Arizona Chickens

[Coffee N Chickens]

More cool cucumbers for my birds! The only ones who really liked the watermelon were Big Ben and the ants. The ants are still here, and the roo managed to get his feet all sticky when he ate it.

And a new addition--the flies have discovered the chickens! Since I only started with chickens late last fall, they waited until this summer to find the coops.

The temperature is supposed to drop again next Tuesday. That gives us another week of this heat. Fingers crossed for no new fires.

 

[Outta Here]

I keep my homemade whole-grain chicken feed in the freezer and feed it to them frozen on hot days. Then they have a personal air conditioner in their craw, cooling their whole bodies....at least until their body temperature thaws it out.

 

[City farm]

More cool cucumbers for my birds! The only ones who really liked the watermelon were Big Ben and the ants. The ants are still here, and the roo managed to get his feet all sticky when he ate it.

And a new addition--the flies have discovered the chickens! Since I only started with chickens late last fall, they waited until this summer to find the coops.

The temperature is supposed to drop again next Tuesday. That gives us another week of this heat. Fingers crossed for no new fires.

Yeah, flys only get worse. And for ants, they are off the hook this year! Photo for fun

 

[City farm]

at least mine didn't go broody so far this year, she just laid an egg.

It is no fun to have a broody in the heat. Our silly girl Cindy just got done raising a few babies. I did find her in the nest last night, acting kinda broody. This is her 2nd time in under a year. She turned 1 in February and has not molted. She is a Silver laced Old English Orpington.

 

[springvalley123]

More cool cucumbers for my birds! The only ones who really liked the watermelon were Big Ben and the ants. The ants are still here, and the roo managed to get his feet all sticky when he ate it.

And a new addition--the flies have discovered the chickens! Since I only started with chickens late last fall, they waited until this summer to find the coops.

The temperature is supposed to drop again next Tuesday. That gives us another week of this heat. Fingers crossed for no new fires.

I've been watching the Tiger fire. I think its acreage is understated because I see the origin of the smoke (i don't see flames at least) from my house and yesterday some ash fell. but, the base camp for the firefighters is at the high school a mile from me.

 

[springvalley123]

It is no fun to have a broody in the heat. Our silly girl Cindy just got done raising a few babies. I did find her in the nest last night, acting kinda broody. This is her 2nd time in under a year. She turned 1 in February and has not molted. She is a Silver laced Old English Orpington. View attachment 2750523

she's beautiful!

 

[City farm]

Hi, an Arizonian here in the ghost town of Pearce. When the temperature gets above 85, my free-range flock takes a siesta around 10:30-11 in their coop. This is for heat relief but also to give their guardian, my German Shepherd, a break to come inside the house and get cool, too!
At first I herded them but now they just go--because I have a small swamp cooler blowing right in their window at chicken height! They love it and voluntarily take their nap inside even though my lawn and covered porch have plenty of shade, breeze, and water bowls. Some lay on the cool sand floor and some roost. If they want their feathers gently ruffled by the cool air (most do), they get right in front of the cooler. If not, they can find a less breezy spot on either side.
The model is a Hessaire MC18M and can be manually filled or hooked to a hose. It costs between .04 and .09 cents an hour to run. I like it better than misters because it cools very nicely yet nothing actually gets wet.
View attachment 2748501

Glad you joined in on here! Love your set up!

 

[Parront]

There's not a lot of rhyme or reason to which birds from which breeds will do best in the heat. Leghorns are "from" a port town, so think milder climates than the plains of Andalusia or Egypt (fayoumis). But then think of their hatchery/living environments. Just living to breeding age would be an accomplishment in your climate (except of course how you care for them), but any breed/bird might do well in Iowa or other generally colder climates, and they probably have swamp coolers on the birds in those hatcheries anyway.

I suspect that the high production breeds might not be as heat hardy. The egg factories are cooled, otherwise the egg production would drop! I think it would not take very many generations of only breeding the survivors of the heat to get a more heat-tolerant hen. But, may not lay as many eggs as the egg-factories' leghorns. The chicks in the brooder shed are from Sandhill Preservation, he says that he does not heat or cool his birds. It can get pretty hot and humid in Iowa! And colder in the winter than I am by far. So far I have not lost a single chick from these.

 

[Parront]

maybe they'd like a hessier portable swamp cooler like @Veelee has!

ETA: their price has increased 43% in about a year!

I am sure they would! I want one in my office sometimes! We use one for the whole house most of the time, I prefer it to the AC. It adds some humidity so it is not the best for during the monsoon season, though. I am fine with a house temp of 80, so far this year we haven't turned on the AC, but we did come close the other day, then we got a ton of rain and it cooled off. Yesterday was the hottest yet this year!

 

[Parront]

More cool cucumbers for my birds! The only ones who really liked the watermelon were Big Ben and the ants. The ants are still here, and the roo managed to get his feet all sticky when he ate it.

And a new addition--the flies have discovered the chickens! Since I only started with chickens late last fall, they waited until this summer to find the coops.

The temperature is supposed to drop again next Tuesday. That gives us another week of this heat. Fingers crossed for no new fires.

We have fly traps all around the chickens. It really helps, but there are some that refuse to go into the traps! I got some of the fly parasites that @BlueBaby got, I can see that they are hatching out, I hope they work. Of course when we got the big rain and hail last week, they fell down on the ground. Next time I will wire them up and not depend on the little paper hanger on the mesh bags they send you.
My birds will stand on a block of ice in a shallow roasting pan. I get the roasting and broiler pans from the thrift store for ~ $1.00 and freeze water in them then put it out for the chickens. I freeze 1/2 gallon plastic milk cartons and put it in their water bucket, too.