What Kind Of Ventilation?

[Uncle Marc]

I am just about to complete my plans for our new coop and will post the drawings soon. But I've been reading a lot about ventilation and had a couple questions.

I plan to have the chicken area be 6 X 12 X 8 feet high. I will have a door to the adjoining "people" room which will be a storm door. I plan on having two windows (1 facing east, 1 facing south) in the chicken area. The only other opening will be the automatic chicken door.

Should I plan to have some sort of ventilation up near the ceiling? Should it be something I can close in cold weather? Or will the two windows be enough. I plan on double hung windows which will be off the floor about 3 feet and extend up to about 1 foot from the ceiling.

Thanks.

 

[fireguy56]

Marc, Most folks here on BYC subscribe to the fact that chickens produce alot of moisture, so besides needing to get rid of summer heat...moisture needs to be a concern as well as odor. Depending on your construction method, most use some type of under eave ventilation with a way for heat to escape higher up. ie roof line, gable vents, roof vent. Windows aren't enough, though necessary for cross ventilation and light. Loved your video, when ya gonna show us a drawing of your proposed coop?
Erik

 

[fireguy56]

Marc, Here is what I did for ventilation on our second coop I am building to cope with our hot climate down south. Also will have ridge vent the length of roof, besides the two gable vents.
Erik

The area just under the soffit is a continueous vent opening covered with green hardware cloth.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Windows allow air in on nice days but are not vents, really. They are too low. Look at your house. It has vents in the roof. Either gable end vents, roof vent caps, or a ridge vent. I assure you it has vents of some kind. Look also at your soffits or "over hangs". Chances are good that they are vented as well. This allows air in at the eaves and that air exits out the roof vents or ridge vents, taking humidity with it. It is did not, your attic area would be "soggy".

What you need to do is not box the over hangs or eaves in. Or, cover them with fully perforated soffit material. And/or install a ridge vent or simple "mushroom cap" roof vents. This stuff is in the roofing aisle at Home Depot, Lowes, etc.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Quote:
A picture IS worth a thousand words. Thanks for posting.

 

[Uncle Marc]

I had originally planned on a gable roof, but I'm not a carpenter and after looking at the learning curve for making rafters etc. I'm now leaning toward a sloped shed roof. I did plan to insulate the area above the ceiling but I don't think there will be a good way to do roof vents, so I was thinking about boxing in between the studs and making vents in the walls up near the ceilings.

Should these be made to close in the winter?

 

[fireguy56]

Quote:
Marc, According to most folks the vents can stay open year round...again, to aid in moisture removal, odors, etc. Even with a "shed roof" set up, you can still do vents on lower end and openings between rafters on upper-end(hardware clothed to keep bad guy's out) and still benefit from the "natural" ventilation.
Erik

 

[Fred's Hens]

Quote:
Agree with fireguy56

The whole purpose of vents is to allow fumes, gasses, ammonia and humidity to escape. The open aspect of this freaks folks out a bit, but the chickens really need ventilation. Do not close up your coop. It may sound like you will make things better for them, helping to hold heat in, but mostly, you'll hold in the humidity and ammonia.

Look again at my barn. It looks gable "ish", but it isn't. It is two shed roofs meeting in the middle. I can cut fancy rafters with the best of folks, so this design was not to avoid doing the carpentry, but was intentional. The eaves are open. Air comes in at the bottom of the eaves and exits out through though highest point. It works very well.

 

[JackE]

Check out the coop below. THAT's ventilation. They used coops like that all the way to Canada. So don't worry so much about keeping the chickens warm. They need the fresh air exchange in the coop.
Jack

 

[Uncle Marc]

Okay, so here's my floor plan. I really appreciate the photos of the very open shed in the snow. If you were planning to build this coop like I have planned, where would you put the ventilation, behind the roots, or on the side wall opposite the window?

By the way, the room with the door coming in from outside will be where we gather the eggs through the wall behind the nest boxes and keep supplies, tools, medicines, egg cartons etc.