# Cooling/Ventilation



## Pete (Jun 25, 2013)

I was wondering where you put your fan to use without getting the chickens hurt. Also wondering which kind you use. Thanks.


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## Apyl (Jun 20, 2012)

I don't give my chickens a fan and have never seen it in my life until I came on here lol. They have shade from trees and water to drink.


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## Bee (Jun 20, 2013)

Same here. My chickens don't remain in the coop in the heat of the day..or any part of the day unless they are laying, so providing a fan would be moot. Shade and lot's of airflow through the coop is adequate for the layers. 

At night the cool air pulled into the coop at the bottom should move the stale, warm air from their roost area out the ventilation at the top of the coop. 

Even with all that and having a completely open air coop, I notice that my big birds are not roosting close together in the warmer months. Lots of space between birds that is provided by ample roosting areas should keep the birds cooler at night also.


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## TheLazyL (Jun 20, 2012)

Fan?

what fan?


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## GratefulGirl (Sep 10, 2012)

I would be interested in hearing an answer to the original question from those who do use a fan. Anyone?


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## rkendrick (Jun 11, 2013)

We have an old it-was-free commercial fan I inherited from a commercial grower. We put it in our run-in type barn which moves some of the air in the chicken coop which in in one end of the barn. Like Bee said, the chickens (and the horses) mostly stayed outside during the heat of the day digging in the dirt and burrrowing in. But last year, when it was 110+ for weeks straight, we tied a box fan on outside of the chicken wire about 18" up on their outside run and put in some extra tree branches about 18" off the ground. Smart Favs that they are, they sat up on the tree branches in line with the fan. It wasn't much, but they seemed to enjoy it. We plugged it into the barn fan timer which turns off at 8PM and back on at 11 AM. I started on low so I wouldn't blow them off the perch and turned the speed up until they seemed satisfied. They got up and off the branches as they wanted. They still fluffed in the dirt and tried to stay under the tree shade (which lost most of its leaves) but with 20 of them, it got too crowded too fast. My head hen always got the primo spot! This year, they have handled the 95-97 temps without the fan. But here in NE OK, if we ever have a droughth like that again, I would again put up the fan.


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## Elfinworld (Jul 11, 2013)

Pete said:


> I was wondering where you put your fan to use without getting the chickens hurt. Also wondering which kind you use. Thanks.


We have 2 coops. A standard coop with an attached run, and a smaller nursery/bantam coop with an attached run.

In the standard coop, we use a small personal fan on the top corner of the coop area next to the window to move the air for the hens that are going into the nest boxes. That fan stays on 24/7 because its just a little breeze. In the run area, we have a box fan set on low. It is plugged into an outlet that has a remote control so we can turn the fan on during the day and turn it off at night from inside our house.

In the nursery/bantam coop, we set a travel dog kennel on the outside of the run. We then set a high velocity fan (set on low) pointing into the run to cool them off. In the coop area it's a different story. Since its a smaller coop, it opens by lifting the roof. The only opening is the little door leading into the run, so for ventilation, I set two bricks (one on each side) under the open roof so that the roof has a 3 inch opening. I will take some pics and post them tomorrow to show you if you want. It seems to work out really well and everyone loves it.

When it is this hot and humid, my chickens will not free range during the day. They go to the fence (we live in the city so the only free ranging they do is in our fenced in back yard or in our garden due to neighborhood dogs that are off leash. Argh!) and BEG to go back to their own run and coop so they can dust bathe by the fan air!


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## Missouri314 (Jan 31, 2013)

*2 fans*

Last summer it was over 100 degrees for an entire month. Even with shade and fresh water I put a box fan at one end of the run and then I put a small fan in the top of the roost. The fan was seperated from the top of the roost by a screen. I left them running all day and night. Sometimes I put a block of ice about a foot in front of the box fan I used in the run. THEY LOVED IT! I also put some large chunks of frozen watermelon out for a treat. They loved that too.


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## rkendrick (Jun 11, 2013)

Since the fan is fastened to the outside of the run chicken wire, the chickens are relatively safe from the blade. I bought the one that had small openings to protect from little grandson fingers, so it should protect anything else, too.


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## Elfinworld (Jul 11, 2013)

Pete said:


> I was wondering where you put your fan to use without getting the chickens hurt. Also wondering which kind you use. Thanks.


Here are some pics to show where our fans are located for the coops and runs.

Pic 1 is the nursery/bantam run with a fan on the outside on top of a dog crate.
Pic 2 shows the bricks I set under the roof so there's ventilation in the coop itself.
Pic 3 is the run that's attached to our standard coop. You see it's just a box fan.
Pic 4 shows a personal fan blowing into the standard coop.
Pic 5 is just another picture of how our box fan is in the run.


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## rkendrick (Jun 11, 2013)

Looks like what we did. Same idea anyway. We sheared the llamas down to the skin, put ice blocks in the horse and goat troughs and frozen bottles of refilled water in the chicken waterers (we added one) and turned on the fans! I figure what I need they also need in some form.


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