I'd just love to have opinions on where/how to put the ventilation. I figure it's probably easier to do it right now than to try and do it later! Here's the coop so far:
I'm calling the front the part with the door, and the back is opposite that. The overhang in the front and back will be a foot, maybe a bit more. The overhang on the sides ended up not being as big as I'd hoped, but should still be around 6-8" I believe.
We have two little bathroom slider windows that we will be installing on either side of the door with hardware cloth screens. We also have two larger approximately 3'x3' windows that I want to hinge and put on the long sides. The roost will be at the back (opposite the door) about 2-3' up. We'll have the nesting boxes below the roost (with an overhang and removable poop boards so the nesting boxes won't get pooped in), and a storage loft above the roosts. I'm hoping since the roosts will be kind of tucked in they will stay warmer in the winter. We have a vent that will be going in the roof already.
As for other ventilation, I was thinking I'd just use hardware cloth in the soffits. We may have to figure out a way to winterize them in the fall but I'm okay with that. I was thinking for the door of making a screen door (it's not a standard size so we will have to make the door regardless) for summer and either covering it in fall or making a second door in the fall. I don't really want two doors on it at the same time. Or maybe we'll make a dutch door and have the top half screened in summer but not in winter. The back gable will be in the loft, so I don't know if there's any point to adding ventilation there? Since the roost is under that area though, would it be beneficial to maybe put a little screened vent in the floor of the loft and then a vent in the gable? Should I screen the entire front (above the door in the picture), or just cut out an area for a vent? I just found out the copy of "Fresh-Air Poultry Houses" came in at the library, so I'm going to pick that up today and scour through it before Sunday (when we're hoping to get the coop built), but thought I'd get some real-life advice too.
Does it sound like I'm going to have enough ventilation? The coop is about 8x10, and I'll have about 20 chickens in it this summer but we've already for sure got 3 roos and I'm sure we'll have more, so I expect to be down to around 10-12 chickens over the fall and winter. We will have a 180 sq ft permanent run, as well as a rotational pasture that will be on around a quarter of an acre. Our absolute hottest day in the last two years was 95F (35C) and our coldest was overnight and it got down to 14F (-10C). Generally, the weather is fairly temperate and somewhere between those two extremes, with the average high in summer being around 70-75F and our average low in winter being around or just above freezing.
I'm calling the front the part with the door, and the back is opposite that. The overhang in the front and back will be a foot, maybe a bit more. The overhang on the sides ended up not being as big as I'd hoped, but should still be around 6-8" I believe.
We have two little bathroom slider windows that we will be installing on either side of the door with hardware cloth screens. We also have two larger approximately 3'x3' windows that I want to hinge and put on the long sides. The roost will be at the back (opposite the door) about 2-3' up. We'll have the nesting boxes below the roost (with an overhang and removable poop boards so the nesting boxes won't get pooped in), and a storage loft above the roosts. I'm hoping since the roosts will be kind of tucked in they will stay warmer in the winter. We have a vent that will be going in the roof already.
As for other ventilation, I was thinking I'd just use hardware cloth in the soffits. We may have to figure out a way to winterize them in the fall but I'm okay with that. I was thinking for the door of making a screen door (it's not a standard size so we will have to make the door regardless) for summer and either covering it in fall or making a second door in the fall. I don't really want two doors on it at the same time. Or maybe we'll make a dutch door and have the top half screened in summer but not in winter. The back gable will be in the loft, so I don't know if there's any point to adding ventilation there? Since the roost is under that area though, would it be beneficial to maybe put a little screened vent in the floor of the loft and then a vent in the gable? Should I screen the entire front (above the door in the picture), or just cut out an area for a vent? I just found out the copy of "Fresh-Air Poultry Houses" came in at the library, so I'm going to pick that up today and scour through it before Sunday (when we're hoping to get the coop built), but thought I'd get some real-life advice too.
Does it sound like I'm going to have enough ventilation? The coop is about 8x10, and I'll have about 20 chickens in it this summer but we've already for sure got 3 roos and I'm sure we'll have more, so I expect to be down to around 10-12 chickens over the fall and winter. We will have a 180 sq ft permanent run, as well as a rotational pasture that will be on around a quarter of an acre. Our absolute hottest day in the last two years was 95F (35C) and our coldest was overnight and it got down to 14F (-10C). Generally, the weather is fairly temperate and somewhere between those two extremes, with the average high in summer being around 70-75F and our average low in winter being around or just above freezing.
