Arizona Heat Issue

[City farm]

We live in Phoenix, this is our second year with chickens. We lost some the first year to heat at 118 degrees. Even the ice blocks and cold water couldn't overcome the heat stress. We moved them indoors for a while until we had our new coop and run finished. The new run and coop have a sand floor and we have misters that we got at home Depot for next to nothing and it works great! It will cool the run down 20 degrees when it is set up right. A standard box fan supplies all the needed air for the misting. The birds were freaked out first, but calmed right down and learned to move closer to the mister when they needed the cooler temps. We have just started the mister up last week and the birds which are all new this year, are enjoying the set up.

Our coop has one open picture window, without any glass, that has a 90% solar shade over it. The shade can be rolled up or down. It faces North where we seldom get monsoon wind from that direction. When the wind is strong the shade stays down, if it is humid along with the heat, we open it to get a breeze at night. The roof is vented all the way around. All the openings to the coop and run have 1/4 inch hardware cloth for safety sake. We also have the same 90% shade cloth hung loosely on the South side of the coop and run. An afternoon breeze from that S.W. sides even more air in the hot afternoons. We didn't have enough trees in our yard to provide adequate shade so made do with the shade cloths.

It was fun planning the build. We are still making changes when we see something that needs improvement. Thanks to all of the assistance from BYC , we have been moderately successful with the chicken hobby.

We have lots of Free Plant n Gardening Stands in Phoenix. When we do the stand tours, I bring cuttings from our Arabian lilac that grows in our run. Also have a fourm on here.

 

[ChicksnMore]

I'm in Tucson, averages 10° cooler then Phoenix. Here I get by with just deep shade, good air flow and shallow water bowls they can stand in. My runs are all covered as well and I add roost bars to the run during the summer and remove them in the winter. If I didn't remove them, the chickens would spend all year sleeping in the run and we do get an occasional freeze in the winter. Good luck with your move and project!