ventilation vs. drafts in East Bay Ca climate

[Caju]

I keep seeing warnings about making sure my coop has enough ventilation and warnings about making sure there are no drafts. Aren't those just a negative and positive way of saying "air flow"?

I live in Richmond, CA, (East SF Bay Area), where we have a very moderate climate. Rarely get nights below freezing--maybe a couple each year. But we also don't have really hot weather like some of the Florida folks who have posted here. We do have intense winds off of the bay sometimes, especially spring and summer.

I'm sure I don't need to insulate my coop, but I don't know how much air flow is appropriate. The indoor part of the coop will be 4' x 3.5' plus nesting boxes. It will be 3' high and 3' off the ground, so the floor will at about counter height. I plan to sweep/clean out the coop daily, with a removable droppings board under the roots.

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'd appreciate anyone's advice, but would especially love to hear from anyone in a similar climate and/or with a similar sized house.

Thanks to all you wonderful chicken-crazy people out there! I've been obsessively reading BYC for months and now have finally joined as I get closer to having my own chooks!

Caju in Richmond CA

 

[TomKat]

You're basically right it's all air flow. When talking about ventilation it's usually to prevent the build up of moisture and ammonia. Whereas, when preventing drafts it's a concern of the birds being able to stay warm. I've found being in NorCal the summer heat is more of an issue than the cold. Although, the Bay summers are more mild then the foothills that I'm in. For the vents, I would suggest putting them on the two sides perpendicular to the prevailing wind, this should prevent strong drafts . As for size it depends on how many. If you're using a small hole saw , say a 2 inch hole, I would space them 4 - 6 inches apart along the top. Honestly, I can't see a coop being too drafty with just vent holes.

 

[Caju]

Thanks, TomKat! I was thinking it's probably better to err on the side of more ventilation rather than less since it's not going to get too cold here. Then again, it's definitely not as hot here as it is in Cool. I'm originally from Sacramento, so from my perspective it is never hot here.

I have an old trailer window (about 18"x24") with glass louvers that I can open or close with a little turning crank. I was thinking of installing that on the north side. Do you think that would be better or worse than just having small vent holes?

How important is light within the coop? I know the nest boxes need to be dark, but is there any reason to have a lot of light in the rest of the coop or should it basically be dark too?

Thanks!
Caju

 

[eggchel]

Hi, Im in CA... Bay area, too. I have several pens that are just wire with a rain-proof roof and a tarp on the southwest side to protect them from too much sun. Our coops that are completely enclosed have small wire covered vents (4 in. x 12 in.) near the top on two sides and large wire covered vents (1 ft x 2 ft) down low on the same two sides. Those have drop down plywood doors that can close if needed. We have rarely needed to close them.

Any vent that can be opened and closed is a good choice. In this area, Ive lost birds to heatstroke but never to cold weather.

Our big layer house has two windows for light. Without any windows, you are creating time periods of artificial darkness unless you let your birds out right at dawn. Shorter day light hours usually result in a decrease in the number of eggs laid.

 

[#1California Chick]

Welcome to BYC!!

To me: Ventilation is allowing air to move freely, particularly to remove bad air (ammonia). Drafts are cold air that blows directly on roosting (or nesting) hens that they cannot avoid.

I live on the Peninsula between SF and San Jose. My nine hens had a lot of problems with the heat last summer (think cool water in cat boxes for them to walk through!). My coop is not insulated and that was not a problem this winter, even though we had some nights below freezing. Hens in Montana and Michigan have it MUCH worse!!

I have a 4' x 8' x 8" coop (walk in). All around the top of the walls (where the roof connects), I have a roughly two inch "gap" lined with hardware cloth. This allows "ventilation" at all times! I also have two windows (also lined with hardware cloth) on EACH side of my coop that can be opened from the outside. Last summer, there were nights when I left ALL of the windows open to give them the MAXIMUM ventilation and welcomed any draft that might blow on them! With windows all around, I can pick and choose what I leave open (windows nearer or further from the roosts). This winter, I often open the windows on the "sunny" side of the coop to let in warm, clean air on nice days (not rainy!).

Cleaning the "poop board" every day or two will certainly be a help in removing any ammonia (which really bothers the hens respirary function) from your coop. I clean my poop board every 3 to 4 days. I never have any ammonia smell in my coop.

Hope this helps!! Let me know if you have any other questions!!

Cindy

 

[Ozchook]

Caju, some great advice here from Pat...not a big fan of the 2" hole type ventilation though!

Good luck with it.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1642-VENTILATION

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

I was going to post a link to that article by Pat too, but don't need to now so I'll just say:

1) Hi neighbor, welcome to BYC!
2) I agree with Chel. We're in a pretty mild climate and cold isn't as much of an issue as you may think

 

[LynneP]

It's basically terminology, with 'draft' meaning unwanted air over the birds usually from the mid-point to the floor of the coop, and 'ventilation' usually referring to the rising air that you want to vent out the top of the coop. Where we live, we don;t need a lot of air in the bottom of the coop, plus we have our [pop doors- we need to vent moisture out near the top. But it's a different world where you raise birds!

 

[Chieftain]

Your design sounds very similar to mine in that it's elevated, and we too have high winds and generally stable temps. My coop is 20 sq. ft. with about 8 additional feet in the nest boxes.

I put additional permanent vents in my coop yesterday. I used a 4" hole saw and cut four holes completely through the walls in four spots; 2 low on the East wall and two high up at the peak of the ceiling on each end of the West wall. Then I used construction adhesive to install round, perforated aluminum soffit vent caps on each side of the hole, inside and out. They let in quite a bit of air, but the perforations in the caps prevent too much draft, but let in a surprizing amount of fresh air. These caps are easy to find and come in different sizes.

My primary ventilation is provided by the windows which I can prop open, but these permanent vents make sure there is still ventilation during the short periods when I have to have the windows shut. They will also allow me to use the coop as a brooder house once the chicks feather up. I have a brooder light mounted in there and the heat it generates creates air currents that help draw in fresh air and expell the warm damp air, while avoiding having a gale blowing through the coop.

 

[patandchickens]

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​