Thirty Below?

[Fred's Hens]

To vent. Venting, like the ridge vent on your house, allows slightly warmer, moisture filled air to exit. Without openings at top of your roof, your attic would be sweating wet and this creates mold and inefficient insulation, shortened roof board life, etc. That is why there is roof vents, of some kind, on every house.

Imagine drying your clothes in a dryer but not venting the hot, steamy air outside? Your house is soon a vapor chamber. Take a shower without an exhaust vent fan and you'll fog up the bathroom. Venting is air moving OUT.

That air must be replaced somehow. Controlling how fast the "make up" air enters the chamber and where it enters is the key. If you seal off your intakes, the exhaust simply quits working. There is no exchange. No air coming in means no air escaping. Thus, do not seal off the air intake, which is always a lower point, and do not seal off the vent, which is always a higher point. Again, "warm" air rises. You want it to rise and exit out the roof vents. This will take excess humidity and ammonia gases with it.

Control the air intake and control the air exiting, but entering and exiting it must, or the air becomes foul, laden with moisture and harmful.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

We hit the dreaded -30F a few times each year. No doubt about it chickens don't like it, but then no animal does. It's eerie on those mornings when the only sound is the crunch, crunch of your foot falls and the random loud snapping of trees without wind. Every animal is hunkered down waiting it out, and quit frankly I wish I could too.

We've no insulation and proper ventilation. No added heat source and the chickens fair it just fine though grudgingly. It's the larger combed ones that will get a touch of frostbite. To compensate keep an eye out for all nights -15F and below and apply petroleum jelly to the roosters combs, any large combed bird, to prevent it from freezing.,

 

[Fred's Hens]

We hit the dreaded -30F a few times each year. No doubt about it chickens don't like it, but then no animal does. It's eerie on those mornings when the only sound is the crunch, crunch of your foot falls and the random loud snapping of trees without wind. Every animal is hunkered down waiting it out, and quit frankly I wish I could too.

We've no insulation and proper ventilation. No added heat source and the chickens fair it just fine though grudgingly. It's the larger combed ones that will get a touch of frostbite. To compensate keep an eye out for all nights -15F and below and apply petroleum jelly to the roosters combs, any large combed bird, to prevent it from freezing.,

Bravo!!

 

[SunnyAlberta]

We hit the dreaded -30F a few times each year. ..
We've no insulation and proper ventilation. No added heat source and the chickens fair it just fine though grudgingly.

Good to know. Thanks!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Just a technical warning. If you have snow, don't depend on a ridge vent. Snow can block them. Roof vents, gable vents, or just openings under the overhang work great.

Ridge vents work great in the summer, even in colder climates.

 

[SunnyAlberta]

The front of my teeny coop is all hardware cloth. It faces SE; the nasty winds almost always come from the W or NW over the Rockies. I can build removable panels to cover the hardware cloth, perhaps from Plexiglas to allow the natural light. I was thinking of keeping a few inches of open wire uncovered as ventilation. If the vent is at the top. It will be at roost height, so is a low vent better? The coop is teeny, just enough for three, and there are very small gaps between some of the boards. I could caulk the gaps or leave them for vents, too. Back in May when I first got the girls we had a freak storm. A wool blanket and a camp tarp over the coop did the trick to keep them warm and dry, but no sunlight went in. Hubby thinks we'd be fine with this simple setup permanently. Thoughts? Thanks in advance.

 

[armorfirelady]

To vent. Venting, like the ridge vent on your house, allows slightly warmer, moisture filled air to exit. Without openings at top of your roof, your attic would be sweating wet and this creates mold and inefficient insulation, shortened roof board life, etc. That is why there is roof vents, of some kind, on every house.

Imagine drying your clothes in a dryer but not venting the hot, steamy air outside? Your house is soon a vapor chamber. Take a shower without an exhaust vent fan and you'll fog up the bathroom. Venting is air moving OUT.

That air must be replaced somehow. Controlling how fast the "make up" air enters the chamber and where it enters is the key. If you seal off your intakes, the exhaust simply quits working. There is no exchange. No air coming in means no air escaping. Thus, do not seal off the air intake, which is always a lower point, and do not seal off the vent, which is always a higher point. Again, "warm" air rises. You want it to rise and exit out the roof vents. This will take excess humidity and ammonia gases with it.

Control the air intake and control the air exiting, but entering and exiting it must, or the air becomes foul, laden with moisture and harmful.

Fred I am going to enclose my doll house coop/run tomorrow to make one large house. I was thinking of keeping a few inches at the bottom open for circulation purposes (intake air?) The roosts will be up higher than this small open area. I was thinking to leave this opening all around the coop. Or would it be better to just put the wood above the landscape stones that are currently there & that will suffice for enough ventilation? Also there is a vent/space at the roof line already. Will that suffice enough for ventilation purposes? Also where the pvc food feeded is prevents a tight seal on that end of the coop. It faces southeast so I dont think that will be much of a problem. I was actually thinking clear plastic would be easier to place there. Thoughts ?
For the original hen house I cut out a 4x6 hole and covered it with a metal vent cover. There is another vent hole with slide cover that came with coop on the oppisite wall. I currently leave both open and will all winter since one vent faces south and the other is protected by the house. Very unlikely strong winds will get in.

I also was given free siding that I will put on the outside of the coop once its enclosed to help the cheap wood last. Also purchased compositer roofing for the roofs to help it last longer as well


(The structure that is reddish colored wood will be completely enclosed to make a bigger hen house. You can see the landscape stones all around the base. )

I plan on a lot of straw/shaving to help them keep warm. I dont want to put a heat lamp in there at all. But they will have a heated dog bowl to keep water unfrozen

 

[Barred Rock Caf]

I have vents under the edge of the roof. This offers ventilation without causing a draft.
Well below zero, I have Polish in my flock so I turn on the bulb for their sakes. They do quite well. If I didn't have the polish I probably wouln't turn the bulb on until -15 degrees.
Exactly

I see no reason to insulate four walls to retain "heat" and yet have the roof area (from both eaves) open for the natural ventilation from breezes. I have holes drilled "low" (about 2" above the bottom plate of the walls all the way around the coop). Heat rises and quickly exists the coop. It is a waste of energy to me. I believe in the thermal mass principle and in leaving the convection-effect in place straight through the cold weather. The birds have their natural insulators aboard their bodies. I use deep litter and have baffles that direct the inlet air from my coop's 1-1/2" diameter holes down low away from the floor, while at the same time allowing crucial convection from temperature differences to occur. This works in the same way that cooler air from vented soffitt panels on homes allows air to be drawn in and convected upwards to the ridge venting. It keeps the attic area dry and prevents the buildup of moisture in that space.

Barred Rock Cafe

 

[SunnyAlberta]

The front of my teeny coop is all hardware cloth. It faces SE; the nasty winds almost always come from the W or NW over the Rockies. I can build removable panels to cover the hardware cloth, perhaps from Plexiglas to allow the natural light. I was thinking of keeping a few inches of open wire uncovered as ventilation. If the vent is at the top. It will be at roost height, so is a low vent better? The coop is teeny, just enough for three, and there are very small gaps between some of the boards. I could caulk the gaps or leave them for vents, too. Back in May when I first got the girls we had a freak storm. A wool blanket and a camp tarp over the coop did the trick to keep them warm and dry, but no sunlight went in. Hubby thinks we'd be fine with this simple setup permanently. Thoughts? Thanks in advance.

No comments?

 

[SunnyAlberta]

For now all of my latches are slide bolts. I imagine they may freeze up in wintertime.

What do you recommend, instead? I was thinking a gate latch is less likely to jam in the ice, plus I could add a padlock to it if I'm ever away for the day. We lock our yard gates to keep kids from letting our dogs out which has been a popular game in our neighbourhood.

I stole this image from Rhoise here on BYC. Even a latch like this might be less likely to freeze.