How best to cool chicks on warm days

[britinpa]

Our chicks (teenagers) are now 6 weeks. We are finishing up their run so it should be finished in the next week. It's warm (90's) today, and is warm in our garage. I have the doors open, but their brooder doesn't have open sides and they are warm. Should i move them to the basement or put fans around brooder? I'm not sure what's best

 

[NatJ]

Electrolytes in their water might help.

If you do electrolytes in water, make sure they have plain water too. So that means two waterers.

 

[NatJ]

Just to check the obvious: there is no source of heat in that brooder now, right?

Because unplugging the heat lamp or heat plate would be the first thing to do, and I hope you already did

 

[TurkeyTheQuail]

Do you have windows in the garage? If you do try wetting some towels and clipping them to the window. the air will pass through the towels and will cool the room. I keep my quail in the shed and it works great. You can also try freezing their feed and putting ice in their water. I hope this helps.

 

[Chickens-are-cool]

Hello! Sometimes it is best to let them do the work for you. Freezing things or putting too much ice in their water can cause some problems as it cools them off but then, 10 minutes later, they’re hot again so they eat something frozen and cool off again. All this cooling off and heating back up puts too much stress on their little systems and can cause a chicken to die. I recommend just filling their water up every day with hose water, then later in the day when it is a bit warmer, put a couple ice cubes in it just to keep it cool. They know how to ruffle their feathers and take dust baths in order to keep cool. If they are still hot I recommend a fan and shade! Good luck!

 

[Flame80]

I had same problem with 112* heat index and had them out in my shop. No heat lamp and just a low watt lamp outside their cage to eat all night. Still too hot! What DID work until I finally decided to move them in my house was freezing gallon bleach bottles with water and setting them on a plate in their brooder. They laid around it to stay cool and ...as a added bonus as the jugs sweat and dropped cool water onto the plate, they had a cool drink! But mine were a lot younger than 6 weeks like yours. At 6 weeks they went into the big coop and run but I still have a fan blowing in the run and in a shaded covered area. My silly birds want to stay in the HOT coop during the day so I had to close the pop door behind them in the morning to keep them out!! Mine ain't too brite!! Hah!

 

[feather13]

If you do electrolytes in water, make sure they have plain water too. So that means two waterers.

Good point--we have two waterers (one plain, one with electrolytes) and two feeders for 12 chicks.

 

[Acre4Me]

Overall, assess their body language. A hot chicken stands with its wings away from their body (not opened up, just lifted off their body), and they pant with mouth open. If they are doing neither of these things, they are not too hot.

They have shade and some air flow, so you have done the two biggest things for them. The other one is cool water!

My full grown chickens have days where they are hot and panting, even in the shade. So, cool/cold hose water with ice cubes added. Then in the later afternoon when the entire coop and run are shaded, I give them wet feed with ice cubes so as they melt it adds water to the feed - my chickens like soupy feed. I do this to get them to eat and drink at same time. In really hot weather, they start to lay less, partly bc they may not be drinking enough water.

Chicks are smaller, so they have less body mass than an adult and more skin surface area to body mass, so should be able to keep cool a bit better than an adult chicken. You may have lighter feathered breeds, as well, and that will help ty to stay cooler with less feathers. For example a Cochin is very heavily feathered, but a Leghorn is much more lightly feathered.

 

[britinpa]

Do you have windows in the garage? If you do try wetting some towels and clipping them to the window. the air will pass through the towels and will cool the room. I keep my quail in the shed and it works great. You can also try freezing their feed and putting ice in their water. I hope this helps.

Thank you - there's not too much breeze here at the moment, but I have been refreshing their water regularly and adding one or two ice cubes.

 

[britinpa]

Just to check the obvious: there is no source of heat in that brooder now, right?

Because unplugging the heat lamp or heat plate would be the first thing to do, and I hope you already did

I did no supplemental any more.