Are my chickens overheating?

[curlyhairedwhit]

I have 8 young chickens in a large pen with a 10 foot by 8 foot shaded shelter. There is a small kiddie swimming pool, a smaller water trough (mainly for my mini pig that also resides in the pen) and a 5 gallon waterer. I live in Florida and we are under a heatwave... the temperature has been in the 90's with 100% humidity and the real feel has been 105+. They lay in the coolest spot they can find with their wings spread out and panting. Does any one else do anything extra for there pets? Or should they be okay?

 

[nchls school]

I have 8 young chickens in a large pen with a 10 foot by 8 foot shaded shelter. There is a small kiddie swimming pool, a smaller water trough (mainly for my mini pig that also resides in the pen) and a 5 gallon waterer. I live in Florida and we are under a heatwave... the temperature has been in the 90's with 100% humidity and the real feel has been 105+. They lay in the coolest spot they can find with their wings spread out and panting. Does any one else do anything extra for there pets? Or should they be okay?

From your description your birds are too warm; chickens act much like dogs when they are to warm or stressed -they pant. This you have observed. I am not sure if this will work with your set up. Try using a fan blowing over the water in the kiddie pool. This would provide some relief.

 

[Cacique500]

We're in the same boat up in Georgia...unreal heat the past couple of weeks. We are trying to put ice in the waterer each morning and have done electrolytes a couple of times as well. I just bought one of the small blower fans http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006O6FA22?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00 and have it pointed at the girls when it's hot. They actually lay down in the in the blast of the fan so I think it's working. I think I read that you can run the fan all day and it uses something like 168 watts/hr - so it costs maybe $0.15/day to run.

A lot of people have also suggested freezing slices of watermelon and putting some of that out - may try that next.

 

[CityCAChicken]

I made this for $17.
Styrofoam ice chest $2 (Walmart)
Fan $11 (Walmart)
AC vents $4 (Ace Hardware)

Filled 2 liter soda bottles up with water, froze overnight and stick in the ice chest.

End result? Blowing 40-50 degree air on my chickens. Last 4-5 hours

 

[curlyhairedwhit]

Thanks everyone! We placed a tarp over the uncovered part and put a large fan in the pen... it seems to have helped a lot! Also, I spray the ground when I change the water and they love it! Hopefully, they will make it through this awful heat wave!

 

[mtnpeople]

Made this for my 5 week old mini-raptors. Works great!
And yesterday, the third day of enjoying the cool, the little dinos started eating the Styrofoam. Does anyone know if these girls will survive the ingestion of processed beads of white plastic? They have been outside in their run for a week now as well, eating fresh greens and being chickens.....

 

[CityCAChicken]

Oh crap! Yeah they can eat it. Some people even say it helps with egg production.

Uhm...it will not hurt them but no way can it be a good idea. I would remove it right away

 

[TheMallons]

Set it in a plastic box or build something around it? Too good an idea to lose!

 

[CityCAChicken]

I keep my chickens in a fenced run/coop. I do let them "free range" my backyard but I live in a heavily residential area and the back yard is minimal. As a result I stuck this on the outside of the caged run blowing in thru the fence. Chickens can't touch it but can feel the air. I had never thought about them eating it...eek!

 

[mtnpeople]

I replaced the foam with an orange homer bucket from HD. Now until the new chicken teeth come in, I won't have to worry about the monsters eating that.....