Ventilation

[goldenberry]

My husband built our coop and I'm sure there's not enough ventilation. I have 15 laying hens and their roost is 1 1/2 feet off the floor. Two screened windows, one at each end. That's the only ventilation I have right now. There's no way to make holes over these two windows as that would put them at the same height of my hens heads. Would it work if I drilled holes on top of the coop going down the middle of the two roosts? In the winter, we cover up the screened windows. The coop is in a 20x20x6 dog pen and has a metal carport over it that covers the coop and the rest of the dog pen. During the day, the girls are let out in very large fenced in area and it is protected overhead with a lot trees.

 

[nuthatched]

Can you provide pictures please?

 

[Ted Brown]

Rule of thumb is 1 sq ft of ventilation PER BIRD.

 

[janiedoe]

Maybe you could add a section to the top (around 18" to 24") of the coop with hardware cloth all the way around.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Definitely need photos. And measurements, if possible. How large would the ventilation holes be and how many? How large are the current vents? How much wall space do you have to work with?

To quote https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...-there-and-cut-more-holes-in-your-coop.47774/ - "What if I just use a hole-saw to put a buncha 2" holes in the walls and screen them, that'll be good, right?" Unfortunately, a 2" diameter hole is about 3 square inches of total area. To put this in perspective, a square foot is 144 square inches. You would need almost 50 holes to equal one square foot of ventilation

 

[Ridgerunner]

I agree, photos would hep. And measurements, length, width, and especially height.

Where are you? What kind of winter weather are you going to have? What kind of summer weather are you going to have? What are your record highs and lows, not averages? The extremes are where you will run into trouble.