Adding Extra Ventilation to a Chicken Coop
Adding extra ventilation to your chicken coop can be really easy. In the south, making sure that your chicken coop has adequate ventilation is extremely important. Heat strokes are unfortunately very common in chickens, and being enclosed in a small area, with many other chickens, who are producing heat, can lead to an extremely hot night for your flock. Our nights are hovering around 78-83 degrees during the summer, with daytime temperatures reaching mid to upper 90’s. The original plans for our chicken coop included 5 vent holes, which is probably plenty for many places, but we discovered quickly it wasn’t enough for us. Most people don’t realize that chickens deal with cold temperatures a lot better than they handle the heat. So making sure they aren’t hot all day and all night will help them have a recovery period at night.
Luckily, we had a huge wall section on the back side of the roost box. This wall did not have any studs in it, and wasn’t weight bearing, so we could easily cut it out! This wall actually faced the inside of the lower coop run, so security wasn’t an issue. You could still add this even if it is an outside wall, you just need to make sure to secure it so it cannot be pulled out by an animal. You may also find that you don’t have the space for a huge cut out like this one, but you may be able to do a couple small ones. Any place you can open up like this will allow heat to escape. Just secure it with very small welded wire so that animal hands cant pull it out.
After the wall was cut out, we installed the 1/2 inch vinyl coated welded wire to make it secure. Then we framed around it to finish off the raw edge. Not only does this improve the look, but it makes it impossible for an animal to catch the edge of the wire and attempt to bend it.
By doing it this way, and cutting the wall out in one piece, we were able to save the piece, and we replace it in the late fall when the temperatures start to drop. We simply added four of the small brackets you see here. We add the panel back into place, and twist these over the edge to hold it.
We even decided to mount a fan outside in the lower run that is dedicated in this direction. We turn it on a low setting and it keeps the air moving around them at night. They are also in the box a lot during the day because the nesting boxes are here as you can see. So making sure it isn’t too hot is very important for us.
Want a tour of the chicken coop? Click here
More ideas to help with the heat? Click here
