Keeping Chickens Cool

[spicy6]

Hello,
I have a flock of six hens that are just over a year old. Our area has a heat watch for 107 and up over the next 3-4 days. My family and I have planned to go to the beach this weekend. We have someone who is going to come by our house once a day to do daily care. I saw ways to make DIY a/c units, but they all require ice that needs to be renewed every once in a while.
Does anyone know ways to keep chickens cool for a long time? Preferable quick to make so that is can be set up before we need to go to the beach, but me and my mom are willing to put in any amount of work to get it done in time.
Is there a way to make the ice last for a longer time or any other way so that is could cool for 10 hours with no filling except for at the beginning?

Thank you so much,
Emerson

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I use the 3 gallon black rubber feed bowls for foot baths.
https://www.smartpakequine.com/pt/r...MIur3FlLu_4wIVCdbACh03wQhwEAQYBCABEgKzm_D_BwE
Then I freeze several pint water bottles. I drop one in each foot bath and they usually stand in them for relief.
Make sure everything stays in the shade.
What breeds do you have? All my other breeds used to use the foot baths but now all my birds are heat hardy and they don't seem to care.

 

[spicy6]

Thank you so much for those ideas. I will definitely use them. I have 2 speckled Sussex, 2 barred rocks, and 2 buff Orpingtons. I have tried the foot bath and about half of them like it, but the others are scared of it. We are going to try putting frozen fruit in the water to entice them in. I am thinking about putting a fan outside their run blowing into the run, but will that be to hard on their feathers?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Thank you so much for those ideas. I will definitely use them. I have 2 speckled Sussex, 2 barred rocks, and 2 buff Orpingtons. I have tried the foot bath and about half of them like it, but the others are scared of it. We are going to try putting frozen fruit in the water to entice them in. I am thinking about putting a fan outside their run blowing into the run, but will that be to hard on their feathers?

I wouldn't worry about the feathers. My coop with the smallest windows have a fan at the window blowing in on the roost year round.
Do they have lots of shade where they forage and on the coop?

 

[MROO]

I use the 3 gallon black rubber feed bowls for foot baths.
https://www.smartpakequine.com/pt/r...MIur3FlLu_4wIVCdbACh03wQhwEAQYBCABEgKzm_D_BwE
Then I freeze several pint water bottles. I drop one in each foot bath and they usually stand in them for relief.
Make sure everything stays in the shade.
What breeds do you have? All my other breeds used to use the foot baths but now all my birds are heat hardy and they don't seem to care.

I do the same thing for my birds, but I also drop frozen water bottles inside their big waterers. They float around like big ice cubes, but take longer to melt.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I do the same thing for my birds, but I also drop frozen water bottles inside their big waterers. They float around like big ice cubes, but take longer to melt.

I do that too.

 

[starri33]

I don't see where you are located at in the bio, but I live in AZ, I think we are currently sitting at 106.. we can get up even higher, for mine I have a mister system along with wading pools, they love their wading pool.. plenty of cool clean water for drinking, wading pools and a mister if you can do it, but you really don't have to have one, misters tend to make mud puddles, a fan in the coop will help with air circulation which is a important thing.. I've got one going in mine. I know several people around me who don't have anything near what I have for mine and their flocks do just fine.. remember our ancestor's didn't have electric and all this fancy stuff. Their flocks survived.

 

[Acre4Me]

Shade in any way you can provide it.

Shade cloth

Burlap (rolls sold in garden section)

Scrap wood or pallets leaned up against fence or wall. We have a large sheet of OSB propped up against barn wall to shade that water container and have it set out far enough for a few birds to sit behind or to dust bathe. We put a large paver on the other side to keep it from sliding down to the ground.

I’ve used cheap outdoor carpet zip tied to a portable fence to shade chicks before. I’ve used a broken shade umbrella for a table and stabilized the bottom with blocks and propped it up between a stack of blocks and weighed it down with more blocks for shade for meat chickens. Look around for any form of creating shade.

Good luck.

 

[spicy6]

Those are all great ideas. Thank you so much. Their entire run is shaded except for a small part in the morning. We are using the deep-litter method in the coop and run, so they can’t forage in their run. We do let them run around our property for a while each day, but we can’t when we are out of town, we are going make sure they get collard greens and other plants to substitute for their foraging. I am going to clear out all of the shavings that have been in their coop with the deep litter method and lay down a thinner layer because that it supposed the keep the coop cooler and more well circulated. Do you know if any type of bedding will keep them cooler than pine flakes.
Thank you so much again and the chickens thank you too,
Emerson

 

[spicy6]

I am also now realizing that I had planned in putting a BIG block of ice in their foot bath (kitty pool). My only worry is that they will try to jump on top of the block and slip when they land. I don’t want them to pull a muscle or twist a leg.
Do you know a way to prevent that?
Thank you all very much for your time and knowledge,
Emerson