HEAT alert in Portland, Oregon. Worried.

[AnnieSantiago]

It's supposed to get up to 106-107 by midweek here in a bizarre heat wave.
I'm really worried about my hens. Not sure what I can do to help them through it.

Any advice?

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Provide shade and fresh water and as much air movement as possible (open any windows, don't confine to small closed spaces during the heat of the day)..... keep an eye out for distress but dont panic at normal cooling behavior such as normal panting and wings held out from the body.
I'm just up the road from you and am not concerned about this week or doing anything special because I've experienced worse heat with chickens, but I understand it being alarming the first time around

 

[aart]

A bunch here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/topic-of-the-week-keeping-chickens-cool-in-summer.1181934/

 

[SueT]

Wow. Even our past month if excessive heat didn't get that high.
They must have shade...change water often. Freeze jugs of water and give them those to huddle next to. I use a fan tho I don't know if it really helps. There are many threads on dealing w excessive heat you might want to research....
Good luck, let us know how it goes....

 

[DesertBird]

I live in AZ, and it climbs up to even about 120 in the summer, so my chickens definitely get hot! AZ is moving into "monsoon season" but it's still super hot, so with the crazy storms coming in and the heat, it's definitely bad; very humid, and very hot! We put them in a pen in our old garden, letting them out to free range only in the morning and when it cools down at around 6-7, and during the day they stay in the pen. At night, they go into the pen/coop. I keep it completely ventilated, nothing blocking anything if we can help it. Another thing I do is freezing at least 1 water bottle per chicken each night and placing it in the pen during the day where it's shady or where they most frequent (for mine, it's under an eggplant plant), along with a jug or 2 that I fill up with water when all the milk is gone and that takes a little longer to freeze so I do it ahead of time. For their water, they have one of the ones you can get from Tractor Supply. It's just basic plastic that's white-ish with a red water tray/where they drink from. I freeze an extra water bottle for it each night and put it in their waterer when I refill it each day, leaving the cap off so as the ice melts, the cool water goes into the waterer. Another thing is that I go out every hour to hour and a half and, using the hose, very gently mist down the entire pen so it's cooler for them and wets the ground. It does make it a bit more humid, but with frequent mistings, the humidity seems to be overrun by the coolness. lol Just make sure to keep a close eye on them, and have a temp pen set up somewhere cool in case one of them seems to be getting heat stroke or heat exhaustion. You can also try giving them some frozen treats like grapes, corn (which I heard was bad due to it being harder to digest so they produce more heat trying to digest it, but I'm not sure on that), watermelon, etc. Good luck to you and your chickens!

 

[Dharmachick]

I just saw the forecast and freaked too! I'm glad I found this thread. I have a mister, which is kind of useless, and I bring my hens in the AC if they look too stressed. My back yard is pretty shady, so they can find cooler places. I will also start on the ice.

 

[PDXChickGirl]

Hi! I'm in Portland, too. What a crazy heatwave! I have elderly chickens, and what I did - which worked well in the past - 1. emptied a couple of bags of ice in the run each morning - as it melts, it cools the air and the girls like to dig in the wet sand/dirt in the run. 2. ice in the water 3. frozen watermelon. I was able to be home at the hottest part of the day (4-6pm) and let them out to scratch around in the shady areas of the yard.

 

[Laura LaVergne]

I live in the south, it has been a really hot summer.
I've tried a lot of things, what they seem to like most is containers of a few inches of water that they can get into. Kept in the shade of course.
It gives them more access to drink, because I normally use nipple waterers and it seems like more work for them/easier to dehydrate...but I also throw in a few ice cubes and they'll get in and walk around in it, they like to peck at the cubes in the water too.
I let mine free range during the day, they go where they are comfortable.

 

[Mrs. K]

do remember in late afternoon, it is often the hottest and overhead shade no longer gives shade. A vertical wall on the west side will help.