Desert chickens, will need coolness!

[rides2far]

All right, good to know!

 

[rides2far]

I have a cooler for my coop, and sprinkler system. I put the cooler on about 9.00am and turn it off about 7.00pm. The coop has 2 doors and 2 opening windows which I leave open at night. The nights get down to about 65/70 deg. It is 101 deg right now. The temps will start to drop by the middle of September. I live in California City (2300 ft), not too far from Bakersfield. Are they having a chicken meet at General Beale this year? I can really cool everything down if need be.

I don't know about General Beale, I'm new to chickens - like your set up, though.

 

[punk00]

These are all very good suggestions, and I am doing many of the same things to cool down chickens and their areas. I am also putting electrolytes and ACV in their water, and probiotics in their food. If I see a chicken having a really hard time, I dunk them in a shallow container of cold water (not extremely cold) and let them just float a bit and relax. I spray down their dust bath area. The Wet sand/dirt cools down and they seem love this. I also spray down the coop roof and sides before roosting time -- it helps bring temperature down.

 

[rides2far]

Although it's so hot here, I think the humidity that raises the heat index is much harder to bear. I still remember going back to Poteau, Oklahoma, in August. We were taking my niece & nephew to some horse shows. The heat index was about 120. I went into a porta pottie. It was so humid, I didn't think I'd ever get my tight wranglers pulled back up. I thought I would die in there with my pants pulled down! Horrible.

 

[Ladyeviv]

I'm looking into solar fans for when mine finally make it outside again (I've kept them inside in air-conditioned comfort during our Arizona summer...large bins and tons of daily strips of hand-cut newspaper!) Of course, being the desert, winter can get pretty cold here too, so I'm looking into options for the (not soon enough!) winter

 

[chickenmama65]

I live in Tennessee and it can get very humid and hot. This summer I got my girls a kiddie pool to wade around in and I also kept frozen treats on hand (like frozen watermelon, iceblocks with eggs and apples inside,etc.) they loved it. I always made sure I kept a bucket with cool water around too because if your girls get too overheated just dunk them in the water and they should perk back up. My girls also love the fans in the nesting boxes.

 

[biblebecky]

I love Red Star chickens too. They're quite heat tollerant, and when we used something to thin the water, they layed all year round in the Sanoran Desert. I'm near Phoenix, AZ. I used Kangen Water, but no longer have it avail. If you can get your hands on Basic-H from Shakley, and add a few drops to their water, it makes it wetter, so they can consum more of it, and it keeps them hydrated, which keeps them laying eggs. This may also help in winter months theoretically. One thing I haven't seen on here yet is hosing down the roof of the coop. Maybe twice a day. And my garage is hotter than my coop as well. Oh, you might also try a reflective roof, i.e. a tin roof. A family in Masa, AZ changed thier house roof to a reflective one for water collection, and it brought down their AC bill drastically!

Oops, almost forgot, One of my friends had an over populaton of wild chickens. I had ticks in my back yard at the time. I got 6 free hens. She caught them in a live trap for me. The majority of them are mixed breed, but one is a Mexican fighting chicken hen. (I don't know the technical name) I also have ducks. They love the water, and give me lots of eggs. They're Rowen 300 ducks. In ideal conditions, they lay up to 300 eggs a year!

God bless,

Becky

 

[bugawk]

I lost a few of the newly hatched, and almost lost a tween aged chickie when it was 115 degrees here. I found if I let the hose drip into a part of their shady area, the remaining girls would go walk into the cool mud. They seem really content. I just left the hose on drip.

 

[tohbi]

mister. i mean, the swamp cooler is optimum but requires more expense and engineering. here in arizona our temps hit 115 and my single orifice mister and shade cloth on the coop where the sun shines in works well. keep the shade cloth as high off the ground as you can and still block the sun to allow for air flow underneath.

our hardware store sells pvc misters. all they are is a 3' long pvc pipe with a fitting for a brass orifice, a cap on one end and a hose connection on the other. i bought a "Y" connector for my hose bib. this changes the hose bib's single outlet to two outlets, each controlled by a gate valve. i've found the plastic "Y" connectors work best because they don't corrode easily and are cheaper besides.

i keep two hoses connected at all times with hose bib always on. the hoses are controlled individually with the built-in gate valves. in the morning, i turn on the mister to the coop and turn it off in the evening. this give the ground a chance to dry a bit. still, there is a muddy spot in the coop but i find the chickens lying in the mud which tells me it is obviously cooler. i drop a piece of plywood over the muddy spot if it becomes too soggy.

one word of caution: be sure to buy the best garden hose possible, one that can stand constant pressure. best to get one with a lifetime warranty too. just don't tell them you use it for constant pressure. cheaper garden hoses are only rated for intermittent pressure and will burst after awhile. i've had this hose for two years now. of course the pressure isn't really constant since i turn it off at night but several hours in the hot sun can burst any cheap hose.

ps: i purchased two brass orifices although i only use one at a time. our water is very hard and fixtures "lime up" so i change the fixtures and put the "limed" one in a vinegar bath or that substance designed to remove lime, then switch them back and forth as the next one becomes plugged.

psps: i put the mister down low, about 2' from the coop floor [chickens are short] and angled it upward. this not only blows the mist upward slightly but keeps some of the lime out of the tiny orifice. it settles in the pvc pipe and i can pop the unglued end off and blow the gunk out of the pipe if necessary. yes, don't glue the end on if possible. usually it will fit tightly enough to stay on under pressure.

sorry for the long post. hope it makes sense.

 

[cdperez]

I live in southwest New Mexico at 6000 feet, snow in winter and hot and dry in summer. In the hen house I have a small A/C window unit that is on a timer keeping the inside comfortably cool for the ladies and they continue to lay well. The outside run is completely covered on the top and east side with high quality shade cloth that is removed in winter due to snow load. The west side is completely shaded by the hen house. When I am cleaning the water container every day, I spray a small area of ground for them to dig in. In the winter I have heat lamps that are on a thermal plug that keeps the temperature above 35 degrees.