Beating Louisiana's heat. Got questions and need tips!

[jwyles]

I have been keeping chickens for a couple of years and I have done nothing special except that I designed my large coop with plenty of passive airflow and the coop is partially shaded in the late afternoon hours, but full sun most of the day. My watering system is a five gallon bucket mounted outside the coop on the west side which stays shaded, and feeds pvc pipe with nipples inside the coop. Until this year I only had about a half dozen chickens. Using the deep litter method in my coop, I have not had issues with excessive flies. But now I have added 15 more pullets and the fly problem may be worse this year, we will see.

I like the idea of your watering system!!! May steal that. What is deep litter method? Also flies aren't so bad but the GNATS!!! OMG!

 

[coopdeville15]

Basically, deep litter is any mixture of bedding that the chickens dig around in and their droppings get mixed into. Works best on a bare earth floor where natural bacteria and dirt gets mixed in. You don't regularly clean out the coop, just add more organic material such as grass clippings, pine straw, leaves, pine shavings, etc. It will in the long run become compostable material. Clean out the coop about once a year and compost the removed litter, but don't remove all of it, leave some to mix in with new litter to "seed" the decomposition process. Naturally keep down smells and takes care of the poop problem with little to no effort on your part.

 

[Dmontgomery]

@getaclue just wrote a pretty good article last week about hot weather coops. You might want to check it out for ideas.
In my opinion air flow is key. As much ventilation as possible to let the wind move the heat out. I put frozen quart bottles in the waterers every morning. The waterers are in the shade 100% of the time. We have lots of shade trees and mine free range all day, so they are never in the sun unless they want to be. I don't have a fan in the coop.
Honestly, I have more flies on the back porch than in the coop. I think the spider webs catch most in the coop. My coop roof is 10' off the ground. I'm not climbing up there to get cobwebs.

 

[lilmarie84]

I currently have a couple of marigold plants I need to get a few more but where I do have them there are fewer insects like I said I need to get a few more it doesn't say it in that link but marigold are another one that is said to be a repellent just look up chickens and herbs and you will find all kinds of stuff on the subject

 

[jwyles]

Basically, deep litter is any mixture of bedding that the chickens dig around in and their droppings get mixed into. Works best on a bare earth floor where natural bacteria and dirt gets mixed in. You don't regularly clean out the coop, just add more organic material such as grass clippings, pine straw, leaves, pine shavings, etc. It will in the long run become compostable material. Clean out the coop about once a year and compost the removed litter, but don't remove all of it, leave some to mix in with new litter to "seed" the decomposition process. Naturally keep down smells and takes care of the poop problem with little to no effort on your part.

I'm using pine straw now but I was changing in out every 5 weeks or so and putting old in my compost and new pine straw in but glad to know I can stop that!!!

 

[jwyles]

@getaclue just wrote a pretty good article last week about hot weather coops. You might want to check it out for ideas.
In my opinion air flow is key. As much ventilation as possible to let the wind move the heat out. I put frozen quart bottles in the waterers every morning. The waterers are in the shade 100% of the time. We have lots of shade trees and mine free range all day, so they are never in the sun unless they want to be. I don't have a fan in the coop.
Honestly, I have more flies on the back porch than in the coop. I think the spider webs catch most in the coop. My coop roof is 10' off the ground. I'm not climbing up there to get cobwebs.

At the top is my current setup. To the right will be the permanent 40' coop we are adding in the next couple weeks. The small structure is going to be a mini coop that is separate for introducing new birds (if that ever happens) if not it can be used for storage. The back is south facing. So the entire east and west side will eventually be shaded. They get time in the yard daily tho so they too can get in the sun when they want too. When I build the coop Im thinking vents all around the top to allow hot air out is a good idea.

 

[coopdeville15]

There are certainly many variations on how to do deep litter. It seems most advise a combination of organic debris added as needed. As long as it doesn't stink or cause other problems, just add more litter. Some people clean out the deep litter more frequently than others, but the whole idea is a controlled decomposition that takes care of smells and is a healthy, living biomass, as it were. YMMV

 

[jwyles]

Thanks everyone!!!! Between the mint, marigolds, deep litter, awesome watering system, ice packs, herbs, fan, mister and article to read I may be an expert on southern chicken palaces after all this!! Hey I might go into business - That sounds like a great name for a coop design company..."Southern Chicken Palaces" -what do y'all think? Hehe! Seriously tho, I really tremendously appreciate every bit of this wonderful advice! Thanks again!!!

 

[aldarita]

I live in South Texas where it is very hot and humid, I tried the misters and they didn't work because of the high humidity, temps didn't drop much (at least to make any difference) You can use misters to dampen the ground to make it nice and a bit cool for the chickens to lay but be careful not to dampen it too much because you will have some issues with cocci outbreaks and if you have young chicks that could be a problem.

 

[Talithahorse]

As far as natural protection from flies you might consider the mini wasps. There are lots of places to buy them. I get mine from Arbico. They have plans where they send them monthly (or more often if needed). They work pretty good if you start them off before fly season gets started. Like the others said, I also try to plant herbs that resist bugs as well. I live in Alabama but also lived in Louisiana. When making your coop make sure you have lots of ventilation. If you have trees in or near your coop they naturally create a draft as well.