Raining "in" the coop?

[CrazyChickMom]

We had a real heavy frost last night so this morning I put straw down on the floor and covered it with pine shavings for extra warmth. I have a metal roof and now there is condensation on the ceiling and many droplets falling to the floor. Now what? It must be a ventilation issue?

 

[patandchickens]

Yup, it is.

Solution will need to be twofold:

1) you've *got* to insulate the underside of your metal roof, considering where you live. It will lead to unmanageable humidity problems all winter, also the coop will be colder than it needs to be. There are several possible ways of doing the insulation, but I'm afraid it really does need to be done (in the U.P. - not necessarily so important in, say, coastal NC

)

2) if you're getting that much condensation already in the year, you also need to work on the humidity problem directly -- more ventilation, and make sure you are keeping up with coop sanitation (a droppings board cleaned every morning can help a lot) and fix all leaky waterers/windows/roof/whatever.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[CrazyChickMom]

Ok. I was concerned about insulating the ceiling at this point with all the water. Perhaps its best to use a Styrofoam sheet type and cover it with cardboard?

I'm doing good with poop clean up...scrape the poop board and spot clean the floor and then put fresh pine shavings down daily.

For ventilation I have a small window on the south side that was closed this a.m. and one attic type vent on the east wall. Coop is 10 by 11 and barely 7' high then gently slopes to about 5' high. (watch your head!)

The north wall is the highest and most convenient place to put some more vents but I thought I wasn't suppose to put them on the north wall. The west wall has a building attached to it...can I vent into there? (it's a 10x10 storage shed with no windows) The roosts are on
the west wall.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
If you are going to glue styrofoam on (make sure to choose a glue that will not dissolve the styrofoam!) then yes you will have to wait til you can get the metal reasonably dry, but that shouldn't be too hard, just a less-cold less-wet-weather day.

If it is above where the chickens can reach, there is not necessarily any reason to cover it with anything. If you were going to use the cover to hold the insulation up there (instead of glue) then you need to use something more rigid and durable, like thin plywood or suchlike, as cardboard will sog and sag and collapse.

For ventilation I have a small window on the south side that was closed this a.m. and one attic type vent on the east wall. Coop is 10 by 11 and barely 7' high then gently slopes to about 5' high. (watch your head!) The north wall is the highest and most convenient place to put some more vents but I thought I wasn't suppose to put them on the north wall. The west wall has a building attached to it...can I vent into there? (it's a 10x10 storage shed with no windows) The roosts are on the west wall.

Yup, need more ventilation, as you say. Have you looked at my ventilation page? If not, might be worth a look.

It is not a bad idea to have vents atop the N walls *as long as* you can close them down in a thoroughly weatherstripped kind of way. On a nonwindy day (or wind from another direction), they can be useful. Yes, you can vent into the storage shed, although remember some chicken dust will get in there.

In general, venting into an attached building is a GOOD arrangment for the North, as long as you can tolerate the chicken dust issue; although it does more good if the building has ventilation of its own than if it doesn't.

Could you replace the attic type vent on the E wall with something much larger, like a strip maybe 6-12" high all along the top of the wall? With weatherstripped flaps or sliders to close it partly or wholly when the weather dictates. Also could you put this sort of thing on the top of the S wall?

Good luck, have fun,

Pat​

 

[CrazyChickMom]

I've read it and thank you very much. I guess I will just have to come up with a good plan. The top of the east wall would be ideal however, the way it was built won't allow for this. (old wood shed).

Definitely the west wall above the roosts....there would be no draft. Well....like you said...all walls!

Thanks so much for your help

 

[LynneP]

...and you might be able to insulate and run a ventilation tube from the new lower ceiling to outdoors. These things look like the kind of tubing that runs outside from a dryer and come with a plastic cap for the outside wall. Heat drives the hot/moist air out and if the wind blows, little louvres on the cap fold back to prevent driving rain from entering. I think they're about $12 for the set. All hardware stores have them.