Ventilation

[fshinggrl]

I hear this a lot and I know it is important. We bought a pre-made chicken coop and it was homemade. The previous owner (maker) had 12 chickens but none of them survived past the first year. (I don't know why.) It is not the best designed coop... I am worried about when the winter comes. I am looking into insulating it. BUT... my question is.. it needs ventilation but can't be drafts. This might be trivial, but could you post pictures of what is meant by ventilation? I *think* I know but want to make sure.
Thanks!

 

[xtremevermonter]

User Antlers shared his homemade exhaust fan with me which he swears by: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=176258

 

[patandchickens]

I'd recommend against any kind of powered ventilation (be it a wind turbine on top, or an electric fan) unless you either have a really unusual coop situation or it's in addition to basically-adequate passive ventilation.

Passive ventilation means holes in yer walls, of whatever size depending on climate and #chickens and so forth. If you live somewhere hot, they can be most or even all of the walls (so the walls are mostly just hardwarecloth or other secure wire mesh); if you live somewhere that gets actual winter, you want to be able to close the vents mostly but not entirely down in winter, preferably with the open parts high on the walls.

Just look through peoples' coop pages (see "Coop Designs" link at top of page) and you will see all sorts of examples (some more adequate than others, of course)

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[fshinggrl]

Thanks Pat! Great article in your sig! very helpful!