Ventilation above roosts - how high?

[Kayla's Lunch]

I am working on the roosts and ventilation in the coop in preparation for my first winter with chickens. How far below the ventilation area should the roosts be? TIA

 

[HuskerHens18]

I'd like to know too, my ventilation is about 6inches above roost level and 7ft off the ground. It may be too high as it didn't do much good over winter, still tons of frostbite and dust.
Great question!

 

[aart]

How far below the ventilation area should the roosts be?

The higher above the roosts the ventilation is, the better,
to avoid direct drafts on roost area.

Even with well placed ventilation,
frostbite on large straight combs is pretty inevitable, IMO.

 

[Kayla's Lunch]

What if the ventilation is a few feet in front of the roosts? My coop is 4' x 12' and I have 12 chickens. Right now, my roosts are pretty high and the coop is pretty open for the top 4 feet of the walls. Can I have a 1.5' x 4' ventilation (just hardware cloth) area that is about 5'-6' in front of the roosts? Or would it just be safer to lower the roosts for winter?

 

[aart]

What if the ventilation is a few feet in front of the roosts? My coop is 4' x 12' and I have 12 chickens. Right now, my roosts are pretty high and the coop is pretty open for the top 4 feet of the walls. Can I have a 1.5' x 4' ventilation (just hardware cloth) area that is about 5'-6' in front of the roosts? Or would it just be safer to lower the roosts for winter?

What your ventilation 'should' be is very hard to assess over the internet,
and there are really no hard numbers to define 'good ventilation' for every situation.
A good set of pics, inside and outside coop, can help spot big problems, but....
Much depends on your micro-climate onsite, things like prevailing winds and how they behave moving thru your yard.
The best way to assess ventilation is to stand in the coop on a windy day and see what the air movement feels like..or on a calm day and what it smells like. Measuring humidity and temp levels inside and outside the coop for comparison can also offer clues.