ventilation construction question

[shadowman]

O.K, so, after reading about adequate ventilation, I've decided I need to add more to my coop. I have insulated the coop for our canadian winters and I don't want that to be in vain. So, if I cut a large , triangular vent at the top of my coop, just under the gable peak,( to match the shape of the peak) can I put a wind guard over it, about 2'' out from the coop? The guard would be enclosed around the edges except for the bottom lenght.( which will be 24") would that work to still ventilate the coop, or would the guard cuase too much interference?

 

[Judy]

2", sticking out? Does not sound like it would do much to interfere with either ventilation or the wind. If you mean over the wire mesh, sort of covering it, it still doesn't sound like it would interfere with ventilation a lot but I'd guess it would get full of gunk on the inside pretty quickly. Any way you can sort of extend the roof about a foot? This would also keep a lot more wind and rain out, unless it's on the windward side.

 

[Cargo]

That should be fine. In fact it is a nice example of ventilation not drafts.
Though, remember when calculating your winter ventilation that it only counts as 2" x the length of the opening.
Then you can uncover it in nice weather. Your chickens will enjoy all that open air.

If you can, post some pics or sketches so we can really see what you are talking about.

 

[shadowman]

I did create a sketch of it in corel draw, but I have to learn how to post pictures ect.
If it's only going to count as 2'' x the 24'' lenght, then maybe it would be better to increase the depth between the wall and cover plate to 4". My roof has a 6" overhang all the way around, so I do have the room to increase it without extending past the overhang.

 

[patandchickens]

That sounds good in general design, assuming the vent is on the usually-downwind side of the coop. (You do NOT want to be doing that on the upwind side, even with the baffle)

Remember though that just as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, an airflow path is only as, um, "open" as its narrowest part. So if you have a 2x24" slot open at the bottom of your wind baffle, then that is the effective amount of ventilation you are going to have, even if the triangular vent within the baffle is larger.

Two inches by two feet is, what, 48 square inches, which is about 0.3 square feet, which is really not a lot. For a coop with just a couple-few chickens in it, it might be adequate if you take other measures to keep the coop as dry as possible. For a coop with a 'normal' amount of chickens in it, it is certainly better than NO ventilation but probably going to fall short of adequate and leave you with some humidity/frostbite problem.

So (unless you *do* only have a couple chickens) if you could make this thing larger, or more than one of it, or anything like that to increase the total amount of ventilation available, it'd really be wise.

One option, if for some reason the structure of the coop really limits you, would be to make the stand-out wind guard *hinged*, so you can tilt it out away from the coop to use the full extent of the (larger) triangular opening when necessary and when not too windy. This would give you up to, I dunno, whatever the size of the triangle would be -- 2x2x2' would be something like 1.6 sq ft of opening, I think although I did not actually fish out my calculator -- for use on calm days, and you could close the wind guard down partly or totally on windier days, towards or "to" that 0.3 sq ft it has when vertical.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[shadowman]

I like the idea of hinging the cover, I think I'll try that. My coop is only 4' x 8' with a height of seven feet. the gable roofline is quite a sharp angle ( on the 8*' side of the coop). I only have 3 silkies now who occupy a smaller coop in our mud room. They will remain there untill spring, at which time I will move them into the new coop.