No Ventilation...Help!

[Kale Chips]

Hello everyone!

As you can see in my profile, I am in central Wisconsin and the weather is pretty nuts! We got a bunch of snow, and today pretty much everything is closed or cancelled due to the cold. At this very moment it is -27*F but with the windchill it is around -48*F. The thermometer in the coop is currently -3 and my babies are cold. I don't have a heater in there, it is just a stone building and their body warmth. Yesterday the wind was blowing so hard and they were all hiding on the floor so we nailed a bit of cardboard to the vent so that the wind (and snow) would stay out. Now my concern is that they don't have any ventilation and they will get sick. I have also noticed the tips of their combs getting quite pale/white and so am trying to keep frostbite at bay.

In the video below I show exactly what my setup is, so please, if you have ideas or experience let me know what you think!

 

[21hens-incharge]

Can you angle the cardboard so it acts like a baffle instead of a block?
The baffle would keep snow out and slow the wind. Is there an opening other then the chimney on another wall?
It would help if there was so the air has somewhere to go.
If you angle he cardboard can you detect air heading up the chimney?
It need not be gale force. Maybe check with something light like a fluffy feather to see if it is pulling air through.
You folks in the deep freeze have quite the challenge.

 

[pennyJo1960]

put Vaseline on there combs it will help

 

[flyin-lowe]

It's hard to tell from the video but you should have 1 square foot of ventilation per bird. So if that one hole is all you have then it is not likely enough anyway. The ambient temp in that coop is not cold enough to hurt them. As long as they are out of the wind then the wind chill temps don't matter. If it was me I would open that vent back up unless their roost's are positioned in a way that the wind coming in would blow directly on them. It's hard to tell but is that building sealed up pretty tight or are their gaps in the stone, or where the roof meets the walls etc....

 

[Kale Chips]

Can you angle the cardboard so it acts like a baffle instead of a block?
The baffle would keep snow out and slow the wind. Is there an opening other then the chimney on another wall?
It would help if there was so the air has somewhere to go.
If you angle he cardboard can you detect air heading up the chimney?
It need not be gale force. Maybe check with something light like a fluffy feather to see if it is pulling air through.
You folks in the deep freeze have quite the challenge.

The only opening in the entire coop are: the door, the chimney hole, the window. The building is a 100 year old smokehouse so it is definitely not built with chickens in mind! This afternoon I will see if the chimney is pulling any air through (good idea about the feather test) and see about tilting the cardboard. Its just so difficult because the window is receded a bit and the window is at the same level as the roosts. But, I don't really have a choice! Thanks for the tips!

 

[Kale Chips]

It's hard to tell from the video but you should have 1 square foot of ventilation per bird. So if that one hole is all you have then it is not likely enough anyway. The ambient temp in that coop is not cold enough to hurt them. As long as they are out of the wind then the wind chill temps don't matter. If it was me I would open that vent back up unless their roost's are positioned in a way that the wind coming in would blow directly on them. It's hard to tell but is that building sealed up pretty tight or are their gaps in the stone, or where the roof meets the walls etc....

Sadly the roosts are at the exact same level as the window, so the breeze was coming directly over them. There is no space between the ceiling and the roof, and unless I take the door off the coop I don't think I'll be able to get nearly that much ventilation. It's a tricky situation I have found myself in! Yikes!

 

[RoosterML]

Cut a vent into your door up high.
If it's that cold out one good thing is I don't see any condensation on the glass which is good. Also do as suggested go in the coop close the door as you normally would and hold or tape tissue paper or feather in front of the chimney vent. Monitor draft, you may be good already. If no draft crack the door a hair and watch feather or tissue. That should give you an idea of what's going on. Wouldn't hurt to get a gauge in the coop to tell you humidity level.
The vent over the window can you put something over it from the outside to allow air in without blocking it off but keeping snow out? Angled wood or small window screening maybe? After which monitor draft up chimney with tissue/feather. It doesn't need to be a big draft. Slight air movement will be good. Also don't worry about the whole I need this much sqft of venting per chicken. That's BS and a quide line. A guage to monitor humidity levels and your nose to smell if it stinks bad is all you need. Allow enough air to control smell and for humidity to be close to outside within 10% and you should be fine.

 

[Shadrach]

You don't need 1 sq foot of ventilation per fowl.
The recommendation was, at one time anyway, 1 sq foot per 10 sq foot of floor space.
You have to use a little common sense.
Remember any holes you knock in the wall or cut in the doors must be covered by hardware cloth.

 

[flyin-lowe]

You don't need 1 sq foot of ventilation per fowl.
The recommendation was, at one time anyway, 1 sq foot per 10 sq foot of floor space.
You have to use a little common sense.
Remember any holes you knock in the wall or cut in the doors must be covered by hardware cloth.

It doesn't take much to add up. My coop has 5 inch ridge open across the top (8 foot long), all of the eaves are completely open (8 foot long by about 6 inches on each side, 4 windows (12"x12") and a 2'x2' pop door.

I searched the "articles" section above and these quotes below are from the first three articles I read after searching how much ventilation. A google search showed similar results.

"you will most likely be fine if you build at least 1 sq ft of vent opening per chicken, or (if you want a lower but therefore less-conservative number) 1 sq ft of vent opening per 10 sq ft of floor area."

“The rule of thumb is to have one-fifth of your coop walls be windows or vents,” Steele says.

"You will want to incorporate approximately 1 square foot of vent space per bird in the eaves of your roof."

 

[Shadrach]

It doesn't take much to add up. My coop has 5 inch ridge open across the top (8 foot long), all of the eaves are completely open (8 foot long by about 6 inches on each side, 4 windows (12"x12") and a 2'x2' pop door.

I searched the "articles" section above and these quotes below are from the first three articles I read after searching how much ventilation. A google search showed similar results.

"you will most likely be fine if you build at least 1 sq ft of vent opening per chicken, or (if you want a lower but therefore less-conservative number) 1 sq ft of vent opening per 10 sq ft of floor area."

“The rule of thumb is to have one-fifth of your coop walls be windows or vents,” Steele says.

"You will want to incorporate approximately 1 square foot of vent space per bird in the eaves of your roof."

I have a 1 inch wide vent under the roof eves for about 60% of the walls on a couple of the coops. It's marginally more on a couple of the others.
They have about a sq foot of steel covered vent on each coop at the base of the human access door. The idea is air gets dragged into the coop at the low vents and the moist air leaves at the roof vents. There is also the chicken access door. In the summer it's a mesh door and in the winter solid but vented.
The coops rarely smell because I clean them. The bedding doesn't get damp because there isn't any and the chickens haven't dropped dead in the last eight years.
If on the other hand you chickens are confined to the coop 24/7 then more ventilation would be necessary.
It is quite apparent from reading the OP post that in order to achieve the 1 sq foot per fowl they would have to knock down half a brick wall!
There are a lot of recommendations on the internet. Having an open mind to them is great. Following them blindly isn't.