Suggestions for ventilation for my Alaskan coop

[PlayinChicken]

Hi Everyone!

I am a long time reader but this is my first post to the forum. After many years of wishing, we finally live in a place where I can keep chickens! I live in Alaska with 3 small children (4 years old and under). My husband and I are hoping to get the coop designed and built before winter comes.

Since we have small kids and not a lot of time, we are hoping to simplify construction. He has agreed to build me a 10x4 (maybe 10x5 shed style coop with a single pitch roof. We are planning for up to 10 chickens although we are only zoned for 6 so 6 will be our ordinary expected number. We don't have any glass windows available and are planning for framed windows covered in hardware cloth with cut-to-size boards for closing them off if needed. I also have clear corrugated plastic roofing that we can build into the design for extra light, although the main roof will be sheet metal and insulated. The whole coop will be insulated. I don't plan to heat the coop as we lost power a few times last winter. I had enough to worry about trying to keep my kids warm in -25 with no heat. I don't want to be worrying about my chickens.
I am planning one short (4-5ft) wall to be almost entirely open for summer similar to the Woods design, but I think that will need to be closed for winter and I need to plan for smaller, higher vents. Now it seems to me if there are high vents, they will create a draft on the roost no matter how they are oriented but I have never lived in a chicken coop so I am not really sure

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to located upper vent windows (4-8" I am imagining) in relation to the roosts? Is there a rule of thumb for sq ft of ventilation in the winter? I have seen 1sqft/chicken but I assume that is summer only. How many sq ft of ventilation would you recommend? Would it work to put vent windows only on one side and the roosts all the way on the other side?

Our winters are pleasantly dry and range from 0-28 degrees on average with capability to drop to a max low of -25 over night for a week or so. In the summer we have a high of 78 degrees with night time temperatures usually in the 50's

Thanks for any ideas!

 

[Judy]

High vents should not create a draft on the roost and are just what should work for you. The heated, humid air exchanges with outside air right at the vent because it rises. The 1' per chicken is year round. If anything, it is more critical that the humidity escape in winter, as that is what creates frostbite. If this is a tall, walk in coop, for very cold weather you may want to create a smaller, temporary drop ceiling sleeping area where they can snuggle into the hay on bad nights.

Here are two really classic articles on ventilation and cold weather coops written by a Canadian member and passed around here for years:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/winter-coop-temperatures

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/...-go-out-there-and-cut-more-holes-in-your-coop

 

[PlayinChicken]

A drop ceiling is a great idea. So would you put 6" vents all the way around the top, or concentrate larger ones high only on one side?

Thanks for the links to the articles - they are good ones I have read several times before. They do cover a lot about need and quantity of ventilation, but not as much about exactly how to get that ventilation without creating drafts in the process. Around the forums, the author seems to write that open air coops of the woods design are too drafty for cold climates, but in fact the design of the 10x6 coop doesn't give much more than 1sq ft/chicken.

 

[chfite]

I have an opening along the 8 foot wall 8 inches wide by 8 feet covered in hardware cloth running along the top of the 4 foot tall wall. Across f the 4 foot floor is a door 18 inches by 18 inches covered will hardware cloth. This arrangement provides ventilation without a draft because the openings are not in line with each other. So there is 7.5 square feet of ventilation.

The coop is meant for 5 chickens, but all 10 of them sleep in there. None in the other coop. Fraternity much be big with chickens.

Chris

 

[kmpaulick]

Hi There,

I'm new to chickens too and living in AK (the valley). I've been worrying over the ventilation-draft issue as well. The coop we build is small and heavily insulated (2" thick foamboard lined with vinyl on the inside). We've got a large window on one side and two 12" square "vents" on the other side (these are in addition to the man door and pop door). We left the windows and ventilation squares open all summer (both are covered in hardware cloth), but now that the weather has turned I'm worried about the balance of cold vs moisture building up in there. We've had our first snow and the temps are 20s-30s at night lately (last year we had sustained -20 at night, close to a month). I don't have any true louvered ventilation in the coop, not sure if I need to do something like that.

What have you ended up doing? Are you in south central (guessing from temps ?

 

[PlayinChicken]

Hey!

Yup, we are in Anchorage, not too far away. I decided to change coop design and used cattle panel to make a large covered hoop house run 8x13ft. We have an insulated shed that butts up against it to serve as the hen house. The shed has no ventilation but two narrow doors that we plan to leave one of open at all times into the run. As the winter progresses we can partially block the door if we need to but no large drafts should get in due to the rest of the run being covered. My chickens are not outside as they are not fully feathered yet but I am a lot happier with this design.

I know another that has kept chickens successfully with a coop built of four solid walls and totally open eves in our weather. She used wood chips for deep litter method inside the coop and said it always stayed above freezing inside.