Chicks afraid of ceiling fan?!

[ninafe]

Hi guys! First time chicken owner. Four 8 week old ISA brown pullets set up in a coop and attached run on our covered patio (we live in the suburb with surrounding neighbors so the chicken dont free roam). Houston is getting incredibly hot and humid as usual and the chicken have been panting like crazy. At this rate I don’t think they are gonna last though summer! I do electrolytes, ice cubes, sometimes spray a little water directly on top of them. They are on patio so they don’t have access to the earth/ dirt most of the day. And I’m not home 24/7 to frequently cook them down. Their run is shredded newspaper with pine shavings.

What else can I do to make them more comfortable?! I turned on our patio fan directly over their run to get some air flow but they all went berserk. I dont know if I keep the fan on they will get used to it eventually or will have a heart attack?

 

[GermanKennhuhn]

Hello there! I think the best Thing you can do is to make sure they have shade and plenty of water. As for the fan I would watch them for a while and see if they calm down. If they don’t I would turn it off.
best wishes!

 

[Franklinridgefarms]

That reminds me of several years ago, when we had a new crop of leghorn chicks in a stock water tank in the house. The tank was sitting under a ceiling fan, which we rarely used, only used the light. A neighbor came by and was looking at the chickens which at that point were probably around 3 weeks old. My mother thought she was turning on the light and accidentally pulled the fan cord and those chickens were running and flapping wings like crazy. The neighbor said they thought that fan was a hawk.

 

[aart]

They would probably get used to the motion of the fan, but it's not going to help cool them off much.....not like us humans who sweat and benefit from moving air creating evaporative cooling.

 

[GermanKennhuhn]

perhaps spraying a little water underneath their wings will help cool them off.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Any possibility of moving the set up to a more shaded location/location with dirt that they can dig down in, to cool down?

 

[ninafe]

Hello there! I think the best Thing you can do is to make sure they have shade and plenty of water. As for the fan I would watch them for a while and see if they calm down. If they don’t I would turn it off.
best wishes!

Thank you! They do have a lot of shade and water. They eventually all calmed down

 

[GermanKennhuhn]

That’s great!

 

[ninafe]

Any possibility of moving the set up to a more shaded location/location with dirt that they can dig down in, to cool down?

Unfortunately not.... The patio is our only option with shade at all. And it is completely shaded. Rarely any rays of sun under the patio. It is really just the overall temperature and humidity that bother them...

 

[ninafe]

perhaps spraying a little water underneath their wings will help cool them off.

Yes I did that earlier today... I just sprinkled some water all over them. They hated it but did cool down.