Uh oh, air quality issue

[Ruralhideaway]

@Howard E Well the sun hitting the windows and door today really cranked the temp up in there, warmer than its been for a week or more. So maybe it'll clear. Tonight I'll let a good blast of wind through late and if it's not better tomorrow I'll open more somewhere. Likely things are all frozen again by now, can't imagine frozen poop having an odor. I honestly have never smelled anything at all in there before except pine unless someone just produced something really frightful. I think I'll get the sweet pdz down under the main roosts tomorrow too. Straw up there right now as some still keep sleeping on the shelf. At 19 weeks. I put them up but later it'll be 2 of the 4 down again.

Actually... I'm just realizing the snow likely has stopped up the vents on the high side... eureka that's probably a big part of this! My convection ventilation is clogged. No fixing that, I have to add more tomorrow. Sorry it took so much help before this dawned on me.

Can't imagine how bad that commercial place smelled, ugh. They were living but ill hazard a guess that they don't live too long.

 

[RonP]

My coop is properly ventilated with passive AND convection venting.

We had a 10 day period with sub freezing coop temperatures one year. Unusual for my location. The first day above freezing it went into the mid 40’s. I swear you could see the humid air rising as it passed the sunny window on the south side. With it, an ammonia smell… First time for me.

The birds were enjoying the fresh air outside while I stirred the deep bedding to help the drying process.

I returned early evening to no smell…

 

[Ruralhideaway]

@RonP Thank you maybe that's what happened here, mostly anyway. But then again overnight nothing was thawed and 80% humidity. So I think the roof snow has blown into that venting and that will have cost me half my ventilation. I'm going to hinge some boards tomorrow into the run. It'll be fairly quiet air in there compared to outside but hopefully enough. And I'll look for deflectors of some kind for an outside wall.

 

[Ruralhideaway]

This morning the humidity was still over 80%. Current outdoor humidity is 50% so that's significant.

So I added two vents. One into the run and one across from it but higher. It's to the south, outside wall, wayyyy up under the eaves. Wind blasts right in lol. Yup from the south. I added an angled bit of plank to deflect it upward but I'll need to do more to control that wind. Hands are frozen so I'm open to suggestions.

 

[Blooie]

Smartest thing we ever did was to a website that sells parts for older mobile homes and pick up a mobile home exhaust fan. They mount into the wall so you can put it wherever you think it would do the most good. It's designed for the thin walls of an old mobile, and opens and runs by pulling a pull chain. Hubby is an electrician so he was able to wire it so that the fan part was operated by a light switch, but we could still open or close the cover with the pull chain. We had active ventilation when we needed it by pulling the chain to open it and hitting the light switch to operate the fan, or just pulled the chain open for passive ventilation. The old mobile we live in has one, we have one in the coop, and one in the hot tub shed. Love them!!!

I know it's almost impossible to do in the middle of a ventilation issue, but worth bearing in mind for future use.

 

[wyoDreamer]

As long as the wind is not blowing directly on the birds, you may be OK. It may get colder in the coop, but chickens are pretty good with cold - they have lots of warm downy feathers. At almost 2 weeks of sub-zero temps, in a coop with 4 concrete walls and concrete ceiling, my chickens are doing fine. I am tired of the frozen eggs, but not much I can do about that right now. I may redo the nest boxes and make them so I can add a heat pad to one or two - ideas are forming in my head for that project. No frostbite yet this year, my first year I had a couple of roos that lost some tips off their combs to frostbite, but nothing severe.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Great idea, Blooie!

 

[lazy gardener]

With DL in place, it would be a shame to strip it out. Can you get some PDZ? IF you can, you might try just sprinkling that liberally over the bedding. It will bind up the ammonia, and will actually be a good thing when you use that bedding later as compost. Since I'm advising it's use, perhaps I should pick up a bag! I'm at risk of the same issue. I took out too much bedding in November. Now building the bedding back up, with sub zero temps for the last 2 weeks, birds in the coop 24/7, and lots of poop just sitting on top of the litter. I took out 8 buckets full of poo the last 2 days, added 4 bags of leaves. Sudden thaws are the most risky times. If you can manage those, your DL will eventually get to the point where ammonia is never an issue.

 

[Ruralhideaway]

As long as the wind is not blowing directly on the birds, you may be OK. It may get colder in the coop, but chickens are pretty good with cold - they have lots of warm downy feathers. At almost 2 weeks of sub-zero temps, in a coop with 4 concrete walls and concrete ceiling, my chickens are doing fine. I am tired of the frozen eggs, but not much I can do about that right now. I may redo the nest boxes and make them so I can add a heat pad to one or two - ideas are forming in my head for that project. No frostbite yet this year, my first year I had a couple of roos that lost some tips off their combs to frostbite, but nothing severe.

I didn't think if it before I built but it's occurred to me that having a heated, electric floor area(brooder maybe) running into the nest boxes would be great. I glanced at the systems and for small areas not that expensive really.

 

[Ruralhideaway]

@lazy gardener Yes actually I have 2 bags sitting there, intended for my main roost area but the older pullets keep sleeping on that shelf so I have straw up there right now. So just sprinkle some around and give it a stir? A few cups or half a bag? No experience with the product.