Ventilation

[Love My Chickies]

Hi! These are the two ends of my coop. I live in the Houston area where it's quite often in the 90s or even triple digits, which is why it's completely open on both ends. My question is how much do I need to cover for winter to keep my babies draft free but still have enough ventilation? We are planning on screwing plywood on the bottom third or so. The tops of the door/wall will be open for ventilation.

 

[WonkierZulu]

Cover the side that gets the most wind

 

[3KillerBs]

Just cover 1/2 or 2/3 the way up the windward end so that they can get out of the wind when they want to.

Your winter isn't much cooler than some places summers.

 

[Love My Chickies]

Just cover 1/2 or 2/3 the way up the windward end so that they can get out of the wind when they want to.

Your winter isn't much cooler than some places summers.

Except last year. That freeze was crazy!

 

[3KillerBs]

Except last year. That freeze was crazy!

Yeah. That was NUTS.

My sister sold her house and moved here just before it struck and was giving thanks that she wasn't having to deal with frozen pipes.

 

[Alaskan]

Maybe just block the wall behind the perches so they no longer have a breeze at perch level.

But, you might just need to extend the roof to keep out any sideways rain.

I applaud your coop design. Excellent choice of ventilation for the Houston climate.

And YES on the freak weather, hopefully that will not repeat.

 

[Love My Chickies]

Maybe just block the wall behind the perches so they no longer have a breeze at perch level.

But, you might just need to extend the roof to keep out any sideways rain.

I applaud your coop design. Excellent choice of ventilation for the Houston climate.

And YES on the freak weather, hopefully that will not repeat.

We have tarps on both sides to keep rain out. The pictures I posted were in mid-production.

 

[Love My Chickies]

Yeah. That was NUTS.

My sister sold her house and moved here just before it struck and was giving thanks that she wasn't having to deal with frozen pipes.

We got very lucky. We never lost power or had any pipes freeze. Many people around us did.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

If your roosting bars are over where the arrow points, so that any preezes flow in front of them, and the chickens are sleeping in a largely draft free "dead air" pocket, you don't need to do anything.

OTOH, if thos ethree white inverted "L" shaped things seen between the doors are your roost bars, you will need to block air flow on the windward side to keep them draft free.

 

[Love My Chickies]

View attachment 2832928

If your roosting bars are over where the arrow points, so that any preezes flow in front of them, and the chickens are sleeping in a largely draft free "dead air" pocket, you don't need to do anything.

OTOH, if thos ethree white inverted "L" shaped things seen between the doors are your roost bars, you will need to block air flow on the windward side to keep them draft free.

Those are the roosting bars. They sleep on the top. We were considering lowering it. That is the fence to the left. You can see it better in this picture.