Extreme heat

[henless]

I'm in East Texas and the heat & humidity get pretty high here. I also have an open air pen. All hardware cloth for the walls & tin for the roof. It's 10 degrees cooler in the barn than it is out in the yard. I make sure they have plenty of fresh water and I keep the buckets in the shade. I have box fans attached to the doors of the coops. They are turned on when the days hit 90 degrees or more. I give them frozen watermelon & cantaloupe rinds for treats. Put out shallow pails of water for them to wade in.

Since you moved in April, it should give your chickens time to acclimate to the difference in temperatures. I don't know what kind of coop you have, but if possible, open up any windows or doors to let as much air in as you can.

I like aart's idea about using the Sav-a-Chik solution. It might be a good idea to keep some on hand to use or in case you need it for an emergency.

 

[alexa009]

Just make sure they have plenty water and shade. If you have any laying chickens make sure you have a way to keep them cool. I lost one of mine favorite hens last year because of it! You can also check out my article if you click on my profile page and go to articles it should be on there.

 

[aldarita]

Yardpimp I laughed when I read "our 2 weeks of Texas winter" you got that right. i used to worry about winters when I first started keeping chickens, now I just let them be. I know they can handle it, I just place tarps like you do to keep the north wind from getting in their run. Summer is the time when I work hard trying to keep them cool or at least as comfortable as I can. From 11 to about 6PM they are sort of catatonic. In my five years of keeping chickens I haven't lost one to heat stress (knock on wood). I have noticed that giving them save-a-chick electrolytes really helps.

 

[aldarita]

Just make sure they have plenty water and shade. If you have any laying chickens make sure you have a way to keep them cool. I lost one of mine favorite hens last year because of it! You can also check out my article if you click on my profile page and go to articles it should be on there.

This is my set up for my laying hens, I have a big fan on all the time

 

[toomuch]

So we moved from Indiana to eastern North Carolina in April. Our house is up on piers because we live on a creek. We are going to build a nice elevated shed and bigger run by the trees this year, but for now we put up a temporary plastic shed under the house with attached covered run. Even with frozen water bottles in all the water, four fans and sand in the run, I am still concerned about them. I just set up the dog x-pens under the house so they can come out and lay on the concrete. I have fans on them and am sitting out here watching them because we have a lot of foxes and eagles here. There is a warm breeze under here. They are all laying on the cool concrete but a couple are still panting. Do you all think that's ok? I read that panting all the time is hard on them. Anyone else have hot, panting chickens all the time? Do they do ok all Summer?

As long as they have water any shade they'll be find. I live in Southern California and my chickens have survived a week long of 110+ degrees. My chickens are always panting but it doesn,t seem to have a big effect on there egg laying.