Adding Ventilation question

[dtabor]

Originally I had thought of leaving that pop door open for the reason you state with the baffle and also plan on wrapping the run some to block wind and blowing snow so thought that would help as well, but had read on another post of someone having that idea and it was nixed so change my mind.

 

[aart]

If you can open soffits, absolutely do so....adding ridge and/or gable vents a good idea too...for winter ventilation.
Top hinged windows excellent for ventilation even while raining...add as many as you can...open all summer and most closed up in winter.

 

[RobertPlamondon]

How much ventilation is enough? Here's a picture from a hundred years ago of a chicken coop in Rockland, Massachusetts. Joseph Tolman became frustrated with the results in traditional chicken coops and knocked out the entire south wall, covering it only with chicken wire, leaving it open even in winter. The house was drier and the chickens were healthier:



The text doesn't say, but presumably in the warmer months you'd also open all the windows or even remove the sashes for increased ventilation. (From Fresh Air Poultry Houses, page 27.)

 

[aart]

How much ventilation is enough? Here's a picture from a hundred years ago of a chicken coop in Rockland, Massachusetts. Joseph Tolman became frustrated with the results in traditional chicken coops and knocked out the entire south wall, covering it only with chicken wire, leaving it open even in winter. The house was drier and the chickens were healthier:



The text doesn't say, but presumably in the warmer months you'd also open all the windows or even remove the sashes for increased ventilation. (From Fresh Air Poultry Houses, page 27.)

Yes...but..... Key components (often overlooked-or not cited) being proportions of depth to width of building.....and ALL other windows closed during winter.

 

[JackE]

O.P. showed a pic of the shed, he has made his coop out of. From what I get from his description, of what he's got, the end wall to the left of the double doors, faces north. He could, as I posted before, cut the lower half from the south facing wall, and cover it with hardware cloth. He would have to move the nestboxes, no problem to do that. He would not have to mess around/cut any more holes. In the summer/warmer months, he would open everything, windows, hook open double doors, and have hardware cloth screen doors for the opening. That, combined with the open front, the birds would have all kinds of fresh air/ventilation. In the winter, close double doors, and shut the other windows. With a coop depth of 12', I don't care from where the wind blows, the birds would not suffer from any draft. It basically a tight building. The wind will not penetrate to the back of that coop.

Depending on how many birds he keeps in there, he may have to crack one of those windows open. In my coop (Woods), with 20-25 layers in there, I have cracked open the upper monitor windows in the winter. If the temp gets much over 30F, I've noticed it can get a touch foul in there. Crack open the upper windows a couple of inches, and it freshens right up. And, there's still no draft of any kind to worry about.

 

[Howard E]

How much ventilation is enough? Here's a picture from a hundred years ago of a chicken coop in Rockland, Massachusetts. Joseph Tolman became frustrated with the results in traditional chicken coops and knocked out the entire south wall, covering it only with chicken wire, leaving it open even in winter. The house was drier and the chickens were healthier:



The text doesn't say, but presumably in the warmer months you'd also open all the windows or even remove the sashes for increased ventilation. (From Fresh Air Poultry Houses, page 27.)

The Tolman house shown above forms the basis of and idea I have been kicking around for a small, simple, A-Frame type house. Basically in a proportion of 1.6X depth to width. How small is small? Say 5' wide x 8' deep, which might use only two sheets of plywood for a roof. Sidewalls only high enough to allow 6' head space beneath the peak of the roof to allow a person to walk inside. Roost bars nailed to the rafters near the peak. Nest boxes on the back wall, or external. Then leave the south side entirely open as shown above, and let it open up into an open sided and covered run that might be equal in size. About perfect for a flock of 6 to 10 birds. And the whole package, with run, being about 5' wide x 12' to 16' deep, which Should fit into almost any backyard.

 

[JackE]

That was an experimental Tolman house. Drawings below, show a real Tolman house/coop.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I'm in Northern Vermont. We only use top ventilation in coops. If a structure is large enough for an open front go for it. That method is very worth while but needs a deep structure so all winter wind is subsided before reaching back of coop where roosts are located. Hole saws on soffit and ridge or gable vents works just as well for smaller structures. I build coops with one slant for roof, open on each end of slant for constant flow of fresh air to circulate out the stale air in coop. Venting only at the top works well if there is enough air flow. Removing the entire soffit seems overkill but if it's easy to do and you've that much hardware cloth hanging about why not. But don't under estimate the amount of air a 2.5 or 3 inch hole saw will be pumping in and It will literally be pumping by natural force of convection if there is outlets on top of gable or ridge vent. A hole every foot along each sofit would be moving a lot of air. My last build we covered the entire top with hardware cloth then screwed down the tin. Every high hat of tin is then a vent, if the angle of roof is 30 to 40 degrees that siphons air at an alarming rate along the bottom of slant.

 

[RobertPlamondon]

That was an experimental Tolman house. Drawings below, show a real Tolman house/coop.

True enough. But I just love Tolman's attitude! He took a bunch of perfectly good coops and demolished the south walls as the fastest way of greatly increasing the ventilation. To quote Ralph Kramden,
"Pow! Right in the kisser!"

Robert

 

[JackE]

True enough. But I just love Tolman's attitude! He took a bunch of perfectly good coops and demolished the south walls as the fastest way of greatly increasing the ventilation. To quote Ralph Kramden,
"Pow! Right in the kisser!"

Robert

That's just it. They were NOT perfectly good coops. They were closed up, poorly ventilated death camps for the chickens. They were vastly improved by tearing a wall out. Cracks me up, this was realized over 100yrs ago, but we still see the same mistakes being made today.