To much ventilation?

[yttac16]

Thanks for the input everyone.

I should clarify 45 is like an extreme top and isn't the normal but it happens every now and again over summer. We'll be setting up lots of shade.

They will also have a large shaded run with roosting bars which they could sleep if needed.

 

[yttac16]

It looks like your roof is not covering the upper edge of your wall, you want to fix that.
I imagine you do get some rain.
A good open air coop would have large roof overhangs.

My husband has always fixed this. Thanks!

 

[saysfaa]

It's okay for ventilation but if you get 45C ambient temperatures it's going to be very hot under that roof.
There is in general a marked lack of understanding of thermodynamics. Ventilation gets confused with air flow and keeping a building cool gets confused with keeping it ventilated.

With your coop the temperature under the roof isn't going to be much different from the temperature outside.

There are very good reasons why people in hot climates build house like these.
Completely opposite to the structure you've built.
View attachment 3578469

View attachment 3578473
View attachment 3578476

Building such as those above tend to stay cool inside and work on the opposite principle to the open style coop. You may have noticed that many houses built in say the middle east are built on the same principle and that is high mass with small windows, usually with shutters. The windows are left open and the shutters left closed in peak heat months.

Interesting.
It seems like a good idea for climates with wide temperature swings over short periods of time. Or some sort of geothermal input or buffer like being a cave in a mountainside.
Do you know if chickens will go in such buildings to cool off on scorching days? I first thought, maybe that wouldn't matter too much; at least they will be cool at night. But if it is cool at night then they don't need a coop that stays cooler.

Maybe not. Maybe it just needs to have even more thermal mass if the temperature swings are slower.

45C is 113F. It seems likely that managing temperature is needed as well as ventilation.

Just a cold climate person thinking it over a little.

 

[Shadrach]

Interesting.
It seems like a good idea for climates with wide temperature swings over short periods of time. Or some sort of geothermal input or buffer like being a cave in a mountainside.
Do you know if chickens will go in such buildings to cool off on scorching days? I first thought, maybe that wouldn't matter too much; at least they will be cool at night. But if it is cool at night then they don't need a coop that stays cooler.

Maybe not. Maybe it just needs to have even more thermal mass if the temperature swings are slower.

45C is 113F. It seems likely that managing temperature is needed as well as ventilation.

Just a cold climate person thinking it over a little.

Put simply, when it's hot in a desert one doesn't stand under a tin umbrella in the full sun. What on does if one can is find a cave or the deepest shade one can locate.
True, under the tin umbrella ventilation won't be a problem but it's going to be very hot. The ambient temperature is what's critical here. And given heat moves from hot source to cold sink, what little shade there is under the tin umbrella drags the warmer ambient hot air in. It's simple physics and there are no ifs and buts.

Air flow, which is what one wants in a chicken coop, can be achieved, sometimes very well, with small openings in the right places by following some simple thermodynamic principles.

Do you know if chickens will go in such buildings to cool off on scorching days?

This is the house I designed and built in spain. It's an earth bermed design. It stayed cool up to around 38C, above this temperature the temperature gradient accross the front walls tended to get quite steep and without shutters for the windows direct sunlight warmed the air inside the house.
The chickens came in to keep cool. On the hottest days the chickens favoured that spot beside the yellow broody coop under the trees. On most days a breeze blew up the valley and that spot stayed coolest locally.

This was another favourite cool spot. Notice the main farm house at the rear, hgh mass with small windows.

One of my Morrocan friends builds coops very much like this, but on a smaller scale with four compass point openings at the base and a vented top.

 

[Krugerrand]

One of my Morrocan friends builds coops very much like this, but on a smaller scale with four compass point openings at the base and a vented top.
View attachment 3579425

Shadrach, any chance you could get us a picture of one of those coops?

 

[Shadrach]

Shadrach, any chance you could get us a picture of one of those coops?

Unfortunately not. They showed me pictures on their computer and explained how they built them. I doubt I'll be seeing this person again now I'm in the UK.

I could perhaps make a drawing but I don't know what they used to make the frame; some kind of brushwood I think.

ManueB has some interesting pictures of using an existing farmhouse room as a place for keeping chickens on this thread.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/théo-and-the-chickens-des-sauches.1549149/
This was common where I was in Spain and in many other meditarranean countries.

 

[elaineinspain]

I’m in south Spain. We regularly get temps 45C in summer. My birds are in a converted stable. Air flow is what you need, so windows/ventilation gaps on opposite sides of the construction and good shade. My coop/stable is under the shade of a large fig tree on the south west side (afternoon sun), and a large neem tree on the south east side (morning and midday sun)
The stable itself is about 3 meters high and the roof overhangs quite a bit so the windows are in shade all day ( no direct sunlight going into the coop except in winter when the sun is lower in the sky)
The window gaps are quite high so the roosts aren’t in a direct draught, but there’s plenty of airflow. And the shade from the trees keep the coop a good deal cooler than the ambient temperature.

My best advice would be to place your coop in the shade of trees if you can

 

[SchoolPsychMom]

I completely relate to the struggle to keep the ladies cool! I'm on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Zone 9a, so it's hot and it's humid. My pool was 97 Fahrenheit at 5:45 pm yesterday! I researched heat tolerant chicken breeds before getting my first hens. Frost is rare where I live, but we physically put the girls in the coop overnight when it happens. Despite the open air run which is completely covered by a tarp, I was still seeing my girls panting and holding their wings out to cool down. Egg production decreased as well. (Aside from strolling through, my birds only go inside their coop to lay eggs...oh the things I wish I knew when I started my chicken adventure!)

As I have no mature trees on my property to put a run under, I gathered my courage and started letting my ladies forage in my fenced yard during the day. They spend the heat of the day under some low shrubs. It's evening in this picture and the run is getting the setting sun. The girls have food, water, and dust baths both in the run and in the yard now. Egg production has picked back up in the 3 weeks they have been foraging.

 

[BDutch]

Unfortunately not. They showed me pictures on their computer and explained how they built them. I doubt I'll be seeing this person again now I'm in the UK.

I could perhaps make a drawing but I don't know what they used to make the frame; some kind of brushwood I think.

ManueB has some interesting pictures of using an existing farmhouse room as a place for keeping chickens on this thread.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/théo-and-the-chickens-des-sauches.1549149/
This was common where I was in Spain and in many other meditarranean countries.

Are you sure he used a frame? MDH, who is an expert in natural building/circular building materials says builders of loam or adobe houses normally use loam blocks to build such houses without a frame. Only for windows and doors they use frames.
* Other/similar names for loam are : adobe, or clay. Sometimes they simply use rammed earth.

Problem with loam houses when you have much rain is that it washes off and you need to repair more often.

Btw if you cant make a cave , adobe or earth house it is good to know that shade of trees/plants like grapes and roofs with a thick layer of earth (sedum roofs) are better against heat than tarps and normal roofing.