Uh oh, air quality issue

[Ruralhideaway]

So today after many days of single digit and below zero temps, with more of that coming up, today we reached 25! Last night the humidity in the coop closed up around 0°f was 80%, 72 today with pop door open, warmed to 35f in the sun.

I got an unpleasant surprise when I opened my coop door this afternoon.

Ammonia.

Never smelled a trace before. This was only a whiff but I need to get on it. The only change was adding some chopped straw as extra warmth with even colder temps coming up.

9x10 approximately as it's built narrower on one side.

19 birds, fifteen are 10 weeks old, others 19 weeks.

Fully enclosed run attached. Pop door only closed at night.

Deep shavings on dirt, maybe 8 inches. I stir and add fresh a few times a week. Droppings under the big birds picked up daily. I take a few muck buckets of bedding from any dirty looking spots and add it to the run now and then.

Littler ones are in a 30" x 9 brooder at night. Been worried about rats so still locking them up. I scrape out half the bedding in the brooder now and then(4 inches deep), and freshen it.

Horizontal nipple waterers. Everything's dry enough to kneel anywhere and not get wet. Although I never crawled into the brooder to try.

Ventilation difficult to measure. 9 feet by 4 inches in the ceiling where it meets the barn wall. Then the entire 9x 10 wall adjacent to the run is 3 inch boards with cracks ranging from 1/8" to 1/3". The opposite wall is 1/8" cracks in 10 inch boards the top 20 inches also. Hard to measure but visible air movement up high that noticeably stirs the cobwebs on a normal day and let snow in when it's bad out.

Sorry that's a lot of details but I know they are important. Think it was just the sudden warm up with unusually quiet air today? Should I stir that new straw in good or go knock boards right out into the run? The run is enclosed but wide open eaves so pretty breezy. I also have sweet pdz on hand, time to deploy some and if so, everywhere or poop trays only?

 

[Egghead_Jr]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...uate-ventilation.1214285/page-2#post-19372988

Here is a recent thread on ventilation. Page 2 I think Howard E. gives good post on needed venting for passive air exchange based on square feet of coop. And in a few posts I speak on convection air exchange. Other good posts too. Read through that and see what minor thing you can do to change up your venting situation.

 

[Ruralhideaway]

@Egghead_Jr I've been keeping up there. Adding convection venting sounds great but would mean significant snow in my coop. I have very strong winds on both sides that aren't barn wall or run. The winds swirl through the area due to large pines and valleys. Unless maybe I get those plastic deflector things to aim it right at the ceiling.

 

[dunnmom]

I would get rid of the poop for now, at the very least. Complete clean-out until you can get your ventilation to where you need it. Many websites claim that if you can smell the ammonia, it's already at unsafe levels.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Read that thread and keep in mind there are two venting methods. Passive and convection. If you have a slanted roof you can use convection with small holes. Snow should not get in as it's right at the roof line under eave. Just hardware cloth up any opening you make.

From what you say your coop has been doing fine but now with the cold weather and chickens in coop more you notice a smell. Well, it won't take much at all to fix that. Open up a tad more whatever you currently have. I've no idea what your coop looks like to give suggestion. Post pics or read that link and take a day to ponder. Tommorrow is to be another warm teens day. Fix your vent problem then as it's negative digits for high over weekend.

 

[Ruralhideaway]

That's what I've heard too. Never a trace before. That would be a real shame to do a complete coop strip, there's a LOT of bedding in here. At least 8 inches deep. Poop that I can find is removed daily.

 

[wyoDreamer]

My guess is it's the brooder. How is the air flow through there? Maybe give that a thorough cleaning and see if that helps.
80% is pretty moist, can you put a fan in to suck the moist air out of the coop for part of the day? That will also help to dry it out. It may be snow sneaking in through the cracks in the walls adding extra moisture as it melts.

 

[Howard E]

It is likely this ammonia smell is only going to be temporary. The load from several days froze up quick, and now the whole lot of it has thawed in one day. So essentially, you have a short term load equal to however many birds you have x days it was frozen. Say 5 birds x 5 days, so today you have the droppings from 25 birds that is perking nicely.

Unless things are way out of whack, clean up as best you can, and give it a few days to see how it works.

Ammonia is something you can smell, and it is not pleasant. But I once walked into a commercial house that had 200,000 birds in it (cages over a wet pit below) and the smell of ammonia nearly knocked me down. Yet somehow, the birds were still alive and producing.

What really tight coops suffer from is moisture and a silent threat......CO2. But ammonia is also also a noticeable clue......something you can small like a gas leak....so a way you can always tell if something is not right. Normally, not good, but in this case, if the frozen thing has it out of whack, perhaps it will clear out in a day or so?

 

[Ruralhideaway]

I can open up really easily into the run, say 6 inches by 9ft ish. No risk of snow or blasting wind that direction. That would be passive ventilation, think that would solve it?

The tiny crack in pics below lets snow in. I can't feel good about enlarging openings on that side. Maybe if baffled. That's the low side of the slightly sloped roof, very open at the high side, so presumably there's already a bit of convective venting?

There is a little snow sneaking in yes but likely lots more getting tracked in by me. I dug the whole doorway area out yesterday for that reason.

Brooder airflow is pretty good I think, it has a cage bar ceiling that opens into an enclosed screened compartment so a light can be used safely. Shouldn't be stagnant in there. I just gave that bedding a stir, it's a bit dusty like fresh shavings.

Here is the brooder in construction, you can see the open top.

 

[wamtazlady]

Theoretically you should have about a square foot of vent for every bird. I have about 10 square feet of vent area for my 12 birds. That is made up of two 1 by 3 foot vents under the eaves and a 2 by 2 foot vent a little lower that gets no wind. If you are worried about snow blowing in then maybe you can make some sort of wind deflector so you get ventilation without snow.