Chicken House Ventilation

Spring has sprung!  You know what that means, baby chicks, warm weather and humidity, which means it’s time to discuss Chicken House Ventilation!

There are a few different aspects when discussing ventilation in a chicken coop.  Are we looking to cool or are we looking to exhaust humid, stale air?  Let’s talk about some options:

Natural Ventilation, usually this is achieved by opening doors and windows, in larger chicken houses this may be a curtain side wall which can be raised and lowered depending on the weather and time of day.  In really hot areas, circulation fans are used too.  This can help decrease ammonia buildup and allow fresh air to circulate which will help dry bedding.

Cooling down a hot barn in the summer can be achieved through Tunnel Ventilation, Circulation Fans or Evaporative Cooling or all 3 combined! 

Tunnel Ventilation is usually used in conjunction with curtain side walls.  The barn is closed up tight and exhaust fans are installed at one end with air inlets on the other, the air gets pulled through the inlets and exhausted on the opposite end of the house. 

In hot climates, sometimes Evaporative Cooling is used too.  Instead of pulling the air through the inlets, water soaked corrugated pads are used.  As the hot outside air gets pulled through the pad, the water molecules on the pad’s surface evaporate which causes the air temperature to be cooler.  This can lower the temperature in a barn down as much as 20 degrees!

If it is really humid, it is better to add circulation fans in the chicken house rather than more moisture, if the house is less than 60’ long as little as 2 fans placed in opposite corners can move the air through the house, houses longer should space them every 20’-30’ in a “racetrack” pattern to move the air throughout the building.

We are happy to discuss your individual ventilation requirements with you.  Just give us a call at 860-436-5980 or email [email protected]

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