Favorite ventilation system?

I really want to know what others do for ventilating their coops. Pictures would be most helpful if you can share.

We have a coop that is insulated and has 2 screened small square windows on the end opposite the door (they look like square eyes, lol). The door has a space above it that is currently open 2" (door doesn't fit well on top, and is crooked), and I am not liking that it is open on top. I am not sure that it allows for good cross ventilation anyway. We need to change that, and would need to know how to effectively cover the screens for winter to accomplish the best indoor environment (warmth, ammonia & moisture escaping), and want to know what has worked for others to jeep things cooler in summer and warm in winter, yet letting moisture and ammonia out. We are thinking of poop boards/poop hammocks and a sand over the wood floor base to help with the ammonia problem, but the rest has us baffled.

This is not our only shed we want to redo, and we have our eye on more old buildings here that will have to be redone as well. Those ones are not insulated, and some will be for ducks.

I use cross ventilation via windows, as well as passive venting (covered slots/holes) in soffits, or near ceilings. And having a poop board really does help too! I'll try and find pics of my old coop's vent slots and post later tonight. Do you have pics of your coop? It'd help to get a better idea of what might work for you.

For the time being I'll leave you with this.  
http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/chicken-coop-ventilation-go-out-there-and-cut-more-holes-in-your-coop

I have large windows for cross ventilation. So far they are wide open (covered with hardware cloth) because I haven't built the windows yet. I also built a screen (again, not screen, but hardware cloth) for the door so it can be left open.

I also have a vent hole to the roof - there's a cupola up there. I am not sure how effective this really is.

For the ammonia issue, I built poop trays under my roosts that are filled with stall dry. Essentially, they are giant litter boxes. The stall dry sucks up the moisture from the droppings and I scoop them with a kitty litter scoop.

I think one of the most important things is not to overpopulate your coop. Stick to the 4 sq ft of floor space per chicken rule.

Other chicken math:
1 sq ft of ventilation per 10 sq ft of floor space

Thanks for the other chicken math. lol I had not run across that before. Good to know. These new to us sheds that we would like to get are fairly large, so square footage should be okay in those. So far (considering this math) we are doing okay as far as that goes with our other chickens too.

I will try to get some pictures of the one coop that I am mainly talking about and see if I can do a successful job of posting them.

I have windows for cross ventilation and I'd like to install poop boards.

Here's a pic of my first coop with hardware clothed vent slots under the roof eave. During winter months I'd block the two ends off with insulation and just leave the middle open. We had a 120 km wind storm, multiple torrential downpours and blizzards, and it never leaked. Not a drop! And never a draft on the birds either. In fact, the only time I had humidity trouble was the first winter I covered all the holes.



Would also work great under the soffit in a normal pitched roof, which is what I'm attempting to do in my still in progress winter coop. I'm considering using floor heating vent covers fitted in the slots, because I'd like them to be easy to close.

Ok, not sure why the pic isn't showing up cropped like it's supposed too? That big you can barely see the vents. Gah. Damn you photobucket! You make some mornings hard. lol

Favorite ventilation system?

Old leaky barn!

Schipperkesue wrote: Favorite ventilation system?

Old leaky barn!

Wish I had an old leaky barn. I have an ancient, collapsed model.

That is too leaky!

I just have the soffits wide open all summer , the coop isn't insulated ...........yet ! but this plus a roof vent seem to keep it nice and fresh .I would like to put in a vent and then a fan to pull air in a bit faster and this would also pull out all the dust that seems to come from them being in the barn