Heat index 110 no breeze/my advice

[midget_farms]

I usually park a panting dog in front of my chickens so they can feel the breeze!

Actually - I just let them out of their pen so they could play in the woods. Much cooler in there.

 

[Katy]

I'm in central Kansas and lost a BLRW yesterday and 2 of my wheaten Marans this afternoon. We're in the middle of wheat harvest and this heat has made it rough to keep going.

 

[countrybum]

Well, my chickens free range when I am home. But I ordered the mister about a week ago and it should be here any day. I thought that would be good for the days they cannot free range. As someone above stated, my chickens get up in the woods where it is cooler.

 

[hippichick]

I've lost 3 so far this week. It's just so hot-100 today-don't even want to know what the heat index was. I put frozen water bottles in the waterers this morning to try and keep the water cooler longer. I'm constantly in there changing water to keep it cool. Fans are blowing hot air, so I tried putting frozen gallons of water in front of the fans. It helps a little. I did the mister thing last summer, but had alot of trouble with it. Maybe I'll try hooking up another one of those. I've got a couple of pans-like underbed boxes- that I keep water in. Maybe tomorrow I'll throw a couple of frozen gallons of water in those. I'm just running out of ideas. I can't imagine doing this all summer. It's gonna be a long one. I'm starting to like winter.

 

[Judy]

I haven't lost any to heat, nor did I last year, when we were in a drought. I have metal coops, which have to be bad in this climate. I run a fan in each, 24/7, in hot weather. I change their water mid day, and hose down the coops. The coops are large and quite open air, and usually catch breezes well; it is no warmer in there than outdoors in the shade. Those in the new coop stay in the coop in the middle of the day for the shade; they are not free range but have a big yard with greenery growing. The few in my old coop are free range and go to the woods midday, or go under a shed next to the coop. I really think what saves them is that we get a good breeze here. We aren't far from a river, and seem to be in some sort of wind tunnel that it creates.

I'd set up a swamp cooler if our humidity weren't about as high as the temps.

 

[Bellasmom]

The outside hen is loving the fan. She's just laying there in front of it with her wings out! I'm going to throw some ice one the ground in a little while.

 

[Lu King]

We have lost about six chickens due to the 103 temps that we are getting with no end in sight.

My son bought us a mister yesterday and I hope that works. We had been spraying them down after the othe chickens died.

Also, lost a baby goat due to heat.

This weather is something else.

 

[countrybum]

Our temps have been in the triple digits, but (knock on wood) I have been lucky so far. My coop has 4 windows and all are kept open except for the one with no screen, that is closed come evening.

I did order the mister and I am patiently waiting for it to arrive, our co-op does not carry them.

Just hope it arrives before my wood runs out.

 

[hippichick]

Yesterday was better. I've been putting frozen water bottles in waterers in late morning. It helps keep the water cool for a little longer. And also put frozen gallon water jugs in dish pans with water. And yesterday afternoon, I put the sprinkler on for awhile in a shady area. They didn't play in the sprinkler, but when I turned it off, the ground was cooler, so they scratched around and rolled around on the cool ground. There was also a breeze late yesterday afternoon, and it's there again this morning. That definitely helps. How many days until Fall??

 

[maf2008]

I have an chicken automatic water fountian and cooloing watering system! This is so easy and I will never have to lug another hose to the coop and clean out the nasty chicken waters with alge! Please try this soon!

You will only need 5 things......

1) a garden hose (you maybe have one)
2) a timer (get at the garden center)
3) a "bubbler waterer sprinkler" (round ring kind by the water hoses)
4) a cinder or concrete block (lots of styles and sizes)
5) a hot water pan (this is a shallow round pan that fits under your hot water heater and you can get in metal or plastic. Its 2 inches deep and 3 feet in circumfrence.

Put the soaker/bubbler on top of the cinder/concrete block screw in the hose. (you may want to add wire to keep it from falling off) Place the hot water pan under the bottom and turn on the hose.

Its that easy. My chickens are the coolest chicks in town!
I let the pan overflow for a few minutes so the chickens can cool thier feet. I am adding some old bath tiles around the base so they will be even cooler on their feet