keeping chickens cool in summer heat

[City farm]

Are spoiled rotten, they get a fan, clay pots with water, mister, wet ground, frozen treats. .

Lot's of tree's and shade.. no corn in their food is a big help.. and fresh grown wheat grass .

 

[SillyBird]

Wet sand inside the coop, fan and cold water to drink...works great. I put the sand in those low rubber round horse feed tubs and wet it down enough to make it like beach sand. They LOVE it and my pet meat king lays in there very comfortably...her favorite spot in the heat of the day. I keep these in the coop so they are out of the sun, and have a big fan blasting on them from about five feet up at the hottest times. Cold water offered several times a day. Those are what have worked for me so far. Oh, and too many cucumbers so they get those to eat noon time...ha. : )

 

[Stephine]

Can anyone recommend a solar powered fan?

 

[featherhead007]

When it was 100 degrees here in Ohio last summer, I ran the hose into the dirt under their shade trees and made it all gloriously muddy. They dug holes into the cool soil and splashed in the puddles and I didn't lose a single hen.

Some people just flat-out hosed their birds off, but I don't agree with that since it causes the feathers to lose their insulating qualities and insulation can keep an animal cool as well as warm.

I would definitely put fans in the chicken coop to get the air moving. Some people make swamp coolers with wet burlap sacks to cool things down if it isn't already super humid out.

Your mister idea might work on super hot days, too. Just remember that when the humidity is too high, the water can't evaporate and will leave them hotter than ever once it warms up.

birds dont like to be hosed off even in hot days!!!

 

[GC-Raptor]

I hang my hose on the fence and set the nozzle to mist when temps are in the 90s. The hens hang out under the mist and splash in the puddles. I also run a fan at night if its gonna be a warm night, blowing air under the roosts. GC

 

[GaryJ73167]

Cool thread!

I see what you did there

 

[Sheryl95228]

Thanks all for the tips. We just got our 3 hens this week from a neighbor in the same neighborhood and were wondering how to cool them as today reached over 100 with a few more of them to go.

We will probably look at adding misters for the girls and i like the frozen fruit and bottles ideas.

 

[Stephine]

Thanks all for the tips. We just got our 3 hens this week from a neighbor in the same neighborhood and were wondering how to cool them as today reached over 100 with a few more of them to go.

We will probably look at adding misters for the girls and i like the frozen fruit and bottles ideas.

If your chickens are typical they will probably be afraid of the bottles for a while and avoid them. They workbest for me when I plunk them somewhere where they have to be close, like the nest boxes or a broody crate. The mister is great - it took them a few days to stop avoiding the mist, too, but I am misting a large area of their run and they get the cooled air even if they are a bit further away...

 

[Margie Mae]

Been a bit of work keeping the girls cool in this 100+ CA summer heat.We have a box fan to keep air moving, misters which do bring the temperature down about 5 degrees. I put ice in their daily waterer, lay some frozen bottles of water down on the ground, have a wading trough with bricks and water. Last resort today the hubby hooked up our camping air conditioner in the area under the coop. My blue andulusion does not do well in the high heat as she is stubborn and will not stand on the cool wet bricks. Seems pretty cool in the coop now. The temp is 106 outside today.

 

[Henrik Petersson]

Would it work to freeze plastic water bottles and hang them up by the ceiling in the coop? Would that cool the air, or would the effect be negligible?