ventilation vs. drafts in East Bay Ca climate

[Caju]

Thanks everyone! I'm getting the idea that I definitely need more ventilation than I was planning on. I had thought there was some advantage (besides warmth) in keeping the house kind of dark, but it seems like maybe it's just the nest boxes that need to be dark. I may try to figure out how to make one wall removable--that sounds like a good idea. Or maybe I can find some more salvage windows. The materials I've already bought and will need to buy for the run are already stretching my budget, so anything I can do for free will help.

I'm going to work on the nesting boxes today if I have time.

Thanks again for all your great advice! It's really great to hear from people with experience.

Caju

 

[AmCanyonStables]

Hi Caju - I am very close to you, so our weather is about the same - I may get a little more fog, depending on how close to the bay you are. Like California chick, I have gaps for ventillation all around the top of the walls, under the roof overhang(you can't see these in the photos) During the build, I got worried that I did not have enough ventillation, so added the triagular vents you can see, and also the six light window, which is hinged with hardware cloth behind it. I keep this open during the day in the warm weather, closed at night and in winter. I have not lost a single chicken, so this must be working. As for light, the roof panels let light in, but are grey rather than clear so not too much. The nest box side is to the west, most of my wind comes from that direction.
Oh, and the window is a kitchen cabinet door I got for $5.00 at an outlet store on Mare Island.

[/img]

 

[jeremy]

from Oakland!

I've always been told that whatever amount of ventilation you provide for your chickens that it needs to be well above where they roost/sleep. This usually prevents any drafty winds from harming your birds. So anywhere along the ceiling of the coop is good.

Do you have pictures of your coop/birds? I'm glad to see another face from the Bay Area here on the forum!

 

[Caju]

Hi Jeremy,
I don't have any chickens yet and am just in the process of building the coop and run. I'll post pictures when I've got something to show!

 

[jeremy]

Quote:
What breeds are you looking to get?

 

[Manok-Tao]

Quote:
Yup. Air flow when you WANT it is ventilation (although, in many cases what you want is air exchange at as low airspeed as possible); air flow when/where you don't want it (basically in cold weather) is drafts

The wind blows in from the southwest. The door I open will be on the west, the popdoor for the chooks will be on the east, and the nests are on the south. The coop will be located about 10' south of my garage. On which side should I put air vent holes? I've read conflicting info on this and none of it for my climate. How big should they be?

I am quite obviously not in your climate

(I once spent a week doing biology field work in the tule swamps inland from San Francisco, but that does not count) but I *have* lived in reasonably warm areas e.g. NC, and I would suggest something like the following:

-- make your ventilation openings as large as possible, possibly whole-wall or nearly so (you can have panels to close them off in bad weather, if desired), on at least the E and possibly also S and/or N walls.

-- on any walls that are not mostly mesh, have decently large openings that extend perhaps from mid-wall up to near the top of the wall, and are adjustable. If you can arrange for them to open from the *top* (a doublehung or upside-down singlehung window, or a hopper-style window, or etc) so much the better, although it is not essential.

If you do that, I would pretty much guarantee you will always have the flexibility to do what's best for the daily weather, and will probably never have an excessively-hot coop in summer nor an intractably-humid or too-drafty coop in winter.

There are obviously a lot of ways to do it, that's just one; but I think you would find it a pretty safe bet.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat​

Pat's Big ol page on ventilation has really great info and is explained well. I'm building a coop in NC this winter and after reading the info provided by Pat I'm changing the way I put the siding on my coop to allow for removable "seasonal panels".

 

[Oopoo]

I have a full open front door about 2 x 3 feet and then a 4 x 16 inch vent up high in the back. During the summer in Northern IL they do fine and if the rain is really blowing I just tarp. In the winter I add a double layer of beach towels pinned to the door overnight and cover half of the door on really cold days. They also get a 150 w red heat lamp during cold days. I've had no sick chickens and only one case of frostbite on Floppy (you guessed it her comb) But overall they do great. I think that more ventilation is the way to go.

 

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

I tell ya whut, Pat's ventilation page is awesome and it prompted me to go back and rework an old coop I'd built. Thanks for that, Pat.

I'm working on several new coop designs and always trying to maximize ventilation. I'm rolling with the idea that any wall space starting at about 8 or 10" above roost height is just a blank canvas for ventilation. I'm also liking the idea of a poop-through floor (like wire) on a coop raised about 18" off the ground. This allows for air flow between the poop and the coop. There are some other pros and cons to this idea and more tangents we could take regarding them, but the main point is that ventilation is key to properly housing your chickens. The air in a coop with inadequate ventilation is nas-tay.

In St. Helena (North Bay), our coop was wide open on two walls right at the roost height. It was just chicken wire between the roosting hens and the blowing wind. Conventional logic would say that's bad because of the draft, but that property has had chickens like that for over 20 years, so...I dunno.

 

[sotelomary]

I live in Alameda, where our summers are cool and alittle foggy and winters are mild. I have the playhouse coop that has the 2inch ventilation holes on top. I think my husband put in about 6 of them. I also always leave the pop door open. With 5 hens I have not had a problem so far. I use DE which holds the smell down.

Mary

 

[gsim]

Quote:
I did 1 sq ft for each 4 chickens in my flock. I had 24 (now23) and I did 6 sq ft ventilation. It is full-time and is all above the 8 ft ht of the walls as soffit vents, gable vents, and one turbine vent on roof. I would make the coop around 5 ft tall, and not 3 ft tall. Then put the vents on two walls, at the very highest place if a gable roof. If a shed roof, then do the entire front and entire back at the place just above the tops of those walls. In other words, do not close up the space between the rafters front and back. It will be fine and you can put roosts up 18" or so and chooks will NOT be in a draft unless you choose to open windows/doors in warmer weather. It will remain dry no matter the weather because the humidity from their breathing and their poop

will be exhausted out the top round-the-clock. The openings should be screened with hardware cloth mesh to protect from rats and from weasels.

Also I would raise the coop to a height of 2 ft instead of 3 ft unless you just have to have 3 ft for a particular reason. Be sure to make nest boxes lower than roosts to keep chooks from sleeping and pooping

in nests. Do a nest box bumpout and pay attention to prevention of rainwater from leaking into the nest boxes at the intersection of the lid and wall. May be done via roof overhang, or by flexible flashing that moves with the lid being opened and closed (vinyl baseboard or sheet rubber are good for this)