep the coop cooler in warm weather. I have cross ventilation above the nest boxes and roosts. If you want the hot air out you have to have air movement but if it is not in line with the birds then its not a draft, is it? Drafts are air currents that affect living things, right? Im thinking you need vents above and below where the chickens hang out but then what will prevent air moving between lower and upper vents creating a draft......im thinking we need a wind tunnel with smoke to test out these theories. Me, im just going to put some windows in, somewhere My chickens go out in the run cold or hot and dont seem to care what the weather is doing. I figured they would be inside in the rain but they were out running around like the sun was out. Apparently their feathers are pretty good protection no matter what. Im sure air moves between the window and the chicken door which is at the floor level. Im going to have to tear it down and start all over.....or just try to use a little common sense. You would never guess i got A's in high school physics and never took a book home to study. (Didnt do so well in literature though)

Did you know that penguins stand in a huddle to keep warm in gale force wind and rotate outer layer to inner layers to share the warmth. My chickens constantly shift positions on the roost....i wonder if that is what they are doing.........

 

[MrsBro]

@MeepBeep
That's basically what we're doing, except the windows will be attached all year round. We basically live in a wind tunnel, in the middle of a bunch of farm land, so ability to block some if the wind will be important. Hopefully between the sunlight and the wind I can find a comfortable compromise for the birds! Thanks for your input!

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

@MeepBeep
That's basically what we're doing, except the windows will be attached all year round. We basically live in a wind tunnel, in the middle of a bunch of farm land, so ability to block some if the wind will be important. Hopefully between the sunlight and the wind I can find a comfortable compromise for the birds! Thanks for your input!

What if u build like a fence with a huge gate and when it's nice and sunny open the gate and let the sun in the windows and then if it's windy and rainy close the gate to keep things from flying and breaking or cracking the Windows

 

[MrsBro]

That's a good idea too! Like shutters, hopefully they won't break though, we got fiberglass panels, like you would use for a greenhouse.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

O ya and u know those locks u use for gates for a backyard or a gate for your porch put two of those on it being a bigger gate to help hold it in or just make it one big door and have two 4x4 posts in the ground one holding the gate and the other closing the gate and the locks

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

That's a good idea too! Like shutters, hopefully they won't break though, we got fiberglass panels, like you would use for a greenhouse.

O no I was meaning like a fence type thing to block the wind from the windows but place the fence to block the wind from what ever direction it blows most

 

[JackE]

Humidity is a warm air thing. Cold air doesnt hold moisture so if the vents are near the top the heat and humidity should move out. OTOH, cold air sinks and if the vents are in the floor what ever is in tne air should move out as temps drop. Why do commercial coops have exhaust fans? They obviously want to control how and when air moves.

I put my windows above the roost height primarily to keep the coop cooler in warm weather. I have cross ventilation above the nest boxes and roosts. If you want the hot air out you have to have air movement but if it is not in line with the birds then its not a draft, is it? Drafts are air currents that affect living things, right? Im thinking you need vents above and below where the chickens hang out but then what will prevent air moving between lower and upper vents creating a draft......im thinking we need a wind tunnel with smoke to test out these theories.
...

Keep too many chickens, in too small a coop, with too little ventilation/fresh air flow, and you WILL see humidity in the wintertime. You will see it as frost on the inside of the coop, and the chickens themselves. Then, you will see frostbite, and most likely, respiratory issues. I've read on this forum, where somebody had the great idea, of shutting up the coop, to....... wait for it, "KeepThemWarm". They wondered why they could not get the coop's door open because it had frozen shut, from the inside.
Commercial coops have exhaust fans, because they cram far too many chickens in those industrial coops, and passive ventilation won't work. Square foot per bird, doesn't mean anything to them. They HAVE to force ventilate, otherwise they will have a bunch of dead birds. If you have a properly designed backyard coop, you should have no need for forced air.

Drafts are not a problem in the warmer months. You WANT air movement in the summer. In the winter, you want max air exchange, without the felt air movement/drafts.

 

[JackE]

I read some of the places it said it was used in Canada, they don't have the cold that we have.

Where do you live, on the moon? Open-air coops were in use in -40 temps. Not cold enough?

 

[JackE]

With the Woods coop design you also have to keep in mind that the minimum size for that is about 10 feet widewide by 16 feet long. So of course in a tiny box they would ABSOLUTELY have drafts and cold and other issues being right next to the window. But not in a properly build woods coop. When the roosts are 16 feet (or often way more) back away from the roosts, there really are no drafts that far back even if it's cold near the front. Cold maybe and sure, a lot of these coops are just as cold as outside, but no DRAFTS. Cold temperatures and drafts are vastly different. Cold is NOT a problem. Ventilation is extremely important and even more important in the winter. The hot, moist and humid air needs to get out. That is what causes frost bite. Not cold air alone. Plenty of stories of people adding heat lamps or sealing up the coop air tight or insulating it. That causes way more problems than just cold. Again, cold is not a problem and what is comfortable to us is NOT comfortable to chickens.

Read this article:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/...-go-out-there-and-cut-more-holes-in-your-coop

You are generally correct on the Woods. But, It does not have to be 10' wide. My coop is 8', there are others out there 6' . Does not have to be 16' deep. There are 12', and 14' ones out there, some even shallower than that, that do a great job. Also, and I'm sure others with a Woods will tell you, them temp inside is always higher, than the outside temp, by 10-15 degrees F in the winter.