Ventilation

[CKMore]

I have a large 16' x 9' coop. The inside of the coop is divided into 3 areas for different breeds. Each area has a open medium doggy door connected to their run that is open year round. I'm still having problems in the winter with ventilation even with the 3 doors open. I am considering putting in a fan in my coop to help with ventilation. I wonder if a fan would get clogged with with the feather dust. Does anyone use a fan in their coop for ventilation and do you have problem with clogging?

I have a 3" 12v inline marine fan that works on a 20w solar panel. I would only have to cut a 3" hole in the coop. The marine fan is very strong RMP fan & it would only run during times that the sun shines on the solar panel. It is a perfect setup, but I just wonder if the fan would get clogged too fast. Since the fan is made to add onto a pipe I thought maybe I would put an extension of pipe on it & add a filter. Maybe a knee high pantyhose to the extended pipe. Then I could change the filter (knee high). What do you think?

 

[21hens-incharge]

I think it will work as well as it can. The nylon will work as a replaceable filter. Where I worked we used them to keep fine dust out of high power yet small fans 3600 rpm).

What kind of up high vents do you already have in the coop?
Is the issue odors or frostbitten combs?

 

[CapricornFarm]

Most people have open areas under the eaves covered with HC. That helps , and i open both windows and the back door during the day.
Have you tried PDZ to control ammonia?

 

[CKMore]

I do not have high vents & that seems to be the problem. The problem I'm having is with the ammonia smell in the winter. So I was planning on putting the small fan up high, but not sure if I should have it blowing in or blowing out. I would think blowing out would take the smell out, but it may cause a draft of circulation from the 3 doggy door size openings and that draft might blow the air around the perches. If I have the fan blowing in (up high & on the opposite side of the coops) it would be bringing fresh air in, but also cold air. I thought if I have the fan blowing in, I could do a pop can heater outside. A pop can heater would be blowing heat in during the day. If you have never heard of a pop can solar heater, look it up on youtube. It something cheap & easy to make that creates a lot of heat. Maybe I should start a thread on pop can heater.

Our coop is made out of exterior doors all the way around. The exterior doors are insulated metal doors. I have three of the doors that will open. I leave 2 doors open all the time because there is wire fencing behind those two doors so we can leave them open. But during the winter we can not leave those two doors open as snow will blow in & the two doors are too close to the perches inside.

I will try the PDZ crystals & see if that helps. I tried the powder freshener & did not like the dust it created.

 

[21hens-incharge]

How about a series of roof vents?
What do the soffits look like?
Can you open some of the soffit area?

I have used big fans in my coop when it is super hot in the summer. I put those blowing in, but then that is heat of summer.

The only other suggestion would be to do a heavy cleaning and add pine shavings then clean out as needed.

My 8x14 coop with 24 birds gets a clean out once a month. It usually smells like pine in there. But then I have open soffits on it.

The pine absorbs the moisture in the droppings keeping things dry.

Another reason to do a solid cleaning is for the health of your birds. If you can smell the ammonia then it is to much on their lungs to be healthy for long. Ammonia smell means moisture is present. That greatly increases the risk of frostbite.

I would not add a heater.

 

[JackE]

The fan would get clogged, and without religious maintenance, end up burned out. A quick fix for your coop, is as simple as adding more ventilation, into your coop. Unless you have some kind of thinly feathered, exotic breed of chickens, worrying about them getting chilly, is a waste of time. They don't need any added heat, at all. Take a look at my coop (In the avatar). It's been through winters with -10F temps, not including any windchill. The WHOLE front wall is open, 8X3.5' of it. None of my birds have ever suffered from frostbite, or any respiratory problems, at all. Proper fresh air flow/ventilation in a coop, is right up there in importance, as food and water, to chickens. Your coop stinks, because it needs to be opened up. If this was my coop, I would replace a few of those doors, with two piece doors. So the bottom half could be opened, separately from the top. That would give you a coop, with a much more easier way to adjust fresh air flow.

 

[CKMore]

I clean the coop at least once a month or more. Ive used pine & straw & refresh stuff. Smells good for a few days, week maybe - but then yuck. Just can't seem to get rid of the ammonia smell in the winter, when it's closed up. Its not so so horrible that it burns my eyes or anything like that. I have a sensitive noise & I assume my birds do too.
There are no soffits on the coop. I'm wondering if it might be the flooring. Because it has a wood floor & we put a 1/2 thick rubber on top of the wood floor for easy cleaning. I'm thinking maybe the moisture got between the rubber flooring & wood floor, but I don't know. But I want to try the ventilation first to see if that might help, before tarring out the floor. Maybe just go with dirt floor if the floor is the problem.

Maybe the heater is not a great idea, but I live in Michigan & some heat would help cut down on the use of heat lamps so much when its freezing here.

 

[JackE]

It's not the bird's noses you worry about, it's their lungs. Chickens, like most birds, have sensitive lungs. If it smells of ammonia in there, the birds can easily start to have respiratory problems. And get rid of the heatlamps. I see you are kinda new here. But EVERY winter, on this site, we get to read the horror stories, of coops, along with the chickens in them, burning down. Sometimes, people's houses go with them. All because of some misguided worry, about the chickens getting cold. Chickens are built to handle the cold. They really don't need any help from us.

 

[biophiliac]

A de-icer for their water would be good but heat lamps not so much. As stated before, some venting down low and some up high to create passive air flow without draftiness on the roosts.
Eta- Do you have lots of birds? Sounds like you could have 40 or more in that big coop.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I like the idea of a few dutch doors.

My big coop has a wooden floor. It is painted with porch and floor paint to seal it. Several years of sweeping, scooping (plastic scoop shovel), and scraping random frozen poops with a metal hoe and it is holding up well.

Perhaps the moisture is from under your wooden floor. More likely it is trapped between the mat and floor.

I am curious what a roof looks like with no overhangs.

I am thinking we can be very creative in helping figure out how to add vents if you post a couple pictures.