Vent protection from blowing snow

[K0k0shka]

Don't think religion ever had anything to do with it,
but in my book 'Dude' has always been gender neutral

That was a joke, dude Borrowing one term to use in a similar context.

 

[Sueby]

Very clever! I remember seeing this a while back, thinking it was a good idea, but then I completely forgot about it. Worth a try! Do you leave the furnace filler there all winter, or do you only put it up for storms?

I'm in CT & made it thru the storm with a foot or so of snow, not quite as bad as you had it! Anyway, I use @aart's trick with the filter & had no snow in either coop. I leave it up all winter but take it out in the summer. I would think if the ventilation is easy enough to reach you could just stuff it in when blowing snow is coming, if it's hard to reach just leave it up.

 

[K0k0shka]

I'm in CT & made it thru the storm with a foot or so of snow, not quite as bad as you had it! Anyway, I use @aart's trick with the filter & had no snow in either coop. I leave it up all winter but take it out in the summer. I would think if the ventilation is easy enough to reach you could just stuff it in when blowing snow is coming, if it's hard to reach just leave it up.

It's easy to reach, but I might still just leave it up there all winter if it won't hurt. I don't like making unnecessary work for myself

 

[BigBlueHen53]

In my defense I don't have any traditional coops so ya I don't usually think of those vents when I see the word on here.

Don't feel bad, Moony, in all honesty I came to this thread thinking kinda the same thing, wondering if she was putting flannel diapers on her birds. GMTA?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Here are some before and after pics of my run and outside the coop and run (my husband did the work while I was at work)

DUDE!

 

[K0k0shka]

Don't feel bad, Moony, in all honesty I came to this thread thinking kinda the same thing, wondering if she was putting flannel diapers on her birds. GMTA?

Wind blows right through flannel. You'd need to cut up a windbreaker jacket to make those diapers if you want them to work Gotta know your winds!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Wind blows right through flannel. You'd need to cut up a windbreaker jacket to make those diapers if you want them to work Gotta know your winds!

Good to know! I'll keep that in mind!

 

[SituationalLefty]

Nice work with the awning. Reminds me of the awnings people used to have on their west-facing windows - the scalloped edges!

 

[dearmeghann]

I need to add this to my coop article (as well as all the other modifications I've done since building the coop), but figured I'll start by posting it here, in case it can help somebody else protect their vents.

So, I was extra generous with the ventilation when building my coop, because ventilation is extremely important. The tops of my walls don't meet the roof and there's a gap about 6" tall that wraps around on all sides, for ventilation, which is open year-round, in all weather. This all works fine except for the front side, where the vent is more like 8" tall and because the coop is a lean-to, that side is less protected than the others, despite the overhang. This is fine for rain, but snow, being lighter, gets blown around a lot more, and blows into the coop through that one vent (but not the others). So I built an awning for it to protect it, while still leaving it open for ventilation. I didn't feel like measuring angles and cutting precise pieces, so I did it as simply and easily as I could. It's just a board the width of the coop, attached at the top via two heavy duty hinges, with two triangles on the sides to keep it propped open. The triangles are not attached to the coop, they just rest against it. They also provide protection on the sides. I had leftover shingles from when I built the coop's roof, so I nailed those to the top of the awning to protect the wood. With the shingles, the awning is quite heavy and stays in place without flapping or banging at all, even though it's only attached with hinges at the top. Straightforward and easy, and does the job great. We've had one significant snowstorm since I added the awning at the beginning of this winter, and there has been zero snow in the coop this time.

There is just one aesthetic thing that will bug me about the awning... I didn't feel like cutting the bottom edge of the awning at an angle so that the overhanging shingle ends (which I scalloped, for a nicer look) would hang perpendicular to the ground. They are bent and nailed to the edge of the board, and because the board is at an angle, the overhanging shingle ends now point slightly in towards the coop, not straight down. I'm a perfectionist and this is going to bother me, but I was too busy and tired to angle the edge, so I'll just have to live with it It still looks nice, and it does the job, which is what matters.

Here's what the vents looked like before the modification (the vent on the left, above the door, is the one in question):

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And here's the awning:
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This might be the fix to our sideways rain! We're building a larger coop, but we're worried about having too many openings for the rain to come in. We have overhang from the roof, but we can have some intense wind.

 

[K0k0shka]

This might be the fix to our sideways rain! We're building a larger coop, but we're worried about having too many openings for the rain to come in. We have overhang from the roof, but we can have some intense wind.

Now that it's been 3+ years since I made the covers and posted the thread, I can confirm that the covers have been working wonderfully! We get ridiculous winds year-round, with horizontal rain and snow, so something like this is crucial. My coop has stayed nice and dry, while being well ventilated - the goal in all weather.