Too Hot?

Chicks are 5 weeks down to 3 1/2 weeks. I know they will have to go out eventually. To that end, the breeds we have (BO, BR, EEs, Dom, Prod Red and we think a BA) are heat tolerant. Our heat (100 today; 103 tomorrow etc with really no end in sight) is upon us. They have been outside during the day, but it hasn't been this hot yet. They have plenty of shade and unlimited water. Is this going to be too hot at these ages?

TIA!
Tikki, the worry wart

IMO the heat is easier on them at this age than when fully grown and feathered.
Shade and cool water is all you can do.
I also think whether it's hot or cold out acclimation to the conditions needs to start early.
It's only going to get hotter, keeping them in the AC and then outdoors might be harder on them just like keeping them in a heated coop and turning them out to single digits.

In addition to shade, you can put ice in drinking water to keep it cool, use inexpensive kitty litter pans as wading pools, and you can freeze water bottles and put them out for the chickens to lean on. You can lay a towel on the bottles for chicks that aren't fully feathered.

Hi: We are in Central Florida and the temps here are in the mid to high 90's every day right now and will get hotter in the coming months. Our chicks are just 9 weeks and the heat has given me more worries then anything else. The things you can do to help are:

1. Have a covered run with plenty of shade.....2. I have an overhead fan in the run and a small fan in the coop. Both help with air circulation.....3. Keep plenty of fresh cool water at all times. I have a shallow pan that I fill with water that they use to drink from and walk in. I also freeze liter bottles and put them in the pan to keep that water cool....4. I have a misting system that mists 1/3 of their run. My chicks like the mist and I notice in the afternoon when it is the hottest that they will dig a small hole in the wet sand and lie there to keep cool. The mist system drops the temps about 10degrees......5. I give them a quarter of a watermelon every day. They love it and it gives them extra water and minerals. You can get any kind of watermelon they eat it all right down to the rind...

This is our first time raising chickens and I thought that it was going to be easy. I had not taken into consideration the heat and had just assumed that chickens did not care about weather. This has been the biggest problem for us and if I had known what a problem the heat would be I may not have ventured into the project. I know a lot of perople raise chickens in the heat but I am very concerned about them being overheated and just tending to them in regards to heat issues takes up a lot of time. There is no way that I would feel comfortable leaving them for the entire day during the heat. Fortunately, once the sun goes down the heat dissapates very quickly and their coop is cool and comfortable during the evenings. Good luck...your area is worse then ours for heat....Don

Thanks, all. While we don't have the humidity, you don't need humidity to cook a turkey in your oven, iykwim. Hot is just hot. And since it's windy here (like, blowing 30 plus much of the time with hurricane force gusts), it really is like having a dragon blowing on you. I never knew you could get a burned feeling from the wind blowing until moving here (and that's combined with sand blasting, lol).

The plan is to wrap part of the tractor (it looks like a little barn) with a swamp cooler roll and then wet that down- when the wind blows, it blows cool air on them. But, since they aren't out there full time yet, we haven't done that yet. It's definitely on the list for sometime soon. I suppose I could wet their sand box down, too, so they can hunker down in that if they need to (not that they can all fit, but they do take turns.)

I love the suggestion of the frozen water bottles or freezer packs. Just didn't know if the babies could handle it or if it was better when they were older.

Tikki

Lots of really good ideas. I live in Alabama, and while it's not as hot as other places, the summers do get awfully warm here. lol Our chicks are only 2 weeks old and I too am worried about putting them out in the summer with no change to acclimate to outside temps. We tried taking them out for a few minutes this week and they didn't seem to care for it. We are going to wait another week and try agian. Coop construction should start soon, and this has given me lots of ideas of things to include to provide a cool spot for them.

I read somewhere that chickens don't like cold water, they prefer room temp. I know you are talking about extreme heat solutions, but is this a rule in general? Has anyone else heard this?

Well, the temps are in the 80's and have hit 90 on a couple of days. The chicks seem to love being outside, and I love having them outside. They love sunbathing, and we think it is funny to watch them all plop down in the sun. Next thing you know, they are up pecking and scratching. Cute little critters!

I live in Vegas (i am thinking must be close to orignal poster) I am planning on getting misting system as soon as i can afford it right now i keep going out and spraying down the run and part of the coop puting ice in there drinking water and giving nice cool treats for them I am really stressing about July and Aug months i keep goikng back and forth on weather to bring them back in the house or not

Feed ,Water ,Shade ,Breeze (Fan if you have too) thats all they need .If there caged like my ,I have the fan on timer,9 tell 6 or so)We been in mid 90s and Humid most of the time so its only going to get worse here....cva34