Ventilation Question - please help !!!

[mzfancichicks]

I have a 10 x 10 shed that I bought and made a coop out of it. I think I have "dusted" my chickens into sickness (I have a post on emergencies for the sickness). My question here is how much ventilation do I need to keep them healthy? I have 36 babies, 4 - 3 mo old silkies, and 5 - 19 wk old RIR's, and 5 - 10 week olds. I have a pen system in the coop - 6 cage pen inside along one wall ( 3 cages on top, 3 on bottom). I have started letting the RIR's stay outside their pen at night but everyone gets locked in the coop at night. Each pen is 3 x 4 or 2 x 4. I have an a/c going during the day to help cool and a small fan for circulation. I also have a 2 x 3 "cutout" in the front door and 1 x 2 windows on the left and right wall.

I am in the process of building individual pens in the chicken yard for the babies when they get bigger.

I'm having my brother in law come over this evening to make more ventilation holes but I'm not sure how big or how many. I would really appreciate any help/advise you guys could give.

Thank you
April

 

[elmo]

You can't have too much ventilation. Take a look at your coop and figure out where you can make openings so that wind won't be blowing onto your chickens while they're roosting, and make as many of those openings as you possibly can. If your coop isn't inside a predator proof run, you'll need to put hardware cloth over these openings, and ideally you could also put a hinged flap over each opening so you could close it down in cold weather.

Most coops have far too little ventilation.

 

[mzfancichicks]

Thank you - I'm thinking 5" wide by 12" long, between each of the 2x4's. They're spaced 16" apart. These along the top where the roof meets the wall (the eaves, I think?). What about along the bottom of the walls?

I really appreciate your help.

 

[scubaforlife]

I like to put my ventilation up high, I keep the soffets open. I also make my doors into dutch doors so I can open the tops during the day. I always put two doors into the coop, one for me to get in from outside the pen, and one to get into the pen.

 

[mzfancichicks]

That's a very good idea on the dutch doors. I will ask my brother in law about that.

Thank you.
April