Anyone use water misters in summer.

[BorregoMike]

I have 25 hens (Delaware, black NJ giant, buff Orpington) in the super-hot-in-summer SoCal desert. I intend to keep them through the summer. They have a well ventilated coop (5 sq ft per bird) and an outdoor run (11 soft per bird). Most of the run has shade throughout the day. The base of the run is normal desert sand. I am thinking of putting in a line of misters, set to come on/off through the day) that would them about 25 sqft that had misters above it. This would cool the air and moisten the sand below.

The complication is I will have a friend caring for the flock for about six weeks so I want a system that is automatic as possible and won’t need of special cleaning or maintenance.

It gets hot here. A typical summer day is 103 -110 and 20 degrees cooler for a low. Humidity is low for about half the summer and high for about half if it, during the desert monsoon season.

Anyone else use misters in a climate like mine? I’m looking for ideas and suggestions.

 

[Blingchix6]

I live in Northeast Ohio, so it doesn’t get as blazing hot here as it does in SoCal. However, it DOES get hot here during the summer. I have a misting system that I use as well as several high powered fans. I also have clematis vines growing up the sides and roof of my run, as well as shade cloth. I like to keep the girls as cool as possible. I give them ice blocks in their water. The humidity here in the summertime can be pretty bad. I use pea gravel as ground cover in the run and they root around in that to cool off. The misting system was relatively inexpensive; I think I got it on Amazon. It works just fine. You could probably put a timer on any mister system. Good luck with the flock!!

 

[Blingchix6]

I checked. It’s called “MistyMate” and it cost around $40

 

[BlueBaby]

I'm in the desert over here in Arizona, so I know exactly what your flock will have to go through this summer. I had Australorp's before. The mister's will help those bigger fluffy bird's, but the feather's won't be looking so well after awhile, because they like to stay there under them so much. I had my mister's set up on a timer for them to go off from about 10 am until about 7 pm when the sun would be about ready to go down. Put them at the end of the run farthest from the coop, because you will get puddles and mud, especially during the monsoon's. You can also set out a plastic shallow pan of water for them to wade in to help them to cool off, such as one of those used under water heaters. Chicken's cool off through their feet, it seem's. Also, make sure that they have plenty of clean water to drink. Frozen water bottles added to the drinking water can help to keep them cooler also.

I sold my Australorp's, and now I have the Naked Neck's, because they did much better last summer in our heat, plus this rooster isn't mean.

 

[llombardo]

I found a mister that connects to the hose. I got two and ran them for the chickens. It worked well.

I also had a couple large metal bowls that they could stand in plus a couple regular watereers.

 

[aart]

I experienced the mister magic during a visit to AZ.
I was amazed...sure wish it would work in my humid climate.