Help - Omlet Eglu owners - how to ventilate the roost?

[Crazy Maizie]

Hi Crazy Maizie, thank you so much for those great ideas. I would have never thought about freezing water bottles but I notice one of the girls likes to lay up against the water trough after I refill it and add ice cubes, keeps her chest cool.
I am not currently on FB. I appreciate your response and suggestions.

If it's something you might try, I can see if I can share the photos of the mods.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Thank you all for these suggestions. I love the renderings of fan placement.
I wish Omlet would have built it with better ventilation in mind - if I knew then what I know now.....

I think there is more ventilation than we think with the two vents on the back and the one on the front. The way the cube is built it works as an insulator keeping them cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. I add frozen water bottles and a fan to my wood built coop too. I got the eglu because I had space and wanted more chickens. I can't build anything myself due to physical limitations. I think there are pros and cons to the eglu, but there are also pros and cons to other types of chicken coops as well.

https://blog.omlet.us/2019/07/10/how-the-eglu-keeps-chickens-cool/

 

[Bawkbok]

Thank you for the link. We have been leaving the auto door open at night for extra air, now I'm thinking perhaps that's not a great idea with the high humidity at night.

 

[Momof329]

Hi all, we are newbies at this - 3 months now. We live in the south and it's been in the 90s for weeks now and only in the low 80s at night. This coop is supposed to stay cool at night but when the door opens at dawn our girls are panting. The ambient air is much cooler than in the coop. We keep it impeccably clean every day and use triple heated pine shavings in the layer to cut down on dust - which by the way they no longer use since they quit laying two weeks ago with the heat stress. We are concerned with the high humidity and how to keep them cooler by adding a small fan inside the roost area. We contacted Omlet and they suggested not to leave the auto door open and to add a small fan. They offered no suggestions on products and said to reach out to others. They don't offer any such product. The roost area is obviously small (can only house 4 birds, we have 2). We've searched google endlessly and cannot find a SMALL fan to install somehow and placing a fan on the ground outside the run with an extension cord running to the house (ugh) freaks them out and is noisy. Does anyone have this problem or suggestions on what we can do to keep air movement in the roost at night? It is effective at keeping them dry, no humidity or moisture builds up in the roost which is probably why they said to leave the doors closed, but dang, I don't know how we're going to make it through the summer, targeted to be hotter and dryer than normal. As first time chicken momma, I could be overly worried but our EEs shouldn't be stressed or panting first thing in the morning. They are pullets, approx. 6 months old. We're still working on the picture thing - new to this site too. Thanks for your help.

We bought small solar fans and hung them down to blow into the coop. I don't force mine inside if it's warm.

 

[Love Donkeys]

I had to Google your type of coop because I didn't know what it looked like.

A fan can pull air more efficiently than it can push air. If your coop has two vent openings put a fan at the highest opening and set it to pull the stale air out of the coop. The fresh air will come through the lower vent due to the updraft. Your chickens will get use to the fan noise.

 

[Bawkbok]

Thank you for your suggestion Love Donkeys. We hung a small 4" solar fan as Mom 329 suggested, from one of the back vents on the inside and it was surprisingly loud even on low. It ran all night and the girls were so freaked out by the noise they were all huddled in one corner away from it, so we removed it. Now we leave the door open every night as it is so hot - 90 at midnight - and run a small box fan outside the coop to blow air all around it. We may try hanging the solar fan on the outside facing out as you suggested. It would muffle the noise for sure.

 

[Love Donkeys]

Hope things work out for you. The hot and humid weather where we are in Alabama has been miserable. Stay safe.

 

[SirSquirrelNutz]

I have a Omlet Eglu Cube and was thinking about place a fan in these locations:

Ok , thought I update this post with my fan addition. Note the fan is connected to a temp controller (turns on at 80oF) and blows out of one the of top vents. Also on hotter days we pull the "poop tray" from the bottom to aid with air flow. Hope the pictures helps.

 

[Bawkbok]

Nice job. I like how you have it nestled against the wall. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Flixflaxnoob]

This is my first season with chickens and an Eglu cube. I'm in Western PA. For the summer, I replaced the poop tray with hardware cloth cover and I also replaced all the vents with hardware cloth for better circulation. On especially hot days, I stick ice packs in the nesting area before bed to help cool down the coop. I will also move the whole thing to the more shaded, lower part of my property. I've been looking into getting a solar fan also for the nesting area during the day. My chickens are about 18 weeks and will start laying soon (I hope!) but I think this heat is going to delay things.