Keeping chickens cool in the summer?

[goodgrief]

My birds are free range so they find areas of shade or breeze in which to sit and pant! For treat time I give frozen fruit or vegetables. They especially like peas and blueberries! Sure wish they'd swim like ducks to cool off!

 

[Chickie Newbie]

I have a big shallow rubber oil pan that I put bricks in and fill with water everyday. My chickens sit on the bricks and they stay cool as the water evaporates. I've installed a mister, too, for this extreme heat wave in Tucson currently. So far, so good. I'm going to try the frozen milk jugs, too. Good idea.

 

[amydrn493]

No thanks...free-ranging is out for my girls. We are inundated with predators in the area I live in.

We are inundated with predators at our house also. And we have lots of wide open space before the woods start. Our birds free range from dawn till dusk. They are very smart and have great eyesight. As soon as an eagle or a hawk is in the area they take cover immediately. They know just what to do. They will even run under a parked car to hide. They see trouble long before I do. I notice when they run and hide and it will be a few minutes before I see the predator bird. Just a thought. Good luck.

 

[Nardo]

Hi

fletch83
My fan is a big Home Depot thing that sits inside the greenhouse but blows air through there into the coop. I actually ran an electrical outlet from my shed which is not even a foot away from the coop so it was not hard to do. If you follow the link by my name for 'my coop' you may be able to see what I mean.
I'm liking the ideas of frozen coke or milk jugs and also putting bricks or something on the kiddie pool. My dogs jump in but the chickens only drink from it, they don't ever get in it. But I'm reading here that maybe if they can walk across it they may do that, so I'm going to try putting some big rocks where the dogs and the chickens can use the pool. It's one of those Little Mermaid or Dora or whatever plastic blue ones from the dollar store...

PS It's summer and I hate it

 

[Fletch83]

You can also look into exhaust fans for older mobile homes. We live in one of those old mobiles, and there's a place we go online to get parts. I can't remember what it is right now, but I think if you google "older mobile home parts" it will pop up. Those exhaust fans are wall mounted and designed for the much thinner walls than newer mobiles and stick frame houses have, which makes them about perfect for a lot of coop construction too.

Ours is hardwired in (hubby is a professional electrician, which helps!) and we can just open the cover for passive winter ventilation. Then in summer we can open the cover and then switch on the fan, which exhausts much of the stale, warm air out. There's a 6 inch by 6 inch vent in the lower wall opposite and diagonal to the fan, which is mounted up above the people door, and the back of the coop is tucked close to a thick lilac hedge. So the fan pulls the cooler air from the heavily shaded area into and throughout the coop, up and out. It's worked very, very well for us. On warmer winter days (above 10 degrees), we also run the fan to help vent out humidity and bring in some fresh air without making a big draft. I wouldn't trade my mobile home fan out there for anything!


The exhaust fan above the people door....it's open and running in this shot, although it's probably hard to tell.


Open and running.


The exhaust fan off with the cover closed.


The lower vent opposite the fan, taken from the outside.


The vent from the inside before the too-long screws were cut down and the trim was added around it.

Wow, your chickens have some luxury living quarters! I love it!

 

[Fletch83]

Hi

fletch83
My fan is a big Home Depot thing that sits inside the greenhouse but blows air through there into the coop. I actually ran an electrical outlet from my shed which is not even a foot away from the coop so it was not hard to do. If you follow the link by my name for 'my coop' you may be able to see what I mean.
I'm liking the ideas of frozen coke or milk jugs and also putting bricks or something on the kiddie pool. My dogs jump in but the chickens only drink from it, they don't ever get in it. But I'm reading here that maybe if they can walk across it they may do that, so I'm going to try putting some big rocks where the dogs and the chickens can use the pool. It's one of those Little Mermaid or Dora or whatever plastic blue ones from the dollar store...

PS It's summer and I hate it

I hate it too! I moved from NY years ago and I never got used to Texas summers.

 

[Tex63]

You can make a chicken A/C there are plans online somewhere. What I did was take an old square cooler cut a hole in one end about 1/3 of the way up. Get some dryer hose or ac ducting the silver shiny hose coil in once in the cooler. Take a cheap fan and put on the hole you cut in the end of the cooler.seal it with duct tape (not duck tape) but the aluminum looking tape. Cut a square hole in the top of the cooler that fits the size of the large down spouts for gutter then fill the chest with frozen water bottles, ice, and a little water. Be sure to leave the drain plug in the cooler and keep it close then plug in the fan and you have a chicken A/C it's really pretty cheap and I used what I had laying around so it only cost me about 10 bucks. Oh and attach the coiled dryer hose ends to the inside holes you cut in the cooler on each end and deal with the duct tape

 

[Milagra]

Great ideas I use frozen water bottles and make sure I cover in plastic so not to contaminate my stuff in freezer. Also chop up veggies tomatoes grapes lettuce blueberries etc and freeze in a plastic bag. Pour some in a bowl add some ice they love it. Also cut up watermelon and freeze. Going to try the pool with some ice we are in the 100's for the last week. I read that corn and meal worms were bad in hot temps as it is very hard to digest and that is not good in heat so I am staying away from those. Love the pics of the birds swimming in the pool. Thanks everyone

 

[Gayelynne]

Hi I'm wondering what your water cooler looks like is there anyway you could post a picture of it. It sounds like a great idea for my girlies and boys too

 

[ronnhill7]

great idea!