Keeping the Girls Cool in 90s & 100s temperature...?

[Indoroowet]

To analytical:

I live about 45 miles east of you so I am at the same altitude and approximately at the same temperature.

What you can do first is to get a silver-coloured tarp from Harbor Freight and drape that over your whitish coop cover. This will lower the coop temperature a bit more.
Next make sure you need to stop the sun from getting anywhere inside your coop so cover the south and east side of the coop, so it is always in the shade.
Make sure you do not stop the wind from going thru the coop.
If needed you can place a huge fan on one side and create some artificial wind in the coop to get the air moving.
Make sure there is always sufficient water available!!

So if you leave the west- and north-side somewhat open, there should still be enough light for the chickens to be happy.

Get 18% Layer crumb from IFA and start feeding them that!

Their egg-laying boxes.
They should be in the shaded area for this hot time. Put about two inches of pine shavings on the bottom and cover the egg boxes with some dark tarp if in the sun.

Hope this helps.

 

[mosander]

Hi All,

I have 10 young girls (2 Buff Orpingtons, 2 Lavendar Orpingtons, 2 Ameraucanas, 2 Barred Rock Plymouths, and 2 New Hampshire Reds) which I selected because of their Heat/Cold tolerances and their gentleness and who are supposed to start laying in the next couples of weeks. I go out every day and put large ice into their waterers (think Dixie Cups when we were younger but not flavored - just water that I have frozen). I give them slices of frozen watermelon, peas, corn, carrots, green beans) as well as chilled treats. I live in what is known as the high desert - above 4,500 ft but hot, dry, sometimes very windy....dry...dry...dry! Average humidity is about 30-35%...not much at all.

Anyway, I see all of my girls panting - mouths agape - and holding their wings out a bit away from their bodies. I have a covered integrated coop and run with nesting box on the east side.

I am worried and am considering buying one of those portable misting systems that you hook up to a garden hose and use it to help cool them down. I found this one on Amazon...https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004INGNPG/?tag=backy-20

Anyway, I am a newbie and want to know if I am over-reacting?

Also, I have them on grower feed and think I am supposed to covert over to layer feed ONCE they start laying...is that true or should I be giving them layer feed now knowing they will be laying soon?

Most importantly, is their behavior normal? Mouths open, wings slightly opened away from their bodies?

 

[mosander]

Here in Virginia it has been very hot and humid! Here are cooling tips:
1. Paint the roof of your chicken house WHITE. We have one of those point and it tells you the temperature. It dropped 30 degrees farenheit!
2. Make a swamp cooler. Get an old kiddy swimming pool, put it next to a fence where you have hung a fan. The air temperature drops 20 degrees as the fan blows over the water. (Chickens can't swim but are unlikely to drown in 10 inches of water)
3. We grow cucumbers for our chickens (and us). I slice up one gallon of cucumbers for 54 chickens, chill them the refrigerator. Get a bucket, some "blue" ice. Pack the cukes around the blue ice and add some ice cubes on top. They are like giving them cucumber popcycles.
4. Make sure there is plenty of shade. Hang blankets on fences or pourous material is actually better as the breeze blows through it.
5. Put some sort of fan in the chicken house for air exchange.
6. Put a block of 2" x 4" wood to prop the nest box open for ventilation. CLOSE it at Night.

 

[Cathy Roberts]

Their behavior is normal for hot birds. I live in Panama, it's hot and humid every day of the year. I make ice 'bricks' with those plastic shoe boxes that you can often find at the dollar store, the ones that have the plastic lid (makes it easier to stack in the freezer). I fill up one of those large rubbermaid totes with water and these ice blocks and watch the girls jockey for a position to lay down beside the tub, and sometimes drink the water out of the tub too. Making your own block ice is the way to go, lasts much longer before it melts away and much less expensive than buying ice. Frozen blueberries are also a big hit with my girls.

That sounds like a wonderful idea, with the ice blocks! Gonna have to try that!

 

[kubotafoot]

By now, from all the posts you should understand their open mouth and lowered wings is a sure sign they are warm/hot. Mine open the mouth breathing first and as the days get warmer, often the lowered wings come on. I am in CT and it is very humid here. I do not mist in humid weather, but will if it hot and dry. I often spray the sandy ground areas where they dust bathe as it keeps the very fine dust from going everywhere, but don't wet it too much to make a puddle. I also, give cooler fruits like cut grapes, blueberries, strawberry tops and watermelon. I let a few zucchini grow huge and them split them length-wise and lay them in shade in their run. When I come back later in the day, the squash has been stripped of the seeds and pulp and there remains only a thin skin/shell. I feel cooling fruits and veggies help in lowering body temperature. I also set up shade cloth in an "L" shape (think right angle) to give them protection somewhere from the sun and across the top in a couple areas to lower the sun's beating rays. A little extra man made shade can't hurt, but it does slow down air flow/breeze, but I feel it is a good trade. Lastly, I have a couple fans blowing in the barn area and always thought to keep the fans aimed away from walkways etc,. to avoid breezes. Well, I am rethinking that theory, as I have many birds that go out of the way to get in line with the fans and actually back up to them and wiggle their hind end, causing the feathers to fluff out backwards and they look like a Polish chicken with their inverted feathers. They love it, and jockey for position so much that I have turned the fans toward their area to accommodate more hens at a time!! Good luck to everyone trying to make their flock safer and cooler. I worry about flocks having no one to go the extra mile in their case during these very high temperature days.

 

[8CityChicks]

Hi All,

I have 10 young girls (2 Buff Orpingtons, 2 Lavendar Orpingtons, 2 Ameraucanas, 2 Barred Rock Plymouths, and 2 New Hampshire Reds) which I selected because of their Heat/Cold tolerances and their gentleness and who are supposed to start laying in the next couples of weeks. I go out every day and put large ice into their waterers (think Dixie Cups when we were younger but not flavored - just water that I have frozen). I give them slices of frozen watermelon, peas, corn, carrots, green beans) as well as chilled treats. I live in what is known as the high desert - above 4,500 ft but hot, dry, sometimes very windy....dry...dry...dry! Average humidity is about 30-35%...not much at all.

Anyway, I see all of my girls panting - mouths agape - and holding their wings out a bit away from their bodies. I have a covered integrated coop and run with nesting box on the east side.

I am worried and am considering buying one of those portable misting systems that you hook up to a garden hose and use it to help cool them down. I found this one on Amazon...https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004INGNPG/?tag=backy-20

Anyway, I am a newbie and want to know if I am over-reacting?

Also, I have them on grower feed and think I am supposed to covert over to layer feed ONCE they start laying...is that true or should I be giving them layer feed now knowing they will be laying soon?

Most importantly, is their behavior normal? Mouths open, wings slightly opened away from their bodies?

 

[8CityChicks]

Its pretty usual, plus they lose some color in their face, but don't think it will take care of itself. I have 10 layers with a shaded pen & coop in the hot humid southeast. They have a dusting area that I wet down with a hose in the heat of the day. They seem t take to that. I also allow free range time each day & they devastate pine straw in beds, usually scratching down to the cooler dirt. I let them do it since the straw can easily be raked or blown back in place. They also have daily- refreshed water at a half dozen locations, get watermelon rinds & other veggie left-overs from the kitchen, and a lot of people-food - just not too much salt & preservatives. Favorites are left-over peas, butterbeans, corn on the cob, lettuce, tomatoes, etc. They really go for Mexican but i have to limit that. Most don't slow down with laying - so far. Breeds are RIR, AO, BR, Buff Brahma, SlW, RLW, and buff orpington when she's not broody.

 

[smozi]

I must confess, I'm having trouble working out how some of these cooling ideas work.
Take a misting system for example. Those I've looked at are basically a plastic pipe with a nozzle. I have a similar system for my summer hot water. The water gets pumped from a well to an underground deposit and travels along buried pipes (half a metre underground)
until it gets to my roof. On the roof the pipes are laid on the surface so they receive the thermal energy from the sun. The water is drinkable cool before it reaches the roof. By the time the water has traveled the 10 metres or so across the roof to the tap it's hot. I've just stuck a thermometer in some water drawn from the tap. It's 32 degrees centigrade. That's a warm bath temperature. I can't see spraying the chickens here with bath temperature water cooling them down.

Misting systems work like a swamp cooler, through evaporation. Evaporation of the mist actually makes the air cooler - as water changes from a liquid to a gas, it drops in temperature. This is why these systems are useful mainly in low humidity conditions, which have more evaporation.

 

[Shadrach]

Misting systems work like a swamp cooler, through evaporation. Evaporation of the mist actually makes the air cooler - as water changes from a liquid to a gas, it drops in temperature. This is why these systems are useful mainly in low humidity conditions, which have more evaporation.

I understand the physics, it's how such a system works in practice. I suppose in a confined situation the hens could be exposed to enough of the mist for this to work.
I would think one would need multiple misting nozzles in order to ensure coverage of the run.
To me, many of these ideas seem very complicated for a problem that can be solved by providing decent shade.

 

[Ebony Rose]

The whole point of having an area for misting is to allow the chickens to decide if they want to use that as a cooling method. Since chickens don't sweat and cause their own evaporative cooling like humans do, it's a good additional alternative for them, provided that the air in the area being misted isn't already saturated with moisture (high humidity).