Vent vs. Draft - I'm so confused!

[3scorpios]

Quote:
Wouldn't the heat that escapes from the coop melt the snow that would accumulate on the roof with a ridge vent, much like a ridge vent would on a house? Unless of course, we got a ton of snow at once, in which case we'd have to knock it off the roof.

 

[SteveBaz]

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As a Rep for a number of roof products we sell a ridge vent from left coast to right coast and there is snow between the two coasts. A ridge vent meets and exceeds every standard out there made. The law on code states (1) 12X12" vent for every 300 sq feet 10X30 . The roof ridge vent if properly installed will blow away any other venting system out there in the roofing market to date.

 

[Chook-A-Holic]

Steve, I'm sure that properly installed ridge vent does as it is designed to do, ventilate attics. However it is not at all suitable for the ventilation of coops.

A good rule of thumb is that if you start getting cob webs at the top of the coop, you're not moving enough air across it.

 

[debid]

Quote:
You're talking about for a HOUSE. Nobody I know poops and pees on the floor inside their house or lives at anywhere near the density we expect chickens to live in. So, venting a coop is NOT the same as venting a house. If you put one small intake somewhere in the coop, the air will not flow evenly and your ventilation will be ineffective. The intakes need to be all along the eaves, evenly spaced, to add up to about the same square footage of venting as your ridge outlet.

I'm using a version of this with a slant roof. The low and high sides are open on the top 6". Air flows in the low side, up the ceiling, and out the high side. It works GREAT. But just popping a ridge vent on and sticking an intake in the gable? Not so much.

 

[redriver]

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We have ridge vents on our house and detached, unheated, insulated garage. Never paid attention to the house, but the snow doesn't always melt on the garage ridge vent right away. When the roof snow starts to melt, it does start at the ridge first, though.

RedRiver

 

[3scorpios]

I had no idea this issue was going to be such a challenge. I very much appreciate all the words of advice, but I'm still at a loss as to what would be best to do.

If you look at the pics, we don't really have enough space above the door and window to put gable vents in (which is why we were originally considering the small round vents). We do have that vent window on the one side of the coop, but it is quite large and positioned so that air would be blowing directly onto the roosts. I realize I could move the roosts, but I still don't know where to put vents other than the ridge. Over the nest boxes (or at the eaves) is still quite low, but if I put a vent over the nest boxes it would allow air to flow from the window vent on the other side, however this just seems to create an awful big draft and I would not be able to put a roost out of the path of the draft.

What if I made a baffle on the existing window vent (intake) to prevent drafts from blowing downward onto the chickens and installed a ridge vent to take the air out? debid, is that kind of what you're suggesting?

It seems to me after all I've read on here that good ventilation is more important that a warm coop, providing I can keep the drafts off the hens.

 

[debid]

I feel your pain. I read and read and read before building the coop and I wish now that I'd saved the pile of links because while there are lots of conflicting opinions about what works "best", there are also air movement basics that are easier to explain with drawings.

The problem with your situation is that you don't have a whole lot of wall space to work with that's above the birds' heads. The solution of a ridge vent would require installing intakes under the roof overhang (all down the wall on both sides) so that you've got an equal and balanced intake to your outtake. It's a whole lot easier to just leave the eaves open and install hardware cloth over the open area when you're building the coop. I'd take a good look under there and see what could be done to open that up a bit. That would make things a whole lot easier. A cupola works like a ridge vent with the premise of heat rising and air being drawn in to replace the air pulling out and it isn't so easily shut down by snow. I'm just not sure little gable vents will be enough for either of these to be very effective.

Large gable vents for cross-venting also seem like a good solution but they'd need to be above the roosting birds' heads to prevent drafts from blowing on the birds and you'd need a good overhang to keep the rain out.

ETA: In all honesty, I'd probably build a good-sized cupola, cut a hole in the gables as large as possible and put a baffled cover over those gable openings to reduce draft and deter the rain.

 

[chickendales]

the window if left open a crack on top can be usedas a vent

 

[gale65]

For our ventilation we cut at the top of the east wall all the way across (not counting where the studs are) by about 4-5" and a bigger hole at the very top of the south wall. I'm going to get a humidity meter and if it goes too high, we'll make more on the west and north walls. We have windows on all walls for summer ventilation.

 

[wyododge]

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It really does not need to be that difficult.

Drafts on chickens... Really? Chickens live outdoors all over the place except they are not called chickens they are pheasants or quail or turkey or just wild chickens. -30 to -50 degrees with 40 to 50 mph winds and pheasants do just fine as do chickens.

Ventilation is important, you have windows in your coop, that is what they are for. You may want to put metal fabric over them, other than that, you'll be fine.

Don't waste your money on insulation, it is completely unnecessary.

If you are worried about moisture, we use diatomaceous earth. When it gets damp we put more down, during the day the windows and doors are wide open.

The best advise anyone could give with the coop you have is to do nothing to your coop (except cover the windows with hardware cloth). See how things go and next spring you will be less anxious, much more educated, and well informed. I also suspect that like me you will realize you were worried about a great many issues that were, in the end, completely benign.