Ventilated but Free of Drafts

[mcbrown7513]

Here in south Mississippi, my main concern is summer heat and humidity. Try using a hunters talc sprayer to judge ventilation. I did that a few times with my small coop. Seems even on calm days the air moves bottom to top. This should evacuate any bad air out and put in clean air. Windier days should be even better.

 

[Leigti]

Here the prevailing winds seem to be from the west and the south, mostly in the south. So on the south wall , if I put a window lower and keep it closed in the winter but put a vent up above their heads and keep it open for the winter will that work? The west side of the coop will be against the garage wall. I plan to put windows and vents on three sides. Keeping the windows closed in the winter and open in the summer. And the vans always open. Does this sound about right? The roof will be slanted with the higher end in the front which is on the east. Have I completely confused everybody now?

 

[aart]

Here in south Mississippi, my main concern is summer heat and humidity. Try using a hunters talc sprayer to judge ventilation. I did that a few times with my small coop. Seems even on calm days the air moves bottom to top. This should evacuate any bad air out and put in clean air. Windier days should be even better.

Fascinating idea!
Do you mean something like this?

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I think you mean you have vents on low slant of roof (under overhang) and on high slant of roof. Yes, that is what is commonly used. If a coop is not insulated and all cracks not caulked it will pull in plenty of fresh air from around doors and corners to move the stale, moisture ridden air in coop up into the air flow between vents that will push it out. This is draft free, the only fast moving air is up six inches from roof moving from low to high end.

Unless you have a bunch of spare old widows laying around I'd not go through the effort of putting windows on all sides. South side will solar heat your coop, half your window if open is still glass. One window should provide enough intake air to vent out top of coop to keep it near same temp as outside. Two windows for cross venting would be better if your in the south, east and west walls. For that matter if your in the south attaching styro rigid insulation to the roof would be best. This will stop the solar heating from roof, just a mylar coated 1/2 inch would do wonders. Mylar side facing roof to reflect the heat.

 

[Leigti]

I think you mean you have vents on low slant of roof (under overhang) and on high slant of roof. Yes, that is what is commonly used. If a coop is not insulated and all cracks not caulked it will pull in plenty of fresh air from around doors and corners to move the stale, moisture ridden air in coop up into the air flow between vents that will push it out. This is draft free, the only fast moving air is up six inches from roof moving from low to high end.

Unless you have a bunch of spare old widows laying around I'd not go through the effort of putting windows on all sides. South side will solar heat your coop, half your window if open is still glass. One window should provide enough intake air to vent out top of coop to keep it near same temp as outside. Two windows for cross venting would be better if your in the south, east and west walls. For that matter if your in the south attaching styro rigid insulation to the roof would be best. This will stop the solar heating from roof, just a mylar coated 1/2 inch would do wonders. Mylar side facing roof to reflect the heat.

Actually I do have a bunch of windows laying around In the summer I plan to keep them all open, I would have them on three sides. The other side is against the wall of the garage so it doesn't really need one I guess. And then I plan on some kind of vents at the roof line all the on all four sides. I might have to make the lowest wall 5 feet so I can give the chickens enough room above and below their roosrs. So I think that would make the front wall 6 feet tall. That would give me plenty of room for events and make sure there's no drafts in the winter. I don't plan on using any insulation, Trying to decide between a shingled roof or the PVC/plastic kind. I've read that metal roofs can cause condensation and I don't want any part of that and I certainly don't need to heat up the coop in the summer.

 

[mcbrown7513]

That is

Fascinating idea!
Do you mean something like this?

exactly what I used to track my ventilation. I used corrugated metal on 2 sides of my coop and half inch hardware cloth to cover the "holes" but that kept the air flow. My roof ridge is vented by a 1 inch gap between the plywood and covered over with same metal, then a metal ridge cap. I bent it on a friend's metal break. I also put 2- 1 1/2 inch holes in the opposite sidesvfrom the wall metal. That provides a path for wind to move air from any direction.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Your basically building an aviary and might as well forgo all the wood. Vents along all the tops is actually self defeating. The action of low and high soffit vents creates vacuum providing more airflow than all sides along roof open. All sides is passive but the lower and top side of ridge line only makes forced air. With a forced air flow it will draw up the air in coop more readily.

Being in southern Mississippi a roof and four sides hardware cloth is all you need. If you wanted one side as a wind break to stop the warm winds coming from the gulf then have that wall wood and the other three wire. It's all you need that far south. Draft free is a concern in freezing climates. Your really only needing one wall to stop hurricane wind blasts from the south.

 

[mcbrown7513]

Thank you for all the advice. My goal is to have happy and healthy pets that provide eggs and meat.

 

[Deleon98]

I want to build a coop and i was thinking that to save on extra hardware cloth i could just use floor vents that they use in houses. I have a box of extras and would put some on the roof and on the walls. Would that work? Or would i need something different especially with fl summers?

 

[aart]

I want to build a coop and i was thinking that to save on extra hardware cloth i could just use floor vents that they use in houses. I have a box of extras and would put some on the roof and on the walls. Would that work? Or would i need something different especially with fl summers?

In FLA you might want whole walls to be hardware cloth.