As we get closer to the arrival of our girls, I realize that I need to get it together and do everything I can to make the girls happy and healthy here.
So get out your saws Cal, we need more ventilation in our coop. Thank God I went in to see my masseuse on Thursday ( in between the miltiple Dr.'s appointments one has as one becomes a geezer). As you may recall, she is the impetus for my deciding to live my dream and get the chickens I have always loved.
Just before I began to relax and snore she related to me that she had to add more ventilation to her coop so that the girls living space can air out.
This apparently prevents some pretty gnarly things happening to the girls feet if too much ammonia builds up do to chicken dodo and moist shavings in their nests. OK. So, she related you need to have plenty of ventilation during the day.
No big deal, get me the drill with the big bit and I can fix that. Ah not so fast chicken wrangler. I knew this seemed to easy. Whatever we do needs to close at night to keep the girls safe, and warm in the winter.
So Cal and I head out to examine the coop. Both of us are highly educated professionals. He is an electrical engineer and I am a writer, RN, and Licensed Family Therapist. Can you see any problems with this combo?
I'm thinking something like a doggie door that can be closed at night. He's thinking of drilling holes and then covering them with duct tape at night. In all fairness he was kidding, and simply using an method a diabolical murderer used in the BBC America series Luther ( fantastic TV show.). We quickly discarded that idea.
What about one of those round spinning tin thingies you see on roofs that apparently vent out things? I can guarantee that if we went this way, we'd have wet chickens from leakage.
We ( I am) are looking for an easy, effective, inexpensive way to accomplish this. After three or four ideas that were either way to complicated or just crazy, we decided to go with floor heater vents like we have in our houses. They open and close and we can install them easily ( uh huh) horizontally in the back of the coop and maybe one under the eaves in front.
Problem solved! One caveat Cal, remember the cabin deck we built? Remember the porch roof we fashioned? This time we wear safety goggles and helmets by God!
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