Best Ways to Deal With This Extreme Heat???

[retiredwithchicks]

I am just wondering how others are dealing with this extreme heat and chickens? We have two pens with fine mist sprinklers but have other pens that are not covered. The chickens are suffering some, in fact, I lost one. I try to put in fresh water for drinking occasionally. Any other suggestions??

 

[Jackie B.]

I'm fortunate enough to live in the woods and have a deck for the flock to go under. I also crack my crawlspace door bc it's really nice and cool under there and they can feast on all the buggies too. But I think the biggest thing to beat the heat is to find a way to get air moving and circulating. Can you hook up a fan?

 

[colebarnhart]

Frozen water in plastic pop bottles or milk jugs, Fans, more shade with a tarp, frozen food treats, ice cubes in the waterer

 

[savingpurple]

Yep all of the above.....and can someone remind me, how hot it is and for how long it has been, when I am complaining how cold it will be in mid January??

Geez Louise.....it's HOT, and HUMID !! I use small tuperware type containers, and freeze blocks of ice, and add that hunk to the waterer. Doesn't melt nearly as fast as the ice cubes do.

Frozen milk jugs, they have yet to figure out to lay by them, but they stand and peck at the moisture, so they must at least feel the coolness of them.

Small 20 oz size pop bottles, frozen with water, and they will somewhat lay by them as I put in near the holes they have dug. Other wise, they have not figured out they are a cooling idea....mine are special for sure !!

Did have a tarp over the shade cloth, but we have chances of rain each day, so that had to come off. They are not doing so good without that.

I just keep checking on them, on my days off. Hope for the best on the days I have to work.

 

[eds500]

Fresh water everyday. cool treats like watermelon and cantaloupe. I'll have the hose free flowing when I start my routine so the hens can peck and play in the water. Some will drink straight off the flow. Fortunately, I have some shade and the coop is on the highest elevation of yard but not the surrounding property. I haven't tried the frozen water bottles, fans or misters though I have put ice cubes in their water fountains.

 

[cfdf]

misters, freeze coke bottles full of water...they will fit inside the large waterers and keep water cold, kiddie pools for wading, shade cloth, frozen veggies & watermelon, and I put a water cooler/swamp cooler inside the coop..keeps the coop about 20 degrees cooler, fans, shade trees and I turn the sprinkler on in the hottest part of the day. Since I put the water cooler in the coop I really haven't had to turn on the misters or sprinklers. The chickens and ducks stay in the coop during the hottest part of the day. (not locked in..they choose where they want to be) I do put out the wading pools though. It's working good so far!

 

[geekgurl]

I've added a kitty litter sized tray of water to the run and at lunch I pour whatever ice we have in the icemaker into that tray. They won't wade in it, but they like to drink from it. I also dump some ice into the sand (we have sand in the run) and rake a bit of sand over it. The hens will perch right on top of the ice and that cools them pretty good. There's also a box fan in the run and a smaller fan in the coop that they'll get right next to at night. They get frozen treats like blueberries. I give them one inch thick slices of watermelon each day. I go through almost 2 watermelons a week for my 4 girls. In the morning I dump the kitty litter tray of water in the sandy run and they immediately start playing in the sandy wet mess. At the end of June, I picked up some shadecloth from the big box store and hung that across the top of the coop and along one side where the sun peaks in during morning hours. The rest of the day the run and coop are shaded by an old oak tree.

I'll be glad if tropical storm Don can bring down these temps. If we can't get any rain from it, it would at least be nice to break this string of 100+ days here in Dallas. We're at day 27.

 

[dbounds10]

GeekGirl - I feel ya, I am in Fort Worth and I have shadecloth, misters, frozen milk jugs, frozen fruit and veg everyday, fan in the run and fan in the coop, and shade from the trees the coop is under. This heatwave is the PITS.

My girls are 20.5 weeks old and not one egg yet, I think they are on strike till it gets cooler. I have not tried the "kiddie chicken pool" think I will try to rig something up this weekend.

Here is my set up, you can see the mist and look under the coop you can see the fan with the frozen jug in front of it. They like to lay under there.

Here are the girls enjoying their frozen watermelon in a frozen watermelon "bowl". Thelma got a brain freeze I think...

 

[geekgurl]

You've got a nice setup there, Dbounds10. I like the misters.

I may have to look into getting a mister if this weather keeps up...which I think it will.

 

[ChickiKat]

I don't think Sassy likes the new pool !!!