Proper ventilation for Peach State coops....

[jjdward]

I currently have a coop that has served me well over the last 4 or 5 years but I'm going to be building a new one soon. That being said, I want to make sure the ventilation is right. Now I've read the article on here by patandchickens (which is great by the way!!) but from what I gather it was more for coops in the colder northern climates. I need to know if that same set up will work for coops in the Deep South? Where I live we have lots of humidity and hot days. As far as cold, I would say we have no more than 15 days with temps below freezing. I need a set up that will provide plenty of much needed breeze for those hot muggy days but I also need to keep the ventilation in the winter. Any ideas?

Here is rough sketch of my plan the coop is 8'x16'.

The light blue is the 6'' year round ventilation openings. They will have hardware cloth to keep out pests.

The dark blue is the 2'5'' hinged panels that I will open during the hotter months for a cross breeze. These openings will also have hardware cloth.

There will also be a run for them to get out and about. This little sketch is ,of course, not to scale lol!

 

[Judy]

Patandchickens is Canadian. My coop is so open air it's essentially a 3 sided structure, because of large areas of hardware cloth rather than solid walls. I make sure they have a relatively draft free spot for their roost, but otherwise, they get breeze in there all year.

You don't need (and I wouldn't have) a building with 4 solid sides in the South. Here is a thread about a different style of setup which works well in the South. Actually, it would work well in much of the U.S. I'll also give you a ling to the Woods coop, an expensive project but very successful design. I think it's well worth looking at just to get an idea of the extent to which it is open air, despite the snow.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/163417/please-show-me-your-hot-weather-coops/0_20

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/445004/woods-style-house-in-the-winter/0_20

 

[jjdward]

Thanks for the links! I really liked the Woods style open air house. I will be adding a run to mine too.