Ventilation

[Rodrad]

I am planning to build a small chicken coop. I read the article on the ventilation by Patandchicken(?) and it is a great article.
I live in Columbus, IN and the summers can be in a week here and there quite hot and humid with temps over 90 F degrees. In winter (it is southern Indiana) days are around freezing or in twenties but again for a week or so it can go down to close to zero degree.

i just want to add info about chicken coop ventilation I gathered from my neighbor down the road. He had up to 40 chickens in the coop size 12’x8’. So the area may be on smaller size (2.4 ft2/chicken), typically it is recommended 2-3 and evening 4 ft2/chicken.

Well here is the specific about his ventilation which he confirmed worked great over many years he had chickens.
His winter total ventilation area was 4.8 ft2 (having grills on two walls but not in the area of roosting). The grills were all fairly high, so there was not direct draft over the roosting area. This calculates to be: 0.5 ft2/ 10 ft2 of floor space or 0.12 ft2/ chicken.

He kept pine shavings on the floor and replaced it fairly often.

In the summer he used a fan which was sucking inside air out.

I plan to build the coop using 0.5 ft2 / 10 ft2 floor area, but I will have close to 3 ft2 floor area per chicken.

If anybody has a good experience with ventilation area in similar climate I would like to hear about it.

 

[cavemanrich]

There is still a lot of information missing from your post. You are trying mathematical crammed calculations, But I still don't know ,,,, HOW MANY CHICKENS DO YOU WANT TO RAISE/KEEP. Are these chickens for egg production, or meat.??
Will your chickens be confined to coop, or will there be a run attached.?
Your friend had insufficient ventilation since he had exhaust fans needed during summer. The fans did solve the problem, but at the constant fan operating.
If you are content with your friends design, and operation, then ask him to advise you as to your coop. It worked for him, so maybe it will be correct for you. You are in same area. He has been doing it to his satisfaction for a long time.

To avoid overcrowding and have happy/healthy chickens consider this.
Here are the basic accepted values. Build a coop so there is 4 square feet floor space per chicken . Have an attached run with 10 square feet of space per chicken. If you free-range, then skip the run values. Free-range is of course risky due to predators. Your choice what you are comfortable with.

Here is an example..
8 foot by 8 foot coop. Ideal size for 16 chickens. Sure you could squeeze in more,,,,, but overcrowding is a major problem with chickens. If you choose small bantams, they require less room, so coop can be smaller , or more banties in that 8 X 8.
Make your run a minimum of 10 feet by 16 feet. Any other combination to get 160 square feet will be fine.
Make your coop a walkin, with 6 to 7 foot roof. Higher is always better. Have roosts at about 3 to 3, 1/2 feet high. Have ventilation at roof line on all 4 walls if possible. Have roof overhang wall to prevent rain and snow from blowing in.
For summer ventilation you should install openable windows. This way you can have cross ventilation that would keep chicken from overheating. Windows at roost level are just fine. The roof line ventilation is a year-round thing in addition to the windows. The windows would also provide much needed daylight inside coop.
Can you sketch the coop design you are considering? We can add our ideas when we see you plans, and possibilities.
WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and,

 

[Rodrad]

There is still a lot of information missing from your post. You are trying mathematical crammed calculations, But I still don't know ,,,, HOW MANY CHICKENS DO YOU WANT TO RAISE/KEEP. Are these chickens for egg production, or meat.??
Will your chickens be confined to coop, or will there be a run attached.?
Your friend had insufficient ventilation since he had exhaust fans needed during summer. The fans did solve the problem, but at the constant fan operating.
If you are content with your friends design, and operation, then ask him to advise you as to your coop. It worked for him, so maybe it will be correct for you. You are in same area. He has been doing it to his satisfaction for a long time.

To avoid overcrowding and have happy/healthy chickens consider this.
Here are the basic accepted values. Build a coop so there is 4 square feet floor space per chicken . Have an attached run with 10 square feet of space per chicken. If you free-range, then skip the run values. Free-range is of course risky due to predators. Your choice what you are comfortable with.

Here is an example..
8 foot by 8 foot coop. Ideal size for 16 chickens. Sure you could squeeze in more,,,,, but overcrowding is a major problem with chickens. If you choose small bantams, they require less room, so coop can be smaller , or more banties in that 8 X 8.
Make your run a minimum of 10 feet by 16 feet. Any other combination to get 160 square feet will be fine.
Make your coop a walkin, with 6 to 7 foot roof. Higher is always better. Have roosts at about 3 to 3, 1/2 feet high. Have ventilation at roof line on all 4 walls if possible. Have roof overhang wall to prevent rain and snow from blowing in.
For summer ventilation you should install openable windows. This way you can have cross ventilation that would keep chicken from overheating. Windows at roost level are just fine. The roof line ventilation is a year-round thing in addition to the windows. The windows would also provide much needed daylight inside coop.
Can you sketch the coop design you are considering? We can add our ideas when we see you plans, and possibilities.
WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and,

Thanks for your comments. My chicken coop will have attached a very large run. We have plans to have dual purpose chickens. In the summer i plan to uncover a very large area (about 2ft2/10 ft2 floor space) and open a window (about 1/2 ft2/ 10 ft2) so that will serve for natural ventilation. Also, my chicken coop will be in shade all afternoon.

 

[Rodrad]

I am planning to build a small chicken coop. I read the article on the ventilation by Patandchicken(?) and it is a great article.
I live in Columbus, IN and the summers can be in a week here and there quite hot and humid with temps over 90 F degrees. In winter (it is southern Indiana) days are around freezing or in twenties but again for a week or so it can go down to close to zero degree.

i just want to add info about chicken coop ventilation I gathered from my neighbor down the road. He had up to 40 chickens in the coop size 12’x8’. So the area may be on smaller size (2.4 ft2/chicken), typically it is recommended 2-3 and evening 4 ft2/chicken.

Well here is the specific about his ventilation which he confirmed worked great over many years he had chickens.
His winter total ventilation area was 4.8 ft2 (having grills on two walls but not in the area of roosting). The grills were all fairly high, so there was not direct draft over the roosting area. This calculates to be: 0.5 ft2/ 10 ft2 of floor space or 0.12 ft2/ chicken.

He kept pine shavings on the floor and replaced it fairly often.

In the summer he used a fan which was sucking inside air out.

I plan to build the coop using 0.5 ft2 / 10 ft2 floor area, but I will have close to 3 ft2 floor area per chicken.

If anybody has a good experience with ventilation area in similar climate I would like to hear about it.

Based on many inputs from members and based on some of my neighbors who have chickens I am now making plans for chicken coop with these matrixes:

- 4 ft2 floor space / chicken
- 0.5 ft2 / 10 ft2 of the floor space for winter ventilation
- 2 ft2 / 10 ft2 of the floor space for additional summer ventilation
- the total summer ventilation is 2.5 ft2 / 10 ft2 OR, 1 ft2/ chicken

 

[Rodrad]

Well, based on many more inputs I am now designing the chicken coop to have:
2 ft2 vents area / 10 ft2 floor space in winter,
3.75 ft2 vents area / 10 ft2 floor space in summer.

Having 4ft2/chicken, this comes to be:
0.8 ft2 vents area / chicken in winter,
1.5 ft2 vents area / chicken in summer.

 

[Rodrad]

My finished coop has an option (a shutter over 5 ft2 ventilation area), so if I find it beneficial I can increase the winter ventilation area to be 1.3 ft2 / chicken.

 

[DobieLover]

My finished coop has an option (a shutter over 5 ft2 ventilation area), so if I find it beneficial I can increase the winter ventilation area to be 1.3 ft2 / chicken.

Do you have any sketches of your coop plans? You are heading in the right direction with the ventilation. IMO you cannot have too much ventilation. You just need to be able to avoid all drafts that are strong enough to blow open feathers on roosted birds.
If you intend to get birds with large single combs, you will likely still have some minor frostbite during the most bitter cold of winter.
I try to mitigate that by keeping birds with relatively small combs.

 

[Rodrad]

Do you have any sketches of your coop plans? You are heading in the right direction with the ventilation. IMO you cannot have too much ventilation. You just need to be able to avoid all drafts that are strong enough to blow open feathers on roosted birds.
If you intend to get birds with large single combs, you will likely still have some minor frostbite during the most bitter cold of winter.
I try to mitigate that by keeping birds with relatively small combs.

Thanks for reply. Where do you live, how harsh winters are?
Here, in Columbus (southern Indiana) we rarely have few days when the temp is in low teens and very few days (not even every winter) when temp over night dips in single digit.

I read about potential problem of comb frostbites. I am not sure if/which of mine chickens have large combs (Australorp, Buff Orpington, Rhode Island Red and Barred Rock).

 

[DobieLover]

Thanks for reply. Where do you live, how harsh winters are?
Here, in Columbus (southern Indiana) we rarely have few days when the temp is in low teens and very few days (not even every winter) when temp over night dips in single digit.

I read about potential problem of comb frostbites. I am not sure if/which of mine chickens have large combs (Australorp, Buff Orpington, Rhode Island Red and Barred Rock).

Thanks for editing your post with pictures! You did a great job on the coop!
I live in NY.
Lowest temp my flock has seen is -23F. We always have a few to several days sub-zero.
You have much milder winters. Don't hesitate to add lots of ventilation up high.
I use a ridge vent, soffit vents, gable vents two open pop doors and two cracked windows during the winter and open all 5 windows to max during warmer weather.

If you can cut off the siding between your rafter tails down to the top plate, I would do that. Then staple in 1/2" hardware cloth pieces and screw a trim board along the top plate cut line to further secure the HW cloth and cover the cuts.
I did this on my coop. If you click on the My Coop link under my avatar you can go to the construction page and see how I did it.