Coop question

[creddy]

Working on getting this duck house finished. I'm at the stage of putting up the chicken wire and installing the siding - the siding will stop at the top horizonal bar, and the weird trapezoidal shape on either side will have 1" chicken wire.

I'm second guessing the large open space as it's 8ft wide and just over 4ft to the rafter. I'm mid Missouri and wanted lots of cross ventilation during the hot summers but is it too much? Will having that large of an area just mesh be too open to predators? It will sit in the middle of electrified netting, but we do have foxes.

 

[aart]

Might be too much open space depending on where your weather blows in from.
I'd use 1/2" hardware cloth instead of chicken wire for smaller critters taht may evade the hot wire. The hot wire should keep out larger preds.

I assume there will be a secure door?

 

[3KillerBs]

The only problems I see with the large open area are, as @aart already mentioned, weather blowing in (IIRC, ducks don't roost, they sleep on the ground, right?), and the fact that dogs, coyotes, and raccoons go right through chicken wire figuratively while pest rodents go right through it literally.

We hot climate people need AIRFLOW so the big opening is good as long as it's not raining sideways from wall to wall.

Storm baffles are a legitimate option for that problem.