keeping chicks cool

[cary 1973]

How do you keep your chick's / chickens cool during summer heat. I live la's Vegas Nevada we are already in triple digits I have girls coop and run where only am sun on. It after 12 its in shade but come 4 to 8 weeks from now and its 120+ out shade don't make a difference its plan out HOT. I do have some air blowing into coop but worried about the girls

 

[chfite]

The best shade you can muster and plenty of fresh water will help a lot.

Chris

 

[Fierlin1182]

Just make sure there is plenty of water available (and change it frequently, because it gets hot under the sun), and if you can you could put them in a run somewhere where it's shady. I live in Australia, and it gets very hot in the summer. When temps hit about 40C we let the chickens out of their coop so they can hide underneath the fruit trees where it's cooler. If you can't let them free, moving them around in a covered run would probably be good.

Also treats are pretty good for them, such as some chilled fruit (my chickens love grapes ) and we've also fed them a little bit of ice cream before. They wolfed it down. But don't give them too much of that!

 

[cary 1973]

thank you for the respone there water stays in sade all day long and i trow ice cubes in it my chicks wont go near iwth with the ice in it lol there run will be done today or tommrow latest and they will have access to shade im thinking about putting a mist systym in the run and poss the sand in the coop but then i worry abotu humity and resp probs for chicks and do they like to get wet?

 

[jak2002003]

I live in Northern Thailand and it get very hot here. Now its the HOT season and a normal temp is about 37 degrees C and can get lot higher. It does not drop much at night either.

I found the best for my chickens is a combination of things.

1. lots or SHADE
2. Small muddy puddles or damp ground in a shady part of the run. The chickens like to scratch about in the shallow water and it cools them right down.
3. In the hottest part of the day I thrown some chopped up lettuce, watermelon, or cabbage around the run. I keep it the fridge so its very cool when they eat it, and it has lots of water to hydrate them.

I tried freezing soda bottles full of water, and placing them around the run. The chickens never worked out what to do with them, so I gave that idea up. However, my rabbit loves them and lays outstretched alone one in his pen.

 

[Rubenlopez1895]

Here is what we did.

I came a\outside and the temp was 98 and very humid. The poor chickens were panting to beat the band.

I got an old sheet and attached to the outside of one of the walls that had chicken wire. The I got a fan, medium house size, and placed it on the floor of the run, next to the sheet. I then got a garden hose and put on the sprayer attachment, and put it in mist. I then turned on the water and the fan.

Placing the fan on the inside the run and the sheet on the outside makes sure that the water will never hit the fan. I turned on the water to low so that it just wetted the sheet.

As the hot air is pulled through the wet sheet, the cool water cools the air. It does nothing for the humidity but it did cool down the run/coop. Basically, I just made a cheap version of a swamp cooler.

I came back out an hour later and the chickens had stopped panting and appeared to be cool.

I also changed the water every two hours with cool water.

Ruben

PS Here is a link to swamp coolers, in case you do not know what they are.

http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/heating-and-cooling/swamp-cooler.htm