Heat Affecting My Girls

[chicksgalore]

I have 19 mature hens right now and am only getting 7 or 8 eggs a day. Anyone have any ideas on keeping the girls cool?

 

[MissPrissy]

Depending on the size of your waterers you can freeze blocks of ice and put it in the water. Freeze gallon jugs of water and set them out for the hens to lay against. Use a fan in the coop. If you give treats put it in the freezer and let it get icey but not brick hard and give it in the hottest part of the day.

Heat stress can make them stop laying and even lay some odd eggs.

 

[AllChookUp]

Angie, is there ANYTHING you don't know about chickens?

 

[MissPrissy]

I don't know alot of things.

Genetics is the big one.

I do know chicken behaviors and care is fairly predictable.

 

[averytds]

We buy ice cream in those 5 1/2 qt buckets. We reuse the buckets for a lot of things, but most recently we fill them with water and freeze. We then put 1 or 2 out and take off the lids. The chickens lay around them and as the ice melts they also drink from them. HTHs

 

[ashyannehand]

It is very hot here (95 with a heat index to 110) and my hens are doing fine with their laying. I give them lots of cool water every day and I also try to cool them off with cold treats. I even will mist them with cool water in the afternoon when it is so hot. I also have used the bags of ice in their water. Good luck!

 

[chicksgalore]

Great, I'm going to try some of these things!

 

[scooter147]

It has been very hot where I am with temps in the mid to upper 90's with heat indexes of 105.

I too do the ice in their water but what I have found works the best is the garden hose.

I simply use the shower setting and well get them wet. I must admit they don't like it much but the heavy panting and wings held out from the body stops. Since I started doing this several years ago I have only lost one bird to heat and she was approaching 8 years of age.

My personal experience, (showing my age I have over 35 years) is that the night time tempature affects egg production and survivability.
If the nightime temp stays 80 or higher it is extremely tough on chickens. They simply do not cool down at any point during a 24 hour period.

The one thing with the garden hose is they will run from you so this can stress them. I simply move slowly while I am in the run, I only turn the faucet on about 25% pressure and avoid as much as possible in getting their heads wet.

Hope this helps