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What does the owner want to get from the chickens? Of course, there are a lot of eggs from laying hens, and meat from broilers. To achieve the desired result, you need to keep the house clean. But this alone is not enough. It is important to think about room ventilation. Otherwise, the air inside the chicken coop will be musty, especially in winter, which will have a bad effect on the health of the birds. Now we will look at how to make ventilation in a chicken coop with our own hands, and also find out what types of ventilation there are.
Why does a home chicken coop need ventilation?
Ventilation in the poultry house ensures air exchange, that is, bad air comes out of the chicken coop and clean air enters. Let's figure out why this is necessary:
- Chicken droppings produce a lot of ammonia. An unpleasant odor spreading through the poultry house is only half the problem. Ammonia vapors are harmful to chickens and can even cause poisoning. A particularly large accumulation of vapors is observed in harsh winters, when the owner tightly closes all the loopholes of the poultry house.
- With the help of ventilation, the required temperature regime is established in the chicken coop.In the hot summer, it is stuffy inside the poultry house, which also affects the chickens. The influx of fresh air diffuses the atmosphere, making it comfortable for birds.
- Ventilation of the chicken coop allows you to regulate the humidity inside the room. Too dry air is unacceptable for chicken, just like damp air. A high concentration of moisture is observed in winter. It is released from the droppings and also evaporates from drinking bowls. Dryness prevails in hot summers. Ventilation ensures a normal balance in the atmosphere, which has a positive effect on the health of chickens.
If you have already decided to take up poultry farming, you will not get good results without installing a hood in the chicken coop.
The video shows ventilation for a poultry house:
What should a poultry farmer know about ventilation?
In order for the installed ventilation in the chicken coop to work effectively, you need to take into account several important nuances:
- The volume of clean air should be enough for all birds. The more chickens there are, the more fresh air is required. You can achieve the optimal result by choosing the correct cross-section of air ducts, as well as their number.
- To prevent ventilation in the chicken coop from causing the birds to freeze in winter, the system must be made adjustable. To do this, all air ducts are equipped with dampers, allowing fresh air to be supplied in portions during the cold season.
- Ventilation should change the air inside the coop, but retain heat. In winter, the supply air ducts are covered with a mesh with very small cells. In severe frosts, the inflow is completely covered.
If all these nuances are taken into account when installing ventilation, the purity of indoor air will be guaranteed.
Three ways to organize ventilation inside a poultry house
In general, ventilation is divided into two types: natural and forced. There are three ways to organize it inside the poultry house.
Ventilation
This ventilation device in a chicken coop is considered the simplest. Ventilation is a natural type of ventilation and does not require the installation of any air ducts. Air exchange occurs through open windows and doors. To do this, even at the stage of building the poultry house, a small ventilation window is provided in the ceiling or above the door.
Ventilation is effective only for small rooms, and even then not always. In winter, large volumes of cold air will flow through an open window and door. The poultry house will quickly become cold, which is why it will have to be heated more often.
Supply and exhaust system
The most effective and cost-effective for a poultry house is a supply and exhaust system. It also refers to natural ventilation, but is equipped by installing air ducts. The photo shows a diagram of the supply and exhaust system. As you can see, ventilation consists of at least two pipes. The exhaust air duct is installed under the ceiling and leads out onto the street above the ridge. The supply pipe on the street is brought above the roof to a maximum of 40 cm. Inside the room, the air duct is lowered to the floors, but not closer than 30 cm.
The hood is placed closer to the feeders or perches to remove unpleasant odors more effectively. Installation of supply pipes above a place where chickens often sit should not be done.From a draft, birds will constantly catch colds and get sick.
In a home chicken coop, plastic pipes are used to make air ducts. For a small poultry house, channels with a cross section of 100 mm are sufficient. A large poultry house will need several of these pipes. To make an exhaust hood with minimal disruption to the integrity of the roof, it is better to use air ducts of a larger cross-section, say, 200 mm.
Mechanical hood
Forced ventilation is called mechanical not because the system uses mechanisms, but due to the large number of sensors. They are installed throughout the coop to control humidity. The system itself is similar to supply and exhaust ventilation, only the air ducts are equipped with electric fans. If desired, the channels can be equipped with dampers that work in conjunction with sensors. They will open and close themselves if necessary.
Building such a system at home is an expensive undertaking, and it is simply not needed. Forced ventilation is installed on large poultry farms, where the natural system cannot cope with air exchange. If you really want to make mechanical ventilation for your poultry house, then you can install a fan in the window. But here you need to be prepared to pay more for electricity.
The video will tell you about the mistakes poultry farmers make when organizing hoods:
Self-installation of ventilation
There is no point in considering the ventilation method in detail, since opening doors and windows does not require much intelligence. Now we will learn how to properly make a supply and exhaust and mechanical system.
Self-production of a supply and exhaust system for a poultry house
The supply and exhaust system is capable of providing high-quality air exchange in winter and summer, so it is ideal for a home chicken coop.
So, let's start installing the air ducts:
- To install the ventilation duct you will need a couple of plastic pipes. In order not to make a mistake with the cross-section, we will take them with a diameter of 200 mm, and to regulate the air flow it is better to install dampers. We buy pipes 2 m long. This is enough to raise the air duct above the roof and lower it inside the chicken coop.
- We cut out holes in the roof for two air ducts using a jigsaw. We lower one end of the exhaust pipe 20 cm below the ceiling, and bring the second edge of the air duct 1.5 m above the roof. We lower the supply pipe through the hole in the roof to the floor itself, making a gap of 20–30 cm. Above the roof we leave an outlet 30–40 cm long.
- To make the ventilation airtight, you need to buy two passage units in the store. Using them we attach the pipes to the roofing. We put protective caps on top of the air ducts, and at the bottom we fit dampers using plastic plugs.
That's all, the system is ready. To avoid the formation of condensation in air ducts in winter, pipes from the street can be insulated.
Self-installation of mechanical system
We looked at one of the ways to arrange forced ventilation in a home chicken coop. It involves installing a fan in the window. A more efficient system can be made differently. First, a supply and exhaust system is made in the chicken coop. Next, all that remains is to buy a round fan and fix it inside the pipe. You can control its operation through a regular switch mounted on the wall of the chicken coop.
The video shows the ventilation of the chicken coop:
Conclusion
Ventilation for a home chicken coop can be done using any of the methods discussed, but it is definitely necessary, and you can’t argue with that.
