I think my chickens are too hot, 98 F in the shade!

[woodmort]

Make sure there is good cross ventilation. If the chickens are outside provide shade. Make sure they have plenty of room to get away from each other. Occasionally spray them with water. The real danger is to those big breeds that you're raising up for broilers--they may have too much fat so they're insulated to well.

 

[CH]

Thanks everyone. I used my lunch break to run home form work and give them ice water, a fan, and some wet rags to bed down on. I didn't have time to stick around and see if they drank the ice water or laid down on the rags, but they are still moving around and came to me when I gave them some fresh greens, so thanks to all your suggestions I think I intervened before it became too serious. Thanks again.

 

[tedabug]

I use frozen water bottles and a "mister" attachment on my hose. The mist cools the air by 10-15 degrees. Add the water bottles and they can get themselves comfortable. Came home late tonight and the mister was going just outside their coop (They have a big hardware cloth window). It was helping to keep them cool.

 

[jjthink]

Good job.

Frozen slices of watermelon are a great addition too. I spritz with electrolytes when it's stinkin' hot.
JJ

 

[azmotogirl]

We found a "personal" mister vs and entire system. We found them at Ace Hardware but places like Home Depot also have them. The chickens love to stand under it to cool off. Here is a picture.

 

[Gypsi]

I have tried to get my chickens to play in a sprinkler - no luck, but they did enjoy the damp dirt afterward, dug themselves in. Will keep the ice cubes in mind. When I camped I used to freeze gallons of water for cheap iceblocks, I may have to do that again.

For nighttime sleeping my birds were not going in the coop, so I have a large perch in the run, shaded by the tin roof end, and as many as want to sleep there. I have a secured run, open coop - very open for ventilation, I left half the front wall off, and I know this helped their comfort.

 

[rhodasgrandchild]

Make sure they have shade, moving air, and cool the area if possible. My chickens like a shallow wading area to cool their feet and therefore their blood stream. I use saucers for plants or the top of an old bird bath. My grandparents raised lots of birds in hen houses and they would run sprinklers over the tops of the buildings. My free run hens like to be sprayed a little bit too.
Chicks need shallow water so they don't drown but older pullets can deal with a bird bath/ saucer, different from their drinking water.
It was really hot still last night and my co-heart put an electric fan on our girls and they all stood their with their wings up, reveling in the breeze.
We have breeds for cooler weather here in Western Washington, so heat really seems to bother them more than warm weather breeds. We are careful about making sure that they have shade and cool or wet areas to walk or roll about in. They yelled at me when they saw me this afternoon and I noticed they had splashed out all of their water, so had to fill up all the saucers again.

 

[cafarmgirl]

Mine got pretty ticked off when I tried putting a sprinkler in their run! But getting their feet wet seems to really help cool them a lot so I keep it wet and either make puddles or give them a kiddie pool to wet their feet in. That and their fan, moving the air, even if it's hot helps a lot.

 

[pkw]

My chickens resort to feather plucking and they fight alot when they get hot not to mention they pant alot. I got my husband to install a window swamp cooler in my chicken house plus I have a couple of fans running in there to circulate the cool air. This keeps them happy and cool. I have some newly hatched chicks that hatched a few days ago and I only have the heating lamp on for them at night. In the mornings the heating lamp comes off (they usually aren't near it anyway).

My 10 week old chickens won't even go out when it is hot outside. They are so used to the cool air.

 

[Turner]

First of all you need to prepare BEFORE it gets hot if you live in that climate. Chickens will be fine if the weather gradually gets hot like in the south,southwest,west etc. They need shade, cool water, a mist system if you can, and they will fine with that - you can't just put water on them in their enviroment all of a sudden - you know chickens do not like change! They will love it once they get used to it! Those that live where it only gets really hot once and a while just need to make sure they have cool water, shade, maybe a fan.