Additional ventilation needed? Brand new to this.

[ChickenCanoe]

Regardless of what you have to do to make it suitable, it is still nice to get something like that for free. It should accommodate 3 birds.

I tend to disagree with most people on the ventilation vs. drafts thing.
Chickens can roost in trees (till taken by a predator). I don't know how to keep drafts out of trees. Chickens are outside all day, in the wind. That doesn't kill them.
Every building I build has larger openings. My last two buildings have huge 3'X4' openings on both east and west walls at roost height with the wind blowing right through year round. Birds have been roosting and prospering in them for over three years.
Drafts are not deadly to healthy chickens. The way to keep them healthy is with fresh air whether that is moving or not. Preferably it is moving briskly.

 

[Lumikko]

I just visited their website and I "assumed" it was a cheap Chinese coop. But there is still the height issue in a coop of that size. I did see a photo of a customer that added a frame below the coop and run to raise it up and gain more room. Doing that and moving the nest box down to the ground and as suggested open the wall that is in the run and perhaps closing off the walls for a few feet in the run may make a decent coop. Chickens don't know they are supposed to sleep on a 2x4... they want to sleep up high and if that is not possible they will sleep anywhere and poop where they sleep like in the nest box. And I wish I knew all this before I built my coop...

JT

I figured either way that I need to add some roosts higher up. While the coop isn’t all that big, I think I can add a couple of different height roosts and remove the bars originally included in the coop.

Thank you for sharing that photo and ideas. I’m looking forward to continuing to work on it.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It is insane to me that a coop which holds 3 birds will have 6 nest boxes.

That's your first clue that the company building the coop knows nothing about chickens.

 

[Lumikko]

It is insane to me that a coop which holds 3 birds will have 6 nest boxes.

It doesn’t need to have 6 nest boxes, it just came with that many. I can remove one set of them (bringing me to 3) or repurpose that area as something else. The little dividers in the nest box area are remove-able.

 

[slordaz]

Regardless of what you have to do to make it suitable, it is still nice to get something like that for free. It should accommodate 3 birds.

I tend to disagree with most people on the ventilation vs. drafts thing.
Chickens can roost in trees (till taken by a predator). I don't know how to keep drafts out of trees. Chickens are outside all day, in the wind. That doesn't kill them.
Every building I build has larger openings. My last two buildings have huge 3'X4' openings on both east and west walls at roost height with the wind blowing right through year round. Birds have been roosting and prospering in them for over three years.
Drafts are not deadly to healthy chickens. The way to keep them healthy is with fresh air whether that is moving or not. Preferably it is moving briskly.

They can be fore us people up north that get well below zero, that's why drafty is not a good idea, we also have a lot of snow to deal with, I have ventilation al around on top and west side and on the east low side but nothing that would blow directly on the roost area. and the spare tool area that is attached just has a tarp covering it so adds some extea ventilation and they can bed down in the straw there if we get to -30 with or without wind chill, but I have to dig the coop out during the winter time and shovel em a play area . They have done amazingly well for almost 3 years with that set up.

 

[jthornton]

Here is an article on my learning curve with coops.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/coop-design-errors.73357/
The article is not complete as I had to remove the nest box from the coop and place it in the run in the end.

JT

 

[Alaskan]

The nice thing about opening up the coop wall that is under the roof, is that the roof will keep rain and snow out of the opening.

Also, the overhang should keep blasting wind out as well.

You could always keep the wall parts that you pop off and use those as covers if it gets too drafty.

Just how cold does it get where you are?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It doesn’t need to have 6 nest boxes, it just came with that many. I can remove one set of them (bringing me to 3) or repurpose that area as something else. The little dividers in the nest box area are remove-able.

That's my point. Every manufactured coop I've seen has more nests than the number of birds it will reasonably hold. They could take some of the money it cost to make the nests and make the coop bigger.
No matter how many nests, 3 hens will likely only use one nest.

 

[Alaskan]

According to Google the average lows in your area are only 20sF

Definitely open up the coop wall under the roof.

They will be so much healthier with the fresh air.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

They can be fore us people up north that get well below zero, that's why drafty is not a good idea, we also have a lot of snow to deal with, I have ventilation al around on top and west side and on the east low side but nothing that would blow directly on the roost area. and the spare tool area that is attached just has a tarp covering it so adds some extea ventilation and they can bed down in the straw there if we get to -30 with or without wind chill, but I have to dig the coop out during the winter time and shovel em a play area . They have done amazingly well for almost 3 years with that set up.

Yeah, I stock up on a few bales of straw for covering the snow in winter to give them something to walk on. I only have one building with the bottom of the door at ground level so that is the only one I have to dig out. That building is usually for brooding chicks so they don't always come out every day. The rest of the coops are all at least 18" above ground.
I know it doesn't get as cold here as Idaho but it has gotten as low as -19F.