Roof vents adequate ventilation?

[Cochaura]

Hello everyone, this will be our first winter with chickens and I'm concerned about adequate ventilation. We live in East Central Minnesota and get the -40 temps in winter and up to 100s in the summer. Our coop is an old ice fishing house consisting of styrofoam between sheets of plywood for the walls. I am wondering if the two roof vents are adequate ventilation? Do you still keep the vents open when its -40? In the summer we have a screened window, but that will have to be closed up in the winter. We have 12 araucana/americaunas and one buff cochin. Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[FarmerMel]

How big are the roof vents? How big is your coop? Home Depot sells a ventilation fan for about 40 bucks, and you can install it to suck air out of the coop. It is good for 600 cubic feet per minute.

You can check out this website, it talks about having a coop that has open air windows all year long. http://www.nortoncreekpress.com/fresh_air_poultry_houses.html

Hope it helps!

 

[Fred's Hens]

The old rule might apply here, for roof vents. One square foot roof vent for every hundred square feet of space to be vented. I should two, if they are 6" in diameter or large, would suffice.

 

[Cochaura]

Thank you for your responses! The coop is approx. 7x11 and there are two roof vents. We are planning to put a vent fan in next summer to help with the heat, but we were hoping the vents would suffice for now.

 

[karlamaria]

My coop is 4x 6 and I have one roof vent on it. My coop is 6 feet tall.

 

[Arielle]

IT is my understanding that ventilation is as important in the winter as the heat of the summer. The chickens respirate a huge amount of moisture for a little creature. ANd it's the moisture when combined with the freezing cold that causes frostbite.

It's better to let in the cold air than keep in the moisture.

Source: I have read all this here on BYC.