Heat and chickens - how to manage?

[therapydoglady]

In the horse catalogs, they sell a mister that clips to the front of a square box fan, and hooks up to the water hose. All 6 of my horses have one, and they love it. I have one in the chicken run and they all spend the hottest part of the day around it. I hung the fan horizontally, and up high, and it blows down on them. They are seldom directly under it, but never far away. The difference here, (West Texas) is that we have almost no humidity( 6% today), and thought it was 105 today, we almost always have a breeze, and it doesn't feel that hot. The moist moving air feels wonderful! As long as our kids have a respite from the direct sun, they all do OK. My Great Pyrenese is still in full coat - I just keep her brushed out and she is faring very well.

The misters are worth looking for. I got mine from State Line

 

[jhoff310]

The heat was one of the factors I took into consideration when building my coop a few months back. My house and unattached garage face east. I built the coop on the north side of my garage 2' off the ground. The area under the coop is open to the flock and they spend a fair amount of the HOT day beneath the coop. My coop receives 1/2 direct sun. I also put in some aluminum foil turkey pans full of water....they really seem to enjoy that.


Jeff

 

[canesisters]

Ok... does anyone else see the irony of them 'basting' in roasting pans during a baking hot day?

 

[citychickx6]

Good idea Jeff.
I went and got dish pans that are about the same size and they have been standing in them belly deep.

I also got some shade tarps made with the stuff from Sams.
I wetted down the ground yesterday and they went to digging in it. I will be doing that as much as I can for them since it seemed to help.

 

[hensandchickscolorado]

Ok... does anyone else see the irony of them 'basting' in roasting pans during a baking hot day?

hahahahaha!!!! So hilarious that I think I'm going to go get a roasting pan or two right now for my very hot chickens. !

 

[kmatt87]

i've been using a mister as well and the run is in a shaded area. The back half has a tarp on it for shade and a little protection from rain (if we ever get any!) but its not enclosed on all sides so they still have a breeze.

I've also frozen fruit in blocks of ice and they have fun picking it out.

 

[Tinkalicious210]

i've been using a mister as well and the run is in a shaded area. The back half has a tarp on it for shade and a little protection from rain (if we ever get any!) but its not enclosed on all sides so they still have a breeze.

I've also frozen fruit in blocks of ice and they have fun picking it out.

frozen fruit in ice sounds like a great idea. Must try it!

 

[therapydoglady]

Had a pet raccoon we froze fruit in ice for for years and years! And I did it for my son's pet rats (just a phase, thank goodness!) Don't know why I haven't thought of it for my chickens. Will do that tonight! I've had chickens for over 50 years, so even us old timers, though sometimes it's painful, are capeable of learning something! LOL

 

[Red Barn Farms]

Not sure if this has been mentioned or not but it's a good idea during these hot days to add electrolytes to the water. This will aid in preventing[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] dehydration. If you cannot get this you can cheat a bit and give any that look to be over heated some Gatorade or Pedialyte.[/FONT]

 

[kmatt87]

Not sure if this has been mentioned or not but it's a good idea during these hot days to add electrolytes to the water. This will aid in preventing[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] dehydration. If you cannot get this you can cheat a bit and give any that look to be over heated some Gatorade or Pedialyte.[/FONT]

good idea. i didn't even think of that