Roof vent in cold weather zone?

[ChitownHV]

I'm building my coop and want to be sure that it's properly vented. The coop will be 4 x 4 square, with a slopped roof from 7' - 6'; Will a roof vent be too much? I see 2 on my garage and thought one would work in the coop.

 

[jbrianchamberli]

Not to hijack but I've been wondering myself. Following this thread....

 

[mobius]

Not sure what you mean by a roof vent in this case. Venting under the roof at the top where the roof meets the sides of the structure is always a good idea. Thinking that in this case all the sides would be square/ rectangular (hard to describe!) Placing hardware cloth over the vents works well.

Can you tell us about your climate?

 

[Doc Schoepp]

I had asked something similar in a different thread and the advice I was given was to avoid the 'whirlybird' style vents due to it not being very weather resistant. What I am going with now is a mix covered 'exhaust vents' I was able to pick up at a local ReStore for cheap (similar photo attached). They can be closed during severe weather and the lip over the opening helps with the bad windstorms we sometimes get. Soffit vents are apparently a risk due to ice damming on the roof edges so I went for these instead. That was just my decision since I was able to get 8 of them for $0.25 each.

 

[flyin-lowe]

I read on this site that you need approximately 1sq foot of ventilation per bird. I live in north eastern Indiana. My peak is open with a ridge cap over it. My eaves are open, plus I have 4 windows. 2 are 18x18" and the other 2 are 12x12". Plus my pop door. I left them all open all winter long with no problems. Ive been told more then once that lack of ventilation will cause more problems then the cold. We had a fairly mild winter but we did have spells with temps well below zero and wind chills near -20. My coops stays "open" year around.

 

[mobius]

I read on this site that you need approximately 1sq foot of ventilation per bird. I live in north eastern Indiana. My peak is open with a ridge cap over it. My eaves are open, plus I have 4 windows. 2 are 18x18" and the other 2 are 12x12". Plus my pop door. I left them all open all winter long with no problems. Ive been told more then once that lack of ventilation will cause more problems then the cold. We had a fairly mild winter but we did have spells with temps well below zero and wind chills near -20. My coops stays "open" year around.

Correct. I found I might not need 1 sq ft vent per bird at all, though. There are a lot of variables. Number of chickens, size of coop. Chickens raise the temp themselves by 10 BTUs per hour. Here in Montana, no insulation and no heat all winter, temps to -14. The issue is humidity, not temp so much altho they co-vary. See my sig (third thread in sig) for my thread on ventilation and humidity. Get a remote hygrometer if you wish to keep an eye on it.