A guy at the feed store in Tulsa said my coop was too airtight and he was right, lost 2 hens in August

Ben Brown · 2026-09-16T04:00:03.529172+00:00

I built my coop with 3/4 inch plywood and sealed every gap because I figured tight meant safe from raccoons. A guy at the feed store in Tulsa looked at my phone pictures and said "son, that's a oven, not a coop." Lost 2 hens during that 100 degree stretch in August and felt like an idiot. Cut two vents near the roof and one low on the shaded side, and temps inside dropped almost 10 degrees on my thermometer. Problem now is dust blows in and the waterer gets grit in it every few days. Anyone got a vent setup that keeps airflow up without turning the whole coop into a dirt collector?

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A guy at the feed store in Tulsa said my coop was too airtight and he was right, lost 2 hens in August | Backyard Chicken Keepers - Librear