IT'S HOT. Don't forget to check on your birds!

[CupOJoe42]

You can hose down the outside of the coop too... as it evaporates, it will help to cool the inside.

 

[terrilhb]

I just wanted to add that it has been really hot here too. I have not been turning their coop lights on during the day. Their runs are pretty well shaded as well as the coops. I also spray the ground and coops down a couple times a day. I turn the lights on around 7 or 8 at night for a little bit. Mainly to get the guinea's in. (they won't go in the coop in the dark.) But this also helps it stay cooler.

 

[jcatblum]

Yesterday was 110 here. I have been freezing blue ice (like you put in your cooler) putting them in ziploc bags & putting them in my brooders. The little chicks even will lay on top of them. Also have huge shop fan blowing on them. If I find the chickens laying in a spot, such as the dog house - I put a frozen 2 litter in with them. I also have been freezing water in any container I have. Old milk jugs, yogurt, whatever we find. I am popping the ice blocks out & putting them in shallow livestock feed pans. Have a 3 month old pullet that I think might be part duck. Every day she has been laying in the pans after the ice melts. The others might step in it but she is straight up laying in there!

My guineas appear to stay cooler out in the woods. Even though they have plenty of shade Last night only 4 returned to the coop. It was still 96 @ 10 pm. I made sure I saw them in the trees & left them out. Each evening I have also been collecting the guinea eggs, since I feel certain there is no way they would be able to sit on the eggs for a month! Plus it is so hot scared they are starting to develop with the heat from mother nature not their own mommies! This heat needs to let up soon.

 

[joypeters]

since i work, i worry during hot spells! last summer i would freeze milk jugs full of water, put it inside the run. came home and found the girls laying on top of it (it was mostly melted).

keep a few of these and just refreeze.

we got a temp sensor that we put in the run, and it transmits the temp to a display in our house. we can check it each day to see the highest temp, and it helps let us know the conditions while we are at work.

joy

 

[NanaLantana]

It's 93 here today in S. Florida. But we still have a nice breeze. My chickens pant a bit, but they still have good energy level, and they hang out/ lay/ scratch around in the shade. I have a little grove of Lady Palms (short, up to 6' tall) that they love to be under, as well as the mango tree - when mangoes fall, they get to eat them! We never have gotten 110 degrees like in Oklahoma

 

[remuda1]

My chicks would kill for 85 to 90 degrees right now. It was up to 107 today...... Wind blowing hard, drying everything to a husk. I had the sprinkler on in the run most of the day and that helped to cool things off a bit. They enjoyed the watermelon as well. The babies got a gel freeze pack too. They've also been getting wet play sand to scratch and lay in..... I think they like it. Check out the pics below. They are all doing fine but I hope this lets up soon.

 

[Chicky Monkey]

Well, the heat and humidity have gotten so bad here in Kansas that the portable pen in the shade with the fan is no longer keeping my chickens cool enough. I've had to move them to my basement. One of the weathermen said that he expected this heat to break the first of August....he said it should be in the eighties then....light at the end of the very hot tunnel! Right now, it's been in the high nineties with the heat index over 100 degrees and they are forecasting that for the next 6 days! YUK!

 

[ks_twin_mom]

I am in Kansas and I'm doing all the things I should but sadly lost one of my hens on Saturday - R.I.P Angel the chicken... I am relying on the 2-liter bottles of ice and some watermelon and leaving the doors all open at night too (inside the run where they are still safe) AND the pan with 2 inches of water for walking thru.... It is completely shaded and we usually have a good breeze.. just praying it all moves on out soon!! ALL the way out to the Atlantic please! GO AWAY!!

good luck everyone!
Kathy in Kansas

 

[daver]

Quote:
Sorry for your loss, but according to forecasts, it's heading our way out east of you. We are forecasted for a week of this. Had a beautiful summer weekend though.

Looks like you are doing all that you can do.

We have a brahma cockerel that I am very concerned about, he will pant way before the others will but he is very heavily feathered.

We have way too many cockerels but I don't want to lose one to heat.

Dave

 

[ks_twin_mom]

Thank you, she was my only Ameracauna :-(
.. and I'm sorry it will come your way. It is brutal... we had softball then baseball tournaments in this too! Thank God none of the 9-10 yr olds were seriously hurt, although we did have a couple end up in the ER due to dehydration - all are ok now! STUPID to continue in his heat. They say "dangerous heat index" for a reason! ugh...
Tonight the hens seemed like themselves fighting over some mealworms.. so I was happy to see that.

Ok, keep it up everyone!

Kathy