Search results for query: *

I'd expect them to destroy such a thing rapidly with sharp beaks and scratching claws.

Question for those of you who use frozen water bottles, How do you manage reusing them without contaminating your freezer? Do you put them into some kind of covers while they're out there in the run? Only use them once? Just scrub them really well?

Misters work wonders in dry heat!

The thing is to let the hot air out at the top. :)

Your plans for the wire arches look good to me -- lightweight, but strong enough. The shade cloth is water and air-permeable, right? The important thing is that the hot air can escape upward and pull cool air in from the edges.

Another thought, which I'd like to get for my brooder, is to put a wind turbine vent or two up there.

I know that a sudden heat wave is much harder on people and animals that aren't accustomed to it and didn't have a chance to get adjusted than it is on people and animals that acclimate to gradually-climbing temperatures. :( The good news is that the heat index isn't as relevant to chickens as...

No trees close enough to tie ropes to like you were setting up a camping fly? Maybe ask around to see if anyone you know has an old tent frame hanging around that you could use parts of?

My metal roof isn't a problem because I took great care to have airFLOW directly under it to carry the heat away. Not ON the roof, but OVER it -- hung on a slant so that the hot air can flow up and out between the two. That's how a shade fly for a tent works. The sun heats the upper layer and...

Probably a good principle -- though one could equally-well argue that darker creates more shade. For me, the air circulating underneath is a critical part of the setup. :)

I don't think I'd want to put chickens to bed wet. When they get wet in the daytime they preen themselves dry.

I don't think a tarp directly on the roof would do any good, but suspended a few feet above the roof it would cast good shade. One of my pavilions had a white cover, the other was blue. I didn't notice a lot of difference between the two. The brooder shown in that post does have a metal roof...

Of course. Climate matters tremendously. I just didn't want people in high humidity areas running out to buy misters, which would be counterproductive. :) In dry heat they're highly desirable.

Misters only work in dry heat. If you're got high humidity as well as high temperatures a mister can make it even worse. :(

Here we have some bad photos of chickens on a day where we were having an "Excessive Heat Warning" (which has since downgraded to a "Heat Advisory". So, it's "only" about 95 in the shade on the north side of the house where the brooder sits in one of the most sheltered spots on the property...

:D When I lived in Massachusetts I *thought* it got "really hot". Here in NC the 90F day I thought was misery embodied is now considered a cool day from mid-July through mid-September. Chickens are tough, adaptable livestock animals. Don't stress too hard. :)

Today my birds will get their special, hot-weather treet -- electrolyte mash. That is, I make up a batch of Sav-A-Chick and use it to make a wet mash with their normal feed. I will do all work with them early this morning and leave them undisturbed through the hottest part of the afternoon so...

Even with 16 square feet of permanent ventilation and 10 square feet of additional ventilation I had to put an old picnic fly up over my Outdoor Brooder to keep it from overheating. If the outdoor temperature was 105 and the indoor was 95 you are probably doing something right. :)...