Ventilated but Free of Drafts

[mcbrown7513]

Wow Keep. That is pretty much what I asspire to have. Good luck with your flock.

 

[pawl]

My coop is the Dr. T.P. Woods design poultry house so the whole south wall is quarter inch wire mesh and the window above the lower roof is closed this time of year. At 16 feet deep even on windy days the air is still at the northernmost end where the roost are. My girls get soaked out in the rain but dry quickly once they come inside. So I am of the belief that you can't have too much ventilation as long as you kill the drafts.

 

[CrazyChicken69]

I went with sliding windows. I can control how much ventilation there is - more when warm, less when cold. I have chicken wire on the inside so when the window doors are completely closed I can put insulation board in between the wire and window for cold weather.
My coop is insulted with thick foam board.

 

[Leigti]

Does the pop door have anything to do with ventilation? Also, where should the pop door be? The plans I am figuring out right now would have the pop door under the roosts. Is that the right position or should the roosts be on the other end of the coop?

 

[wildwestcoast]

Think of being in a car with a bunch of people in cold weather without the heat on. Almost immediately the moisuture begins to build up on the windows. This warm air condenses because it is in contact with the cooler window or wall inside a coop. That is damp, and that is what happens in a too small, too tight of coop with chickens. Damp chickens are cold chickens.

You do not give the dimensions or the number of birds, but I suggest you go out and measure how far your birds are away from the wall or from the ceiling of the coop, they should be a foot away from the wall, and their heads need to be about 15-18 inches below the ceiling when roosting. This keeps the moisture away from them, and allows the ventilation to move out the wet, moist air, keeping them dry. Dry feathers are very warm, and they should get through well below zero (as in -25) with no problem with plenty of feed.

Most of us in the beginning, think we want to keep our chickens warm in the very cold winter weather. We have been taught since children to keep the openings sealed up tight to trap heat inside our homes. It seems so counter intuitive to open up the coop to keep it warm. Instead of thinking warm, think DRY. You need good bedding that can absorb moisture, and you need openings that allow the moist air to escape along with the ammonia. And you needs adequate space between the birds and the walls and the ceiling. Too small of coop will make for wet chickens.

What you need is protection from the wind, but still allow air currents, you want movement of air. Hence free of drafts but well ventilated, which took me forever to figure out, and I got a bit of frostbite till I did.

Mrs K

that really helps me to understand..good car analogy. now I need to go and modify my coop a bit more

 

[Coopmom56]

We are about to move our 4 chickens into a new 6'x8' coop. The current ventilation setup in the new coop is open space under the eaves the entire 8' on the south side of the coop (covered by hardware cloth) as well as a small 1'x2' sliding window, also on the south side of the coop. The pop door will remain open during the day, on the east side of the coop, so that will help during the day, but not at night. We plan to put another sliding window on the north side of the coop but are running out of good work weather, so we plan to do this in the spring.

Will both openings on the south side of the coop provide enough ventilation through the winter, or do we need an opening on another side of the coop to draw air through?

 

[pawl]

Leigti... the pop door is as much a part of ventilation as any other hole in your coop's walls. The thing you want to avoid is drafts. I can't know for sure from your description but I'd worry about any opening near my chickens roosting area. Mrs. K didn't just hit the nail on the head with her analogy, she drove it home.

 

[Leigti]

OK. There will be a poop board under the roosts and above the door so that I think would keep it from being drafty. Basically the area right under the chickens will be completely solid. It's a work in progress's, better to figure it out on paper first I guess.

 

[aart]

Where to put ventilation can vary greatly depending on prevailing winds, shifting winds and other site aspects like surrounding trees and buildings nearby.
Best to make ventilation adjustable and observe what happens inside coop on windy days and make adjustments......
......easy with a walk in coop, not so much with small coops you can't get inside and shut the door.

 

[MeepBeep]

Where to put ventilation can vary greatly depending on prevailing winds, shifting winds and other site aspects like surrounding trees and buildings nearby.

Best to make ventilation adjustable and observe what happens inside coop on windy days and make adjustments......

......easy with a walk in coop, not so much with small coops you can't get inside and shut the door.

So true, I'm considering putting a few sheets of plywood spaced off the wall/window outside by about 4" on the prevailing wind side as a wind break, so I can open those windows more and still be mostly draft free as they provide the best cross ventilation... Those prevailing windows open during the summer work great and create a great cross ventilation, and during the summer I'm not concerned about the draft, but come winter that is another story...