Best way to wean chicks into the heat?

[Treveryan]

I have 5 chicks who are about 8-10 weeks old and I’ve had many chickens when I lived in California but this is my
First flock in Arizona. I’m starting to take them outside for about 45 min-an hour and then bring them back inside when I notice them starting to “pant”... Am I approaching this correctly until they’re a little older and can increase they’re outside time increments?

Also I was thinking maybe freezing a 2 liter bottle and leaving it with them to nudge against outside when they’re warm like I did for my rabbits back in the day!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Treveryan]

I forgot to mention it’s been in the low hundreds here recently lol

 

[Thyme4Chickens]

Hi, and welcome to BYC! I'm in WI so we don't deal with the kind of heat that you do! Here's a link to an AZ state thread so you can get connect to other folks in your area: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/arizona-chickens.31227/

When you take them outside, is there any shade? Can you post pics of the outdoors area?

 

[Treveryan]

Thanks for the link!

It’s very generic now as their coop isn’t up yet so just a small area for them outside at the moment, But yes! They do have have shade half sun the way we have it.

 

[AZWhiteKnight]

Welcome to AZ Treveryan!

In 100+ temperatures, the birds are going to pant at times. Giving them some water to hang out in should decrease that. I have found that as long as the birds have shade and water, they are fine. I have hose-connected water buckets with the drinking nipples on them that have worked really well for me year round. Now that the summer has hit, I have several old bus tubs that I fill with water every morning that they love. I had thought that they would just stand in them to cool off, but the birds drink out of everything. They nearly dunk their entire heads under the water in the bus tubs. Finally, I have tried growing a number of plants in their runs (which I have a 0% success rate doing so far), so they also have sprinklers that wet the area down a couple times a day. As long as they have shade, and access to plenty of water (both to drink and stand in), you should not have an issue.