I have seen some people use fans for their chickens in the very hot weather here in Fl, and I noticed yesterday afternoon that some of my polish were breath with their beaks open. Do any of you use fans? What size/type do you use?
I have a small one up along one of my upper vents that pulls hot air in the coop to the outside... in turn bringing cooler air from the shady side of the coop in.
A box fan works for us. $10 at wally world.
ETA: We also have several commercial chicken house fans on the farm. We don't use those because they'd blow the feathers off the chickens.
I used a cheapie all last summer at night (free range and in the woods during hot days.) Plus my coop is wire on two sides with a large overhanging roof (actually about half of a 3-sided bldg.) I never saw any sign they were bothered by our heat. In the winter I covered a lot of the wire with plastic.
I used straw for litter last summer and had to replace the fan once or twice when it got overburdened with dust. But I did not pay much for them. I used a box type fan but they were small, maybe 12" on each side. I put the fan where the air would not actually blow across the roost.