Arizona Chickens

[Beckyhsinglsc]

Makeshift swamp cooler for the roost. It ain't pretty but it's working better than I expected. I used a pump from a water fountain and bought the pan and pad for less than $10 at HomeDepot. I covered the pad with left over chicken wire and wired it to the coop. Water and electricity... be careful. After cutting the holes in the plastic tube bigger and bigger I finally got a good flow and the pad is swollen. The fan is on boards across the water pan, stable enough and dry. At 105 outside it was in the low 80's in the corner of the coop. We're limiting them to the coop and not letting them into their run, it's just too darn hot there. Later in the afternoon we'll 'chain the hound' (an untrustworthy spaniel) and let them out into the backyard and garden to cool off in the wet grass.
Spoiled chickens? You bet.

You've inspired my husband. He's on the way to Home Depot.

 

[notinoz2007]

guys, i was close to 30 pages behind! yikes, its been a busy few weeks.
yesterday we decided to escape the heat and spend the day at the lake, which left me worried about my chickens welfare. i had not been using the mister much since i got back from vacation as they just didnt seem to need it, i stay home so am able to offer ice or frozen treats whenever i decide to go outside. but yesterday i left it on the whole time we were gone, and i also put a frozen jug of water in their dish (which is located right in front of a fan - so giving a bit of swamp cooler effect as well). they must have been happy because from 4 hens i got 3 eggs. i also put a frozen jug under the cats claw in the chick brooder yard (my whole side yard has been rigged up to house the 12 aloha chicks i am growing out). everyone was alive - much to my surprise and pleasure of course.
today i opened the big chicken pen and decided to let them free range all day - which i never do, usually its about an hour supervised in the evening - but i figure they can find their favorite cool spot. i put my pepper plant pots up high, but left the huge petunia pots on the patio, which instantly became their lunch. brats... at least they didnt scratch them out of the pot.
just trying to stay cool in mesa.

in other news, i was incubating 32 eggs from my random backyard flock - some pure aloha, some back yard mix and i only ended up with TWO chicks. i have to say this is by far my worst hatch ever, and it was all my fault. all the times i checked on them, i never noticed that the auto turner was off its rocker, until day 14. *smacks forehead* anyway the last one i helped hatch because i couldnt stand the thought of only one chick. i usually dont help, because that can lead to a weak chick - which is the case here. but in my eyes its still better than one all alone. since there are only 2 they are in my daughters room and will end up being house chicks til sometime in the fall. (ps dont tell DH) the tiny one is brahma aloha cross. the other is brahma EE and so fluffy and huge. i will post pics soon.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

Spent about an hour with my girls, just sitting. They are holding up. I added one more section to their mister. I hope it works. The new coop is open one side. Last night I had 7 of my 12 girls roosting in it.

 

[maryhysong]

I feel for all of you in the low desert; We hit 110 yesterday, which is about as hot as we ever get; not sure what the high was today, but at 12 it was 104. so far so good, everybody is holding up and until today most of the girls were laying as usual. Today they were down by about half. I don't have misters or fans, but went the pens down and put out extra water, and fill up all their dusting holes with water so they have mud holes to lay in.

I am thinking of making some ice blocks to stand out their to melt in their dusting spots tho, as it seems this week is going to be pretty bad for the heat. Usually it's cooling off by about 430 but it was still really hot.

I could never live in the valley with it still being 90+ at midnight!

 

[ChicksOfHazzard]

Meh. You get used to it. But it was definitely extremely hot today. Mine did fine. I had a couple ice blocks out there for them, of course the misters were on. And some watermelon in the late afternoon to perk them up. I ran the misters until almost 8 tonight because its still 106 right now. I'm leaving the big side-door to the roost open tonight, probably tomorrow night too.

But while I was dreading being outside, the chickens all did well and seemed hot, but happy and perky.

I hope everyone's chickens did well today.

 

[BY Chicken Lady]

I also added electrolytes and frozen tubes of ice to my Chicken Fountain. The chickens loved the COOL water which helped them get in more of the electrolytes.

 

[countrygirl74]

That is so awesome that you did that! I don't do misters or ice. But I do hose down the grass and shady areas. I let them all free-range in the grassy yard. Everyone looks good. Panting, but still up and foraging for the most part. I hosed off the coop as I have three broodies, two that sit together. I can't imagine how hot they must be. They won't get much relief at night either. I'm just taking it one day at a time,

My silkie has gone broody again too so I have been worried about her overheating sitting in the coop all the time. It got to at least 105 today here and I physically took her out and set her feet in the planter tray - she ran around for a bit and then went back in to her eggs. I hope they're not cooked!

All mine were panting pretty good around the heat of the day but over the past few ridiculously hot days I've been home so I changed out their water (couldn't believe how much it heated up!), sprayed down the run with the hose and threw some frozen 2-liter bottles in there. The nice thing was that today it ended up getting a little overcast and brought a cool breeze with a light sprinkle! Just not having the sun bearing down for a couple hours was nice!

Hey boy, I'm talking' to ya, boy. Look me in the eye like a man, boy. Like a man...

Haha - great pics today!!

 

[drumstick diva]

could you run a fan for them - moving air always seems cooler

 

[Sheof3Angels]

It's been a terrible 2 weeks for me and birds. I lost my beautiful BO. I had a broody hen that I wanted to get chicks for. cbnovick and pastrymama were kind enough to share some rare birds with me. I had gotten sulmtalers and brahmas from pastrymama and some blue and brown Orpingtons from cbnovick. I had 5 of the orpingtons for my brood, day old cute fuzzy butts. The night I got them home I waited until the sun went down and it was dark, I transfered broody hen from nest to brooder and put the chicks under her. She wouldn't have it and started pecking at them. I moved her back to the nest and the chicks into the garage. Next morning I go out and realize I didn't shut the brooder.

I am soo sorry for your loss. It's been my biggest fear this summer that we may loose one of our girls. What a horrible month you have had. Hoping things turn around soon.

 

[Sheof3Angels]

well I came home from the morning movies with the kids to an absolute disaster. we had several hens down with heat stroke and one dead in the coop. the kids were just hysterical but helped to pull out the dying hens and grab the hose on the patio to cool them down quickly. it will be touch and go still for 3 Basque, 1 FBCM, 1 SBEL, 1 Porcelain silkie, but I lost my other SBEL. I have the misters still going in the yard, the broodies smashed all the eggs which is just as well. I imagine the eggs are fried anyway. wow, I have had a super crappy chicken and duck year.

So hate hearing these dreadful stories. Hope your chickens pull through.