Winterizing my coop

[Wynette]

It really depends on the coop; with this coop, it appears that a few inchest at the top of the front and a side would provide for the air to circulate. Or, a few inches on opposing walls.

The best scenario is to draw some air in, allow it to circulate, and then push it back out. If it's circulating, it'll flow throughout the coop.

You really need to be diligent about changing the bedding often. If you keep the bedding very dry, and have decent ventilation, you shouldn't have a bacteria issue.

You're completely correct, Poulets - most of the moisture and bacteria are found at ground level in the bedding.

 

[Selena]

Quote:
Bit of a problem... it being Kansas I'm sure they get a good pile of snow on the ground. 3" ventilation at the bottom will do little good if he's got 2 feet of snow. It'll just encourage the melting snow to come into his coop. Yes, I suppose he could shovel around the coop, but I'm sure after he shovels the snow out of the way to enter the coop, he'll be exhausted enough.

If circulation will be an issue, there's always CHEAP fans at the Goodwill that you can use. If I had a large coop, I was going to put one in there (not blowing directly on the roosts/boxes.

I personally would also ask around. I'm sure at the feed store you'd find people more than happy to talk about their coops.


Now, I'm certain someone is going to disagree... and that's ok.

Lastly, "Coop De Ville".

I can't help but think, "Joe Diffie MIGHT trade his truck for a 'Coop De Ville'."

 

[Wynette]

The whole ventilation thing put me in quite a quandary last year. The more research I did, the more I realized that it's actually more difficult to have an "air tight" coop than one with a bit of ventilation. Air gets in. Not much we can do about it. I actually ended up with too much ventilation in mine last winter, so I blocked off the vent area and noticed moisture on the inside of the roof, so had to open back up a bit. I truly do think ventilation at the top works well, so long as there is room for it to circulate around. I don't know that actually blowing air would be the best thing. I think the VERY best we can do is put in a roof vent, but that's a lot of work, and personally, I'm more of a "watch and see and react if necessary" kinda gal!

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Ventilation at ground level may be fine in Texas but in northern climates a) as selena says, it will just get covered by snow

, and much more importantly b) it will be blowing 0 F or colder air right AT your chickens all day.

Chicken-level ventilation is a BAD BAD idea for winter, in "real winter" areas.

Ventilation in the upper half of the walls DOES dry out the litter. Warm air holds more moisture; warm air rises; warm moisture-laden air gets whooshed out the leeward vents, drier air in coop evaporates more moisture from bedding, lather rinse repeat, problem solved. Realio trulio. And all without frostbite

To the o.p., I would suggest making *adjustable* openings towards the tops of the walls. Like, run your plastic (I'm a little concerned whether it will stay on in harsh winds, but I guess you can keep an eye on it) up to 4-5" from the top and staple it to a crosspiece of wood there, then add sections of 2x6 board, hinged from the top, to cover the remaining gap. The hinged boards can be propped part or all the way open (all of them or just some) to provide appropriate ventilaton for the day's weather.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[lizard7]

Thanks for all your suggestions. I guess my final question (ha, ha) is how to keep it draft free and ventilate. We get harsh winds here. Right now I have put plastic on the door, stapled on. Temps tonight are going into the 30's but then back up again to 60's over the weekend. Im in South Central Kansas so USUALLY we don't get huge amounts of snow, but then again. . . you never know.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Wind is not necessarily bad... it promotes air movement thru the coop <vbg>. No seriously

You just have to close the vents down more on a windy day, possibly completely closed on the upwind side depending on all the details of your setup. If you are really worried, or for some architectural reason are forced to have most of your ventilation openings on the upwind side, you can cobble together a hood for the vent (so the wind has to go down under and then back up into the vent, rather than blowing directly straight thru) or a baffle that will slow air movement. Usually it would be easier to just shut down the upwind vent though.

Have fun,

Pat