Keeping Chickens cool

[Midnight Maran Momma]

Walls and floor are insulated but not the roof it's just plywood, tar paper, metal roofing. Walls are siding+insulation+OSB, it's more like a tiny home, approx 120sq ft. Floor is railroad ties+insulation+plywood. You're right that they would peck at it if it was exposed. The woods/tree canopy that my coop is in really helps with heat but I like having sunny area's too, for dust baths. I would plant as many trees for shade as I could if I didn't have that already. I like your bubble foil idea, the walls wouldn't be so thick....

We're thinking of putting our coop 5' away from the side & 5' away from the back fence (with the nesting boxes back there), making the (32" raised from the ground) coop 8' wide x 4' deep, with a 8' x 8' run. That would give the chickens room under the coop, in addition to the run itself (96 sq.', total) for 8 chickens (although two may be getting rehomed). My husband's offering to put a clean out door at either end of the 8' wide parts of the coop, as I'm only about 5'3", and can't reach very far. I'm in love with the gabled (traditional) roof look for the coop, so he's finally agreed to that, with a goal of adding gutters & a rain barrel to collect rain for their water supply.The entire (flat topped) run, though, he's saying we can just wrap in hardware cloth, attach breathable shade sails (not waterproof) above the whole shebang, and call it a day. There's basically No shade there until early evening, so I'm worried about cooking my lil' nuggets. I'm still leaning towards having at least half of the run covered with corrugated foam polycarbonate roofing panels.
The screen door will be near the coop front, there will be water available in & outside, but the food will be outside only, kept in a sealed, metal can until I let them out in the mornings, and then closed back up again at nights, when they go back in their coop. Solar lights in the run & 2 solar fans up higher in the coop. Manual pop door in front, with a ramp into the run.
Thoughts, tips, suggestions from anyone?
Suggestions on how to put a hardware cloth screen door where the clean out doors are, for ventilation in the summers? Has anyone successfully made an interchangeable door/screen like this?

 

[FrostRanger]

100% make sure at least part of the run is covered, chickens absolutely need shade. They can handle cold much better than heat

 

[allforthegreaterpaws]

Hi! First time chicken owner here so, sorry if my question is dumb.

I live in a hot climated area and as summer gets closer, what is a few ways to keep chickens cool?

Currently it has been getting pretty hot as it is and my chickens keep panting and hiding in the coop. I know they can get stressed by the heat so I want to keep them as cool as I can. Any tips and tricks are appreciated!

1: Frozen water bottles and ice packs in their coop
2: Ice in their water
3: Frozen enrichment
4: Shade
5: kitty pool (some chickens like it some don’t)
6:fans
7:misters
8: spray the dirt in their chicken run
9:chicken baths-(I haven’t personally haven’t tried chicken baths. I’m a little nervous about doing it.If somebody has done it, please share your experience!)


ALL FOR THE GREATER PAWS

 

[Midnight Maran Momma]

Same! I was born & raised in SE Alaska. Married military and ended up in VA, where I'm now living in a sauna, at Least five months a year.
My husband here makes it worth it, though. He indulges me in my chicken craziness, although, let's face it, I was crazy long before the chickens came along.

100% make sure at least part of the run is covered, chickens absolutely need shade. They can handle cold much better than heat

 

[Midnight Maran Momma]

100% make sure at least part of the run is covered, chickens absolutely need shade. They can handle cold much better than heat

Planning on putting those loooong screws with the loop at the end, into each of the 4" x 4" posts on the coop & run, and attaching an 8' x 12' shade sail, to keep as much covered as possible. I wish I could have a larger sail, but there's nothing else in that area to attach it to.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

corrugated foam polycarbonate roofing panels.

My experience with this is heat trapping. I'd look into cool roofing products.

 

[Midnight Maran Momma]

My experience with this is heat trapping. I'd look into cool roofing products.

Dang.. I was aiming at avoiding the oven created by using metal roofing panels, and dampening the noise factor of rain on the metal or hard plastic panels. What's considered a 'coop roofing product'? My husband was planning on doing plywood with roofing paper & shingles, but that wouldn't work well for collecting rain water with gutters & a rain barrel system.
Either way, we were planning on using bubble foil insulation along the ceiling of the coop, to help deflect some of the heat.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

if you look at materials with higher solar reflectance, shingles and metal are good. I poly panels on the covered part of my run just off my coop and it does feel very "greenhousy," under them so I was just speaking about your covered run......

 

[Midnight Maran Momma]

if you look at materials with higher solar reflectance, shingles and metal are good. I poly panels on the covered part of my run just off my coop and it does feel very "greenhousy," under them so I was just speaking about your covered run......

Okay. Thank you. At this point (for structural attempts at cooling) we're doing the shingles on the coop with bubble foil insulation inside, and the run will be wrapped (no actual roof besides the HC) with 1/2" hardware cloth + an 18" apron around it. 12' x 8' Solar shade above the coop & run.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

Sounds like a good plan to me!!