Keeping cool

[vinegarhill73]

This is my first summer raising chikens. My 6 girls are about 22 weeks old and just began laying. I do not have electricity in their coop and the summer heat here is starting to rev up. Heat index up to 110. Their coop with run in in the shade and i keep them supplied with plenty of water but they still seem to be too hot. Today i put several frozen water bottles in the coop and run. My question is, would ut be better for me to let them free range while we are at work all day so they could keep themselve cool? Right now we only let them out when we are home. But we dont really watch them so its not really "supervised" free ranging. I just feel more comfortable when im home to let them out. And so far we havent had any problems with predators. I want to do whats best for them not my peace of mind. Any advice is appreciated!

 

[nchls school]

This is my first summer raising chikens. My 6 girls are about 22 weeks old and just began laying. I do not have electricity in their coop and the summer heat here is starting to rev up. Heat index up to 110. Their coop with run in in the shade and i keep them supplied with plenty of water but they still seem to be too hot. Today i put several frozen water bottles in the coop and run. My question is, would ut be better for me to let them free range while we are at work all day so they could keep themselve cool? Right now we only let them out when we are home. But we dont really watch them so its not really "supervised" free ranging. I just feel more comfortable when im home to let them out. And so far we havent had any problems with predators. I want to do whats best for them not my peace of mind. Any advice is appreciated!

Free ranging would help them stay cool in that they can seek out the best spot. However, no matter what you do, there's the chance of loosing them to predators. There have been times that I have used very, very long extension cords to get electricity to a distant location where it was needed; consider doing this if possible. Good luck.