Sharing my coop build

[triciayoung]

Thank you! The high side of the coop faces almost due south. As I've built it going into winter, I didn't add ventilation ports. I foamed the underside of the roof on the south and west sides leaving the east and north edges of the roof/wall junction open. There is roughly a 1'' gap on the east and north sides at the top of the wall for the entire 8' of each wall. The doors on the south and west sides have a small 1/8" or so gap around them and for now, the chicken access door at the base of the south door is open for 15+ hours a day. If that still isn't sufficient come next summer I can easily cut and add grilles at the top of the south and west walls. I am new at this so please do comment if I've erred in my approach.

*edit* to add that prevailing winds, even during storms, are from the west-southwest.

Nice build. Love the color also. Any holes you have for ventilation, cover with 1/2 inch hardware cloth and secure with screws and washers.

 

[gtaus]

huh. Ok. so, in a 64 square foot coop that should be good for 16 chickens (at 4sf per large bodied chicken) you're saying I need 16 square foot of open wall? Sorry, but that doesn't make sense for cold weather. Please explain to me how exactly to do that and where you get that data point from. I've not seen it anywhere yet.

I live in northern Minnesota. Half of the year my chickens live in their coop - never going outside if there is snow in the chicken run. I agree that ventilation is very important, but there are many things that I believe affect that 1 square foot per bird ratio.

In my coop, I have almost 8 sq ft per bird, because I factored into the fact that the birds would be living inside the coop for 5-6 snow months per year. A larger coop, with more room to move, helps the birds be not so aggressive towards each other.

The coop build makes a difference. I have a gambrel roof on my coop, which is probably 8 or 9 feet high at the peak. The roosts are at about 5 feet high. So, there is plenty of air volume above their heads at night.

I have small vents in the peaks of the roof, on both sides, allowing for cross ventilation. I also have two sliding windows across each other about 4 foot off the floor for cross ventilation. I will close them if a winter storm is coming, but usually leave them open otherwise.

I estimate that I have maybe 1/2 square foot of ventilation per bird in my coop. But it works for me because I have a small number of birds in a big coop with a very high roof. Also, there is no cold air, or a draft, coming up from underneath the roosting chickens. My ventilation is at above their heads in the peak of the roof and on the opposite side of the coop from the roosts.

In 4 years of keeping chickens through Minnesota winters, I have never lost a bird to the cold in an unheated coop. Our temps can get down as low as -40F for a week or longer in the dead of winter.

Some birds have suffered from frostbite, but nothing that they could not survive. For a roost, I have a 2X4 laid on the flat edge. That allows them to sit on the 2X4 with their feet tucked into their body to keep warm. They also fluff up their feathers in extremely cold weather to trap warm air against their bodies and look almost twice as big as they do in the summertime. That is why you don't want any cold drafts coming up from below them. That would reduce their ability to fluff up their feathers and keep themselves warm with that trapped air.

I don't know what the perfect ratio of ventilation for your specific geographic area might be, but before I built my coop, I visited a place where our local Amish people build and sell chicken coops. They do not have that 1 square foot of ventilation per bird ratio in their chicken coops, either. But again, they also have high roofs with cross ventilation at the peaks. Again, the type of build and the number of chickens in the coop makes a big difference.

Hope some of that helps. Many things factor into that suggested 1 foot of ventilation per bird ratio. Certainly, if you see condensation in the coop, or other negative aspects of trapped moist air inside the coop in the winter, you should probably consider more ventilation.

 

[Sally PB]

huh. Ok. so, in a 64 square foot coop that should be good for 16 chickens (at 4sf per large bodied chicken) you're saying I need 16 square foot of open wall? Sorry, but that doesn't make sense for cold weather. Please explain to me how exactly to do that and where you get that data point from. I've not seen it anywhere yet.

Well answered by others. It doesn't have to be one big opening. Look at the two articles mentioned; the drawings help a lot.

I have two half circle openings at the ends of my coop that are about 3.5' in dia. Four openings that run the length of the coop that are 4" high. Four more small openings because it was easy to add them. Adding up the area, I have about 20 sf. I figure I lose about 20% for the structural elements that are in the way (studs, braces). That leaves 16 sf for 11 birds in a 62 sf coop.

During the day, the pop door and people door are open unless we get down to single digit temps.

 

[saysfaa]

If you want data from a more recent source:

https://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/key-factors-for-poultry-house-ventilation

most of the page is about mechanical ventilation and for metal buildings, commercial boiler scale and so on so it isn't completely applicable to most backyard flocks but it has this chart. Someone interested enough could do some rough calculations from it. I left the distraction of their paragraph on evaporation cooling for summer in order to keep the name of the website in the picture.

Edit to add: they list their sources at the bottom of the webpage. Two textbooks and some publications of a company that makes fans for poultry houses. I tried to find the textbooks directly but could get only a snippet of the relevant pages. The company's info was very detailed but too focused on mechanical ventilation of huge buildings to be easily helpful to me.

 

[saysfaa]

Oh. And if you plan to use fans, you might consider fans designed for barns. Chickens are so incredibly dusty that the extra shielding to keep the dust off the motor and such is important to reduce the risk of fire.

 

[saysfaa]

I forgot about the concern for warmth with so much ventilation

On sunny days, the temp inside my coop is warmer than outside. At night, the temperature is the same as outside. In either case, they are wearing feather coats that are very effective at keeping them warm - their feet are toasty against my hands even when my hands are warm, and I've stuck my hands in a pile of loose feathers (in case it was different than sleeping under a down comforter - it is, much more effective) and no longer worry about them being cold.

There is also quite a bit of evidence about changes in fat composition (type of brown fat, if I remember right) of animals and birds that are exposed to cold vs not. I can look up that thread if you are interested.

 

[TexasBlues]

I'm choosing heavy layers with cold hardy attributes for best laying during winter months. Right now, we are getting 4-5 eggs a day from 26 week old Lavender Orps and Barred Rocks. I wasn't expecting that rate given the season and age and I'm sure it will slow down during Jan/Feb. It's just two of us and I'll be running eggs down to the local fire/ems department the rest of the winter.

Have you looked into Chanteclers?

 

[Ted Brown]

Have you looked into Chanteclers?

Chanteclers lay ~200 eggs per year and are said to lay throughout the year. Very cold hardy, very docile well behaved.

 

[TexasBlues]

Chanteclers lay ~200 eggs per year and are said to lay throughout the year. Very cold hardy, very docile well behaved.

I listen to the poultry keepers podcast and one of the hosts keeps chanteclers and praises their cold hardiness.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/poultry-keepers-podcast/id1689903946

 

[msmidwick]

I agree with the need for ventilation above the chickens - mandatory. Also, with the weather in Indiana, you might think about putting eaves above the window openings to keep the rain and snow out of the coop. Cross ventilation is good too.