Coop to Protect Chickens from Southern Heat.

[donkeydew2farms]

JackE I love that coop. How many chickens does it hold.

 

[JackE]

JackE I love that coop. How many chickens does it hold.

It could house 30 or so comfortably.

 

[cafarmgirl]

We have half an acre of fenced yard that they will have access to during the day. Lots of trees and our covered porch for shade. They are literally in our backyard. Lol!
We are making the roof vented all around. We are thinking of making the front\door wire because of the heat. Will this be a problem during the winter?

You can always put up temporary walls. I have open front coops and I have removable panels that we put up in winter made of that heavy corrugated plastic stuff, sorry proper name escapes me at the moment! Only reason I put those up is because I had to build my coops facing north, they are built into the back of my small, open goat shed, otherwise I'd leave them open. But to block that cold north wind in winter we put those up on part of the open front, works perfect, they come back down when spring arrives. Super easy to do to, my husband drilled holes for screws through the plastic, they come up or down in just minutes.

Edited to add: If there's any way to set up your coop so you can install fans that is a huge help to the birds in very hot/humid weather, especially at night. I have a couple of Lasko wall mountable fans that blow over the roosts, the birds are so much more comfortable at night with those on. Even with excellent ventilation, when it's really hot and humid getting the air moving around them is important.

 

[User395221]

made of that heavy corrugated plastic stuff, sorry proper name escapes me

alsynite?

 

[cafarmgirl]

alsynite?

No idea lol. Used for roofing or barn/shed sky lights, greenhouses etc. We get it at Home Depot.

 

[MaryjaneCloud]

Here's a REAL newbie query from someone in (HOT) Georgia. (Some summers we reach 109) I'm turning my 20x40' greenhouse into a chicken run with the rear of it wired off as a large coop. It's standard wood support, large metal arched roof support, and covered in visquine [sic], so I can rip that plastic off in summer. My home burned down awhile back, and the month I was in the burn unit nobody saw fit to water the plants in it, so no use for a greenhouse now. I figured why not turn it into a coop deluxe, lol.

Seeing that they will have a protected "run", if I add a kiddie wading pool in there during intense heat, will they hop in it? I'm deep in the woods on 55 acres of hardwoods, nearest neighbor is 10 miles, so I can't just let them run free, trust me. This is coyote, coon, possom, deer, turkey haven, not to mention a lot of snakes. I don't even let me cats outside!

Chickens brave enough to wade?

 

[User395221]

Chickens brave enough to wade?

When my new girls were smaller (they are still only young, but they were smaller) I was concerned that they would succumb to the heat more easily than my big girls. I put a saucer (the bottom of a ball waterer) in their run and at least one of my girls stood in it (they both might have, but she's the one who was standing there when I went to check on them.

Perhaps it depends on the chickens, but they do wade.

 

[aart]

Chickens brave enough to wade?

I had to 'teach' mine.
Shallow pan of ice water(1-2" deep water), held them with feet in the pan, they fought it a bit for just a couple seconds.......
.....then I swear I heard a very deep sigh and felt them relax.
Now most will wade in there.

 

[dalpop]

We live in Dallas where the summer temps routinely get to over 100, and the humidity is close to 100% at times. We built a 3-sided henhouse with 1/2" hardware cloth walls. The fourth side shares a wall with my husband's shed, and is on the north side of the henhouse, so it's protected from the cold north winds when they come. The west side is shaded by a 6' tall privacy fence, and there's a huge pecan tree that shades the whole structure for most of the day during the summer. My husband used a vinyl boat tarp to create 'walls' for the remaining sides--they roll down when it's cold and windy or blowing rain and cold. In the coldest part of the winter (we do get snow and below freezing temps) we use clear vinyl sheeting stapled to the outside of the open walls to add an additional layer of wind block. The hardware cloth extends into the ground to prevent predators from digging under, even along the wall shared with the shed. We have had really good luck with this design.

 

[User395221]

and the humidity is close to 100% at times.

When you have high humidity, the only thing you can do is open everything up. There is nothing that mould likes better than enclosed space, heat, and moisture. We get the high temperatures, but it's dry heat, so we only have to address the temperature. It's a "whole different ball-game" in a tropical climate. (I'd never realised that Texas got the humidity, I'd always thought it would be "dry hot".)