How do you protect your chickens from the heat?

[Connies Chicks]

With this extreme heat recently How does everyone protect their chickens/chicks from the heat?

 

[groundpecker]

I use fans and a commercial mister system.

 

[Connies Chicks]

Anyone else do anything to prevent heat strokes. Friend of ours lost alot of her babies this week due to the heat. So I was wondering what to do before I get my babies hatched. I have 3 chickens and I just keep their water fresh and they hate it but I spray them down mid morning when I am off from work but it I work I do it when I get home.

 

[twoscrambled]

i freeze water bottles and they lay down near them...also fans...also put up a mister...tried to spray them , just seemed to be stressful...for them and me

 

[Connies Chicks]

I have been freezing bottles and putting it in their water...in all the animals. But I don't have fans for them or the mister. Looks like we need to work on something. Well DH does. LOL

 

[cary 1973]

first thing is i have sand on the bottom of there coop and run so it gets sprayed down and stays moist and cool for some time i have a white sheet hung in front of the hard wire doors that get spayed also so when there is a breez it cools it off. my coop and run is in teh shade for most of the day. they get fresh water with ice cubes and apple cider vinager. during the heat of the day they get frozen watermelon (this will cause stools to be runny) i also have a fan in my bedroom window going into a vent into the coop also have a swamp cooler that is how i cool my room it also blows cool air into the coop. I think out of all that the most important is cool fresh water and shade.

 

[bumpershoot]

I bought a cheap $10 mister from Home Depot. That and shade seems to be doing the trick.

 

[fiddlebanshee]

I wonder if misters and spraying your chickens does anything for making them more comfortable when the humidity is near 100%. I can see this working in New Mexico and other places where it's a really dry heat but in the Mid-Atlantic with 100 degree temps and killer himidity I don't think it would do much.

I've tried the frozen bottles but they won't go near them. I do stick a frozen bottle into their drinking water on very hot days. And provide a sandbox in the shade where they can dig holes.

And then what do these chickens do? They go lie in the sun in the hottest part of the day. Go figure. The chicken mind never ceases to amaze me.

 

[Mtn Laurel]

Shade when possible. Reflective tarp over run. Have covered most of run so that it's totally shaded.
Fan in run.
Extra sources of water including a large planter base that they will stand in.
Cold and wet type snacks during the day - cukes, melon, etc.
Bottle of frozen water in their water container to keep it cool.
Mist them a bit if it's really hot. They're not fond of it.

We have a small chicken tractor with 4 chickens. At night I will put in several large frozen water bottles. Usually use old milk jugs for this. As the tractor is small, it actually helps bring down the temp.

 

[grandmaof5]

One thing I did while finishing up the coop last year was to plant grape vines on the east side of the run. Our house is on the south side and very close, and there is a wisteria growing to the coop on the west side, so they don't get too much sun. The new chicks are Australorps, which are said to be very heat tolerant. We also live in Canada, so we don't usually get the extreme temperatures some of you do.