I’m in Austin,Texas and have been dealing with high humidity and temps in the high 90’s to low 100’s since the beginning of May through most of August. This summer’s heat wave has been just relentless because of the high humidity. It has caused the “Real Feel” to be as high as a 113 degrees some days but mostly around 104 degrees. The evenings were brutal as well because the temps were in the low 90’s and would stay in the 80’s overnight. Because of this, some of my girls couldn’t cool down, for hours, after the sun went down. This was despite having and open-air coop, having two fans, and two exhaust fans in their coop as well. I’ve always used fans in my coop, and yard, because of the heat and humidity; however, this summer I added an evaporative cooler. It has been an ABSOLUTE GAME CHANGER!! In fact, the evaporative cooler reduced the temp by 9-10 degrees which a allowed my chickens to stop panting at nighttime.
I’ve included some screenshots taken from video to show my flock sitting in front of the evap. cooler in the daytime and some taken from a video of nighttime roosting.
For the nighttime video, I wanted show that there was a significant temperature difference on the side of the roost area with the evap. cooler (right side). I have. a permanent digital thermometer that also controls the exhaust fans, and I placed digital thermometers on the roosts show the temp difference. I also left the time stamp in the screenshots so that you could see that this temperature difference between the left and right sides isn’t at a later time. Notice the side without the evap. cooler (left side), the hens are standing up to cool themselves with just the regular fans. The side with the evap. cooler, the hens are sitting down. I moved ALL of them to the right side after the video.
*Excessive panting can lead to acidosis and alkalosis in chickens. They are both dangerous and can even be fatal.
You will get numerous opinions on BYC, but at least you know that I’ve experienced similar temps, and humidity, as you. This is, IMHO, what works:
***If you have a chicken that is suffering from heatstroke, put them in COOL (NOT cold) water to their neck.
-avoid feeding any corn or scratch in the summer as chickens naturally eat less when it is hot. Eating corn and scratch would further dilute their nutritional balance… and because corn and scratch are harder to digest, it increases their body heat. Because of their reduced intake, I do NOT give my chickens anything but their feed… NO frozen fruits, NO veggies, and NO treats either! This helps avoid vitamin deficiencies.
-create ventilation at the top and bottom of the coop. Vent covers can be used to keep the rain out. Low vents bring in cooler air while high vents allow heat and moisture to escape. Use a digital thermometer to check the temp inside the coop. It should never be hotter than the outside temp. If it is, you need more ventilation.
**Cover all vents securely with hardware cloth.
-use fans inside the coop and run/yard area. Fans will move air between the feathers and across the skin to aid in cooling.
** Because chickens create so much dust, fans with an enclosed motor are much safer than a regular box fan.
-evaporative cooling fans work amazingly well to cool. Even in extreme heat, and humidity, it can bring the temperature down by 10 degrees. You can purchase or make your own DIY evaporative cooler. You will need to clean the evap. cooler often because of the dust that chickens make. The pump can be come clogged if it isn’t maintained.
-hose down an area so that they can dig down into the cool dirt. Rotate areas so that the ground isn’t always wet in the same place, avoid making mud.
-fill shallow plant saucers, baby pool, or other containers just enough for them to stand in and cool their feet. Besides panting, they can cool themselves with wet combs, wet wattles, and wet feet.
*Clean out often since they will poop in it. I use several plant saucers to rotate through.
-use misters intermittently. A finer mist works best. However, in high humidity a mister can cause it to feel hotter. Using a fan with the mister can help tremendously.
-freeze water in containers then add to their drinking water. Put frozen water containers (2 liter or 16 oz plastic bottles) in shallow pans or on the ground. Have a fan blow on the frozen water container to cool the area.
-hang shade cloths in the run/yard area. Shade cloths will still allow airflow. Tarps usually trap heat underneath and won’t allow any air to pass through.
-use electrolyte water.
Electrolytes are great for 4-6 hours only. After that, make sure they have just plain water. *Only give electrolytes 1-2 times a week at most.
-lower the roosts allow for more headroom as heat and moisture will rise to the top of the coop. Just make sure that the roosts are higher than the nesting boxes.
Hope this helps!!
Maralee
You need to write this up as an article.
I take that as a huge compliment coming from you, 3KillerB’s! I really enjoyed your article on ventilation as it is such a misunderstood topic for so many chicken keepers.
. For those in more temperate climates ALL this would be boring… but for climates, like yours and mine, it can literally mean the difference between a life and death! In my tiny local chicken group (1.2K members) there were 12 heat exhaustion deaths from MAY-August. For the past few summers it was 1-2 deaths as a result of heat exhaustion. This summer was unprecedented to say the least!!
Visual aids are important, and they really do help the reader to comprehend such a complicated subject… such as coop ventilation.
