Ventilation in hen house

[Margaid]

My hen house is 7' x 4' (2.6 sq m) x 4' 6" high and now houses 4 hens (2 Exchequer Leghorns and 2 CLBs) and a Welsummer cockerel.

It has an Onduline roof so there is ventilation at roof height. There is a smallish shielded permanent vent on the weather side and a Weldmesh "window" (with sliding shutter) which is 17" x 16 " (approx .18 sq m) in the opposite 7' wall. I designed it so that it has a pop hole in diagonally opposite corners (in the 4' walls) so that I could take account of extreme weather conditions - don't want snow blowing in. One pop hole has the electric opener, the other at the moment is fully open with a sheet of weldmesh in place. I did this when it turned very hot.

Given that it was designed for 10 birds and the weather is turning colder, with the open pop hole facing the expected northerly winds, should I close this? The perch is set back from this pop hole and in any case has a droppings board under it which protects the birds from floor level cross draughts. Strangely, they usually roost the end of the perch which is opposite the window, although there are droppings all along the board.

I know they are walking duvets, but they're starting to moult and I don't want them to get chilled.

 

[Bickerton]

Mines about thesame dimensions with the same amount of girls. They all perch right iin front of the huge opened pop hole without fail even with the perch spanning the width of the house. Mine doesn't take massive gusts tho due to the walls breaking it up.

 

[chrismahon]

They do get very cold when moulting Margaid. There is no insulation in the feathers until the last bit comes out with the fluffiness on. Sometimes you get a second fluffy feather at the base as well. We keep ours with minimum ventilation at that time, depending on the weather. You can see how cold they are getting by their combs -the Leghorns shrivel up as they put all their blood into their internals. Even here they are cold and it's been 15 at night and 25 in the day with little wind.

So close off all you feel you should Margaid. Moulting is a delicate time for chickens.

 

[Margaid]

Thanks Chris. I closed the "meshed" pop hole down to about 4" yesterday but I'll close it completely today. It's quite windy and went down to 5.6 last night. I noticed yesterday they spent a lot of time perching under the shelter out of the wind and rain showers, and it looks like they're under there now. The main window is not facing the prevailing winds so I'll leave that as it is and keep an eye on their combs.