Ventilation

[Noodlesandbasil]

Hey there, new here.

Question, is this enough ventilation for 16 chickens? Is what I have so far well placed? Any suggestions on that would be great. I'm planning to build a mesh wire door so we can keep the big door (3×6) open as much as needed.

We are in central Arkansas, hot summers mild winters.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Noodlesandbasil]

Oh, I'm also thinking of taking the metal window out and making it a mesh wire panel

 

[jthornton]

Those tiny holes won't do much but the open gable will. If you have plenty of overhang just cut the wood panel out and cover it from the outside with hardware cloth.

A great thread on ventilation.

JT

 

[Noodlesandbasil]

Thanks, I'll do that.

 

[Howard E]

Why all the fans? Is it hotter inside than out? If so, yes.......you need more ventilation and lots of it.

Another factor that might be at play is the roof. If the house has a dark colored, composition shingle roof, and it is hot and you can feel heat radiating from it, that is the source of all your heat gain. Great in winter.......horrible in the heat of the summer.

If so, not much you can do about that except maybe to put up some type of foil faced insulation under the roof rafters to reflect the radiant heat gain away from the interior of the house. 1/2" polyiso board (foil face up) or a foil faced bubble type rolled insulation.

 

[JDN]

Hard to say how big your hardware cloth windows are...if the shed is build with 16 inch studs on center, your have 10 sf of ventilation in the windows you cut alone, don't know . You're probably fine.

Good idea with the fan, especially in Arkansas.

 

[Blooie]

Be prepared to clean the fans. A lot. Chickens are really dusty. Mine was cleaned frequently to prevent the motor from overheating but it was well worth it to have it. Mine was a mobile home kitchen exhaust fan. There's a place on line that sells repair and replacement parts for older mobile homes (ask me how I know that. <sigh> ) and that's where we got the fan. Because it's designed for the older mobiles with 2 inch walls, it's easier to mount in the thinner construction of the coop. It has a cover on the outside and it operates when you pull a chain. The chain opens the cover and starts the fan motor. Hubby is an electrician, and he rewired it for me. So I could pull the chain and not have the motor turn on, just for passive ventilation. It was open almost all the time. By flipping a light switch, I could start the fan for active ventilation. It worked beautifully installed above the people door and when our temps soared into the 100s it really helped. We also had a vent down low in the coop. The back of the coop was against a long thick hedge of bushes and that area is cool and shady even on the hottest days. I know, some say never do that, but we did it anyway and never regretted it. The low vent was just opposite the high fan, so it did a beautiful job of pulling that cooler air from the shady spot up throughout the coop the via exhaust fan. In our brutal winters we covered the low vent. The chickens' pop door was also open 24/7, year round. They moved between the coop and the run via a sort of covered tunnel, so air circulated in but drafts were blocked.

But that fan did need frequent cleaning, and once we made it part of our routine it wasn't a big deal to knock the dust off.

 

[Noodlesandbasil]

Thanks for the replies

Will definately be cleaning the fans. Birds are some dirty creatures..haha

We put them in for air circulation to attempt to pull cool air in and force the hot out via the top fan. It is a few degrees warmer than outside (5° or so), but we put them up in preparation for the summer. It gets very hot and humid here and we want to have as many of the kinks worked out by the time it is horrible out. Lol

The coop gets morning sun but is shaded by some mature oak trees in the afternoon, the run is shaded in the afternoon too.

We dug hardware cloth down about a foot and it goes up 3ft or so along the run and hen house with chicken wire on the top portion of the run.

Considering leaving the main door open 24-7 as well as the pop door, It would add significant ventilation. Not sure if run is secure enough without hardware cloth over the whole thing. We live in the city and have opossum, hawks, well fed feral cats and possibly raccoons (haven't seen any though)

 

[Noodlesandbasil]

Was also thinking about building a planter roof and growing something up there to try and absorb the morning sun... anyone with any experience with that?

 

[wyoDreamer]

I think there was a coop on here that had a green roof ... it was from a couple of years ago though. It was really cute.