Heat wave tips?

[aart]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/aarts-extreme-weather-spiel.75893/

 

[donteatbees]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/aarts-extreme-weather-spiel.75893/

Thanks!

 

[skymama65]

Hey everyone! I've got a heat wave just starting in BC, Canada (getting close to 40°C) and was wondering if anyone has any tips?
My chickens have two things of water (I've got 2 more that I'm about to fill up for the yard), lots of trees and bushes in the pen, a raised coop they can hide under and access to my yard full of very tall grass, shady trees and a kiddy pool I filled a bit for my dogs.
I haven't had any issues yet, they're all cool and happy, but it will get hotter and I work nearly every day and won't be home with them. I've got family at home, thankfully, so they will have some supervision. But the chickens are mainly my thing.
I've heard frozen fruits and watermelon are good, but fruit (and groceries in general) are expensive, so I'll get some if it goes on sale.
My chickens ages are: five that are ~1.5 months old, two (ones a baby roo) that are 10 weeks tomorrow (only ones who's exact age I know, theyre the only ones I've hatches), two that are about 3-4 months and my six hens that are a year and a few months. Not sure if age affects anything to do with heat, but thought I'd say just to be safe!

It's about to hit 100°F here in Oregon, so I just dug a shallow trench for our 5 Buff Orps, piling the dirt around the ditch so the sides were higher, added a thin layer of straw, then covered that with a few layers of icepacks (also froze a dishbin of water to use later when icepacks thaw), then covered those with about 4-6 inches of straw. The girls S&P'd for a bit, realized their feet were cold, and decided to settle down on it instead! They've been in there for about an hour so far.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

It's about to hit 100°F here in Oregon, so I just dug a shallow trench for our 5 Buff Orps, piling the dirt around the ditch so the sides were higher, added a thin layer of straw, then covered that with a few layers of icepacks (also froze a dishbin of water to use later when icepacks thaw), then covered those with about 4-6 inches of straw. The girls S&P'd for a bit, realized their feet were cold, and decided to settle down on it instead! They've been in there for about an hour so far.

That’s great! Very ingenious!

 

[OLDRanch]

They're so pretty and don't looked heat stressed at all. I live in AZ so I know the struggle of keeping chickens cool. What I do is the shallow buckets with bricks and ice(recently I've been skipping the bricks because I am lazy ) but the bricks do work better. Also I will spray down their run with the hose and throw ice on the ground so they can lay on it. It is hard I recently lost my sweet, year and a half old Rhode Island Red named Porres to heat. But we've just got to keep trying. And your doing great Good luck.

 

[OLDRanch]

It's about to hit 100°F here in Oregon, so I just dug a shallow trench for our 5 Buff Orps, piling the dirt around the ditch so the sides were higher, added a thin layer of straw, then covered that with a few layers of icepacks (also froze a dishbin of water to use later when icepacks thaw), then covered those with about 4-6 inches of straw. The girls S&P'd for a bit, realized their feet were cold, and decided to settle down on it instead! They've been in there for about an hour so far.

That an awesome idea

 

[Mother of Chaos]

They're so pretty and don't looked heat stressed at all. I live in AZ so I know the struggle of keeping chickens cool. What I do is the shallow buckets with bricks and ice(recently I've been skipping the bricks because I am lazy ) but the bricks do work better. Also I will spray down their run with the hose and throw ice on the ground so they can lay on it. It is hard I recently lost my sweet, year and a half old Rhode Island Red named Porres to heat. But we've just got to keep trying. And your doing great Good luck.

Aww, I’m so sorry about Porres! Do swamp coolers work in your area? I know that not all of AZ is low-humidity.

 

[TioBollio]

When I was in Oregon, we would set a spray nozzle on mist under a shade tree (turned down low).
The gals got used to it, especially loved the wet soil, and we would set out chilled seedless watermelon to keep them with the program.