Chicken Fans

[mjdtexan]

Have any of yall that live in hot areas tried putting fans in the chicken coop in order to cool them down? I went from getting 16 (average) eggs a day from 19 pullets to only getting 5 or 6 a day now that its hot. The fans dont seem to have them laying more eggs but they like to hang out in front of them.

Any ideas on how I can get them to resume egg production?

 

[rancher hicks]

One thing that always worked for me was to feed them scratch from an old Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket.

 

[NYREDS]

Quote:
I keep an ax right next to the coop door-it's a great motivator!

 

[redtailross]

he he he....

Im think im in for more bad Karma for laughing...Oh well

 

[Brindlebtch]

Don't know. I'm giving my girls ice water to drink and frozen melons and grapes as treats. Poor things have lots of shade and dust wallows in the shade and don't seem to be really distressed, just panting and holding their wings out. I'm getting no eggs!

 

[3peeps]

I think it's just "one of those things." I look at it this way...it's their body's way of managing stress.

Also, our hens are not used to this sudden heat wave. We've had a very cold May and June and 90's all of a sudden is hard on everyone. I assume that once they adjust to the heat a little more, things will get easier. Hopefully.

I do like the ideas mentioned about frozen treats and keeping cool water available. And scratch will always be welcome.

I put more oyster shell out last night and one of my hens in particular was very happy to see it.

 

[Foxhound lady]

Our production is down and a few are starting to molt (thank heaven).

We have a big fan that blows air through all three coops but its just hot.

 

[wjallen05]

One thing that always worked for me was to feed them scratch from an old Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket

 

[mjdtexan]

Quote:
At what age do they tend to molt? Do they have an average scale on things like that or does it just happen when it happens?

 

[foweler]

As I understand it chickens don't sweat. The main thing that cools us down when we sit in front of a fan is a drop in temperature due to the sweat on our skin evaporating. The water in the sweat changing states to a vapor used energy and it comes from heat. The result is a cooling effect. It doesn't work the same on critters that can't sweat. Blowing hot air on them might be more harm then good.

That said, if you had a source of moisture near the chickens (or on them if they would stand for it) that could be evaporated that would leach some heat energy out of the ground and air. Add a fan to that and it works better. That's exactly what a swamp cooler does.

I remember in my younger roomate days hearing tell of a guy who draped burlap down the back windows of his house (rental of course) with a hose set to wet them and used fans in exhaust mode in the front windows to pull air through the wet burlap and through the house. A poor man's swamp cooler. I have been thinking of setting something like that up in my coop but we haven't had many REALLY hot days here yet. Might get things a bit muggy too. We rarely get above 60 or 70% humidity around here so I don't know how well it would work in a humid climate.