Dealing w/ extereme heat??

[Dixiedoodle]

Many of us are dealing w/ extereme heat and high humidity. Are you seeing a real drop in egg production? Have you changed their feed? are you adding electrolytes to their water? Are you using fans? Do you wet down their run? Please share you 'tired and true' ideas w/ us new chicken parents!
thanks..

 

[missrose]

I live in mesa, AZ. This was my first summer with the chickens, so as it got hotter I made adjustments. Here are some of the things I did...

-small fan inside the coop to get air moving
-moved coop to the other side of our yard- so it would be in the sun in the morning- instead of the afternoon
-started dunking the chickens (yes, in a kiddie pool) which cooled them off a lot!

And for a really nice treat, fill a plastic cup with water about 1/4 of the way full and add some favorite fruit to it. Freeze it overnight. Then cut the cup open to reveal an ice cube treat!

Edited to add- my girl Buffy went broody at the beginning of the summer and even when she snapped out of it, she still has not laid. She is the only girl I have left

so I can't tell you about any of the other girls. ( lost the rest of my flock to extreme heat- I was on vacation and the girls got trapped in the coop while there water was outside. )

 

[elmo]

I let the flock out to free range in the mornings when it's cooler, and make sure they get a good start on their feeding at that time. When it starts getting really hot around noon, I move them to a tractor parked in the deepest shade in the yard, covered with shade tarps. Every hour or so after that, I let them out of the tractor while I hose it down and get the ground good and wet, replace the water with cool, fresh water, and put them back in the tractor. Any chicken that's panting really hard gets brought indoors for a half an hour breather in our indoor bird room that's kept at around 82 degrees. So far, that's only been our feather footed girls. The other chickens seem to be handling the heat ok.

One hen, the smallest one, has kept chugging along laying eggs all throughout this heat, never missing a beat. The other two stopped for a few days but are now laying again.

 

[The Chicken People]

I am getting smaller eggs! I am not sure if heat related or due to new layers?

 

[tommboy1973]

This is my first year with chicks, and I also live in AZ. It is around 105 degrees now, and a little humid with the monsoons. They are only 12 weeks old but seem to be handling the heat ok, no losses so far. I fill their 5 gallon waterer and put a frozen 2liter bottle to cool the water as it comes out really hot, even if I let water run forever. I also have been adding electrolytes. The coop is pretty open and the run is partially shaded also. When I get home from work I will give greens or watermelon rinds from the fridge. They seem to be coping by panting, and drinking large amounts of water, and they will poop very waterry and sometimes vomit water but act just fine so I guess that is normal??? The barred rocks seem the most comfortable.

 

[gritsar]

We've been experiencing temps. in the high 90s, low 100s with humidity values staying in the 90 percentiles, making it feel a whole lot worse.
My adult flock free ranges all day, so they are able to find the area that is most comfortable to them. There's two fans in their coop, one aimed directly at the nestbox area for when the girls have to visit them.
I check their source of fresh water hourly to make sure nothing has happened to cause them to run out.
More than anything I leave them be. That means not going out there with treats and getting them all stirred up.
Cold fruit occasionally, but later in the evening.

My girls were laying excellent despite our horrible heat and only recently started to slow down. I suspect a molt coming on.

 

[PatS]

We've been in the high 90s, low 100s for the last few weeks, too, but we don't have a humidity problem. The birds free range so they decide where the best place is to hang out. I make sure all the waterers (there are five, all around the property) are filled with clean, cool water daily.

Last year I installed misters in the run, but they didn't care for them. I'm watering in the garden, too, so sometimes they lay on the damp ground.

When it is hot like this, they pant a lot. So do the wild birds. (So do I.)

We're down a little in our egg count, but not much most days.

 

[3chimama]

I am running the ceiling fan at night for my girls and giving lots of extra water in shallow pans filled with cold fruit to get them to drink more. One of my chickens is skipping laying about every other day.

 

[NarleevilleClucks]

We've been experiencing temps. in the high 90s, low 100s with humidity values staying in the 90 percentiles, making it feel a whole lot worse.
My adult flock free ranges all day, so they are able to find the area that is most comfortable to them. There's two fans in their coop, one aimed directly at the nestbox area for when the girls have to visit them.
I check their source of fresh water hourly to make sure nothing has happened to cause them to run out.
More than anything I leave them be. That means not going out there with treats and getting them all stirred up.
Cold fruit occasionally, but later in the evening.

I completely and totally agree with Gritstar - I'm doing the same thing but without the fans and they are completely fine. The hide under the deck and under the willow tree, dust bathe under the shed and they are making it through this mess pretty well.​

 

[fldiver97]

I let them roam the yard all day, lots of shady places to hang out. On really bad days I make sure I wet the ground in some of the shaded spots. Several waterers/dishes in and outside of the coop&run, change water twice a day, keep dishes in the shade. Again, on very hot days chunks of ice or frozen waterbottles in the dishes to keep it cool. Also daily chilled fruit, watermelon, berries etc. I have 6 big girls, they are all doing OK so far and laying up a storm, much better than I expected. For really humid and hot evenings/nights I place big frozen jugs in the coop. Tried the shallow pan with cold water form to stand in and cool off but that was not used......