Ventilation for shed converted to a coop

[Sefirothe]

My shed/coop combo finally delivered yesterday. Its a nice solid shed that with a few tweaks will hopefully be a good chicken coop as well.

My to do list went from "Wait for the shed to arrive" to:

Need to build a better roost. Might move the roost they sent over to the nest box side so the chickens can use it as steps. The nest boxes are kinda high up.

Leak proof the nest box, add a prop to the nest box lid and/or split the lid in half. The damn thing is HEAVY and I'm short.

Add more ventilation because holy crap it gets hot, 104 in there currently and ambient temp outside is only 82.

Put in a dividing interior wall with a door to create a storage space.

Paint the whole interior.

Figure out how to mount the Run Chicken automatic chicken door. The manual door they have isn’t quite the right size hole.

Build run - which splits off its own to do list.

I'm pretty solid on what I'm going to do to accomplish the list of things above except ventilation. It currently has the window in back that opens plus a ridge vent. In the summer, once the dividing wall (which will be mostly wire) is built to separate the back half into chicken living quarters and the front have to storage, the main door can be propped open.

I really dont want to alter it too much. If lose interest in chicken keeping down the road, I'll want to revert it wholly to a storage shed.

Has anyone ever used a crawlspace exhaust fan to help ventilate a coop? Something like this? It wouldnt require a huge hole cut, and I can put it in the back wall gable above the window.

I'm not worried about power outages, as we historically dont often have power issues where I live and if needed I have a large battery back up that's always kept charged.

 

[jreardon1918]

The best boxes are kind of high. You will want the trusts higher.

 

[Penpal]

This something used in the southwest U.S. You make a tunnel starting anywhere and bring it to the floor of your indoors. The air passes from the outside, through the underground tunnel, cooling off, to the inside.. No fan needed. At the outside entrance you would put, hardware cloth to keep out varmints and a layer of cheesecloth to keep out bugs. On the inside you put a suitable grate.

 

[Sefirothe]

This something used in the southwest U.S. You make a tunnel starting anywhere and bring it to the floor of your indoors. The air passes from the outside, through the underground tunnel, cooling off, to the inside.. No fan needed. At the outside entrance you would put, hardware cloth to keep out varmints and a layer of cheesecloth to keep out bugs. On the inside you put a suitable grate.

I can’t even imagine the back breaking work digging something like that would need here. The ground under the shed is mostly gravel or modified on top all kinds of rock/stone/concrete/cinderblock clean fill dumped by my Dad’s construction company over the years.

The bull dozer in the background only sorta runs and wouldn’t be much help digging a trench of any kind.

And how do you keep something like that from collapsing?

 

[21hens-incharge]

I am leaning toward roof turbine vents as a good option for your coop.

 

[Sally PB]

Add more ventilation because holy crap it gets hot, 104 in there currently and ambient temp outside is only 82.

This says a lot, right here. You need enough ventilation so that the inside and outside temps are the same, or nearly so.

the main door can be propped open.

That will help. Something to consider: Can it be secured against wind? What about when it rains?

 

[aart]

It's a nice shed...but....whoever designed this didn't know squat about chickens.
Nests are too high, roosts too low...roosts should be about a foot higher than nests.
Pop door is too low, best to have it ~8" above floor level so bedding doesn't spill out.
I see no ventilation....except the one window, which is fine for a bit of light in a storage shed but nowhere near enough for animals.
The roof has no overhang for soffit venting and to protect open windows from rain.
Fan needs to be rated for 'barn' use so dust accumulated won't clog motor and possibly cause a fire.

I am leaning toward roof turbine vents as a good option for your coop.

This is probably your best option without major modifications to shed.

 

[Sefirothe]

It's a nice shed...but....whoever designed this didn't know squat about chickens.
Nests are too high, roosts too low...roosts should be about a foot higher than nests.
Pop door is too low, best to have it ~8" above floor level so bedding doesn't spill out.
I see no ventilation....except the one window, which is fine for a bit of light in a storage shed but nowhere near enough for animals.
The roof has no overhang for soffit venting and to protect open windows from rain.
Fan needs to be rated for 'barn' use so dust accumulated won't clog motor and possibly cause a fire.

This is probably your best option without major modifications to shed.

Yep. It’s definitely an economy shed with a cheap coop package added to it by a semi-localish company that specializes in churning out storage sheds, not chicken coops.

The cost was not a whole lot more than it would have run me for materials to build an equivalent sized shed. I knew going into it I would have to make some modifications.

Extra extra bonus is the lack of headache over needing to deal with my retired general contractor father over the finer points of shed building if we built from scratch. The wrangling over just the leveling and prepping of the ground prior to the shed delivery was….epic. I am not particularly looking forward to building the run lol.

The pop door will be having the cover door and trim removed and the opening widened. Namely to add a barrier across the bottom to keep bedding in and fit the Run Chicken auto door I have waiting to be installed.

It is hard to tell, but there does seem to be a ridge vent opening under the metal cap to the roof.

Do you mean the non powered type of turbine vent? Do those work even if there’s no breeze? Or should I look for a powered version?

The fan I linked is IP-55 rated. Should I be looking for IP-65?

 

[Sefirothe]

This says a lot, right here. You need enough ventilation so that the inside and outside temps are the same, or nearly so.

That will help. Something to consider: Can it be secured against wind? What about when it rains?

It’s something I would have to open or close every day as needed. Shouldn’t be too hard to figure out a method of securing the door against wind, even if it’s just a 2x4 wedged against the ground and pushed against the door.

 

[Penpal]

Agree with turbines the roof. Ever breeze turns the blades.