Would this Vent work for my coop

[patandchickens]

My major advice would be that it is far better to have more ventilation available than you end up using, than to end up needing more than you have (hacking holes in the coop at -20 F is just no fun at all).

Humidity (which is what happens with insufficient ventilation - chickens put out *vast* amounts of water vapor, one way and another) will give you frostbite at quite mild temperatures, so it is generally a good idea to sacrifice some warmth for the sake of *dryth*. Where you live, I assume you will need some supplemental electric heat anyhow; but the drier the coop air, the less heat it takes to keep frostbite away. There may be some times you end up shutting down all the vents, but if you do, it needs to be done in full awareness of the tradeoff you're making between drier cold and more-humid less-cold.

In pursuit of dry air you will also want to a) stop up all small air leaks, as they become condensation(frost) farms that make it hard to keep humidity down; and b) think about puttng plastic or bubblewrap over the windows to reduce frost there.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[PortageGirl]

Yep, listen to patand!! LOL, I know no one quite -gets- AK, I spent 7 years at Elmendorf, which means I was only 20 minutes or so away from Alaska. Then returned for a year to Clear Station, which meant Eielson was my closest servicing base... So I am pretty familiar with what you deal with. I didn't of course, have chooks at the time, so that would be a whole new deal!

I almost replied about you not needing to worry about raccoons, but you did it yourself of course!! Heh, although, bear, mink (which are quite sneaky) and wolverines MORE than make up for THAT lack. Honestly, I think I'd prefer bear to the wolverines! Both can be pretty scary though. Hopefully, since wolverine are so territorial and tend to avoid each others turf so much, they'll stay shy of you and your chooks too.

As long as the cold is still, and you don't have a howling draft in the coop, chickens can handle quite a bit of cold. It will be even more important for you than most, to have their roost be large enough for them to settle their breast feathers down over their toes though. As you've probably read, a 2x4 broad side up gives them the best perch for this. We all want to use 2x2s at first I think, or something about that diameter, but the broad base is really much better for them.

As others have said, if there isn't enough ventilation, the amonia and dampness from their poo and breath will at least weaken their respiratory systems and leave them vulnerable to illness and infection, at worst, kill them outright.

Like the others said too, cut the vents now and cover them with a board or something later if you need to... MUCH faster to zip a screw into a board at -40 degrees than try to do anything like get a vent in place!