Ventilation??

[shend]

My coop is done but no chickens yet. Question about ventilation.

My coop is tall, 8ft, with a lean to or shed roof. I have ventilation all the way around just under the roof. Is this the best place for it? Should I have more closer to the coop floor?

 

[The Chicken People]

We had to block off the open spaces we thought would make great vents because at the top they were blowing wind right in on the girls roosts!

 

[enggass]

Quote:
Got any pictures you could post? Inside(roost placement, nestboxes etc...) and out? I plan on building a 6x8 Shed Roof this spring and am looking to see how others are doing it...

 

[Tdub4chiks]

Being in Michigan, you may need to block the ventilation on the north & west sides to keep snow from blowing in during the winter. I don't believe putting ventilation down low is a good thing. It may create too much of a draft.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
For wintertime, you wnat your ventilation high up and you wnat to make real sure you have enough of it on the usually-downwind sides to allow you to shut the other sides off during wintertime and still have "enough". Build plenty - you don't necessarily have to have all of it OPEN all the time

Try to put the roost as far as possible from the vents that will be open in wintertime.

For summertime, because it does get good'n HOT there, I would suggest having some large openable windows or other good-sized wall openings. Just regular big window- or partially-mesh-wall type openings, not small low vents -- low vents are really not very useful and do not give you the same value as plain ol' big openings in the walls.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[lightfoot]

Quote:
high vents are best. we live in almost constant wind, and use wind deflectors attached to outside of coop to block wind and snow but allowing air flow.

 

[shend]

Good to hear these replies. My roof overhangs on all sides but I will probalby have to cover the north and west vents during winter. I'm checking on how it does this winter before chickens. I have put a false ceiling in the coop part to keep them a little lower for roosts and not so much square footage so they can stay warmer.

For the summer I have a 36" screen door (with hardware cloth over the screening) for alot of ventilation. Have read so much about keeping it dry for them, was worried I didn't have enough.

I will post my pics soon. Frankly, I was embarrassed to post them at first because I built it myself with just scrap material I had around. When I was laying out the base I discovered I didn't have a level, but thought what the heck, how bad can it be. Looks level!! That was my first mistake. As I went along the lack of a level became very apparent!!

However, I am humbled by the ingenuity and imagination you folks have by creating amazing coops from scrap. Don't feel so embarrassed anymore!

 

[Judy]

Sounds like a really good setup to me. I read a lot of posts on here that do NOT sound like there is enough ventilation. That false ceiling will be great. Bet it helps eliminate any draft problems you might otherwise have, too. And I predict your chickens will be very happy about the screen door in the summer, as well as the false ceiling in winter.

You may find you only need to cover the north OR west side for winter.

If your chickens like your coop, and do well in it, then you have absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about. There are some lovely coops on here, but I daresay there are a whole lot more, shall we say, not so cute ones. There was an ugly coops thread on here not long ago. Maybe you should hunt it up! It's hard to get square and level when you are working with scrap and shipping pallets!

 

[gavinandallison]

I am looking to build a new coop and looking to add a turbine vent on the roof, has anyone else done this atall?

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Not much point in it IMHO. There are WAY WAY better ways to ventilate your coop. Like, large openings. The thing about roof turbines is that they only work when the wind is blowing which is when PASSIVE ventilation is working at its best TOO, and roof turbines are small and really do not move much air.

The only point in them would be a) if you cannot have large openings in the walls, e.g. in attics or such, or in the very rare circumstance that b) the building itself is severely blocked by obstructions so wall vents would get little or no breeze but you are in a breezy area so having a turbine stack sticking up above the obstructions will give you some reasonably-reliable airflow.

For most people, I do not think they are remotely worth the bother. They won't HURT (except in some locations you'lll have to close 'em off in wintertime so snow doesn't blow in during storms) but there are much better ways of doing things.

JMHO, good luck, have fun,

Pat