Keeping coops cool

[U_Stormcrow]

Thank you for this info. These are great things to know and with the dry heat here I'm going to have to use a few of these. Going to start building a small 4 x 4 coop as soon as I find a link with a good complete plan to go from.

How many birds are you planning on keeping in a coop that small??? Remember that water and food (if you keep them there), perches, nesting boxes all take up space, limiting the sq ft available per bird - and while climate will sometimes allow a bit of fudge factor, and big runs will allow a bit of fudge factor, ultimately, too small a hen house will contribute to both behavior problems and ventilation problems, both of which make health problems.

If you haven't got the space, you haven't got the space... But a 4x8 coop is only marginally more expensive than a 4x4 coop, may well require fewer saw cuts, and is a lot more forgiving of "chicken math". Also, this site has some GREAT coop examples, often with good plans. and if you are budget conscious (who isn't right now???) you might want to look into pallet coops, which start about the size you are contemplating...

 

[springvalley123]

I've lived in the desert with chickens, with temps up to 115F. The critical time is roost time--it's easier to provide ice blocks etc. when the birds are awake, then they roost at sunset, the hottest time of the day.

Here's some additional ideas I've used:

Take off 1-2 walls from the 4x4 coop and replace with hardware cloth. If the roost bars go up next to the wall that's been removed, put up shade cloth on that wall so they don't feel open to predators and will still perch there. You could have a mister aimed to cool the walls/roof, or cool the area right outside the roost/coop, and a fan blowing the cool air into the coop.

For day, take a 3 inch deep tray or shallow watering tub and place clay bricks in it. fill it with water half way up the bricks. The birds don't get their feet wet but the water wicking up thru the bricks really cools their feet, cooling the whole bird. Mine took at least a week to start using this setup once I put it out.

Others use puddles, someone suggested getting the ground wet and blowing a fan across that, as birds don't really like the misters.

I filled some 2-liter soda bottles with 1 liter of water and froze them, then put them out so the birds could sit next to them.

When I had to leave for a few hours, I'd put out a big block of ice.

 

[springvalley123]

How many birds are you planning on keeping in a coop that small??? Remember that water and food (if you keep them there), perches, nesting boxes all take up space, limiting the sq ft available per bird - and while climate will sometimes allow a bit of fudge factor, and big runs will allow a bit of fudge factor, ultimately, too small a hen house will contribute to both behavior problems and ventilation problems, both of which make health problems.

If you haven't got the space, you haven't got the space... But a 4x8 coop is only marginally more expensive than a 4x4 coop, may well require fewer saw cuts, and is a lot more forgiving of "chicken math". Also, this site has some GREAT coop examples, often with good plans. and if you are budget conscious (who isn't right now???) you might want to look into pallet coops, which start about the size you are contemplating...

yes! and the pallet coops are easy to modify to have more walls in winter than summer. that is, imagine two pallets 6 feet apart (or 8 feet!) connected by 2x4x8 ft boards to make a frame, and more of these boards for the roosts. A solid plywood back, and partial front. you can add boards over the pallets for winter and remove them for summer.

 

[3KillerBs]

Thank you for this info. These are great things to know and with the dry heat here I'm going to have to use a few of these. Going to start building a small 4 x 4 coop as soon as I find a link with a good complete plan to go from.

You might want to read through this thread about my 4x4, Monitor Roof coop. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/renovating-the-little-monitor-roof-coop.1382615/

This coop is good for only 4, standard-size chickens. I have 5 right now and am watching for signs of trouble as we lead up to building a larger coop.

In your setting, I'd make one side of it all wire and attach a roofed run for additional shade.

 

[Bluskeeper2020]

Here is your Arizona state thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/arizona-chickens.31227/

I'm in the steamy southeast, where the issue is heat combined with humidity rather than your oven-like dry heat, but IMO, the key factors are:

Choose suitable breeds. Most hatchery catalogs include heat and cold tolerance in the information they give you about different chickens. Also, if you choose chicks from a hatchery/breeder located in a similar climate you can be more confident that they can tolerate your conditions.

Ventilation, Ventilation, Ventilation: The more airflow the better in the heat. The open air concept is particularly valuable for hot-climate people, with at least one wall of the coop made of wire. This is a great thread on a coop in Texas: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/texas-coop-build-pic-heavy.1371038/#post-22557467

Shade: Natural shade from vegetation is best, but in places where that's not available artificial shade of any kind is good. I put up a picnic fly over my small coop. Some people put up beach umbrellas. Some people cover their runs with shade cloth. Some people build little shade structures or even go as simple as a pallet up on concrete blocks.

Water: Lots and lots of water freely available all the time from multiple sources in case one fails.

There are some additional options available beyond the basics:

Access to ground they can dig in: Because it's cooler below the surface of the soil. On the shady side of the coop where I'd pilled up pine straw and dried grass clippings my flock dug holes deep enough to about bury themselves for dustbathing and loafing.

Electrolytes: Some consider this a key factor, others don't find it necessary. Offer one or more times a week according to the conditions but don't offer it as the only source of hydration because the taste may put the chickens off drinking enough. Imagine if you had only Gatorade to drink and never got regular water.

Wading Pools: Shallow tubs of water for chickens to walk in.

Ice Blocks: Either frozen to add to the waterer in order to keep the water cool or offered in a tub so that the chickens can either drink the cool water or stand/sit on the ice.

Misters: More valuable in your dry climate than my humid climate (where adding water to the air is more likely to increase the misery than decrease it). There are all sorts of models available or you can put a dial a setting nozzle on your garden hose to mist the area by hand for short-term relief.

Frozen Treats: Peas, berries, chunks of melon, whathaveyou. Can get expensive and you have to watch quantities so as not to unbalance your chickens' nutrition. I don't use this, except for when I toss some freezer-burned cooked meat into the pen still frozen.

I've probably missed a couple options. I personally didn't feel the need to go beyond the once a week electrolytes. As a matter of livestock-keeping philosophy I don't want to have breeds that require extraordinary measures to keep them healthy and would only start providing ice if we got temperatures significantly above our normal 95F with 95% humidity.

Thank you for this info. These are great things to know and with the dry heat here I'm going to have to use a few of these. Going to start building a small 4 x 4 coop as soon as I find a link with a good complete plan to go from.

You might want to read through this thread about my 4x4, Monitor Roof coop. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/renovating-the-little-monitor-roof-coop.1382615/

This coop is good for only 4, standard-size chickens. I have 5 right now and am watching for signs of trouble as we lead up to building a larger coop.

In your setting, I'd make one side of it all wire and attach a roofed run for additional shade.

Thank you! I've been looking all over the net and here at coops. I'll figure something out.

 

[3KillerBs]

Thank you for this info. These are great things to know and with the dry heat here I'm going to have to use a few of these. Going to start building a small 4 x 4 coop as soon as I find a link with a good complete plan to go from.

Thank you! I've been looking all over the net and here at coops. I'll figure something out.

The best thing about my little coop is that I can put my head and shoulders into it and it's never hotter inside than outside.