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

[analyticalblonde]

What we do have is trees and a particular type of tree called the Holme Oak which is an ever green oak on this mountain. This tree provides excellent shade all year round.
Part of chicken keeping must surely be providing an environment in which they can thrive.

I don't wish to appear rude but this it's all different in America up here in the desert really needs some education about what it's like in the rest of the world.
If one was to be particularly brutal in commenting then my comment would be if the climate is so arid and hot and nothing will grow to provided shade then I can't help questioning the wisdom of keeping chickens in the first place.
One doesn't for example extreme though it is try to keep polar bears in a desert.
A bit further South is a country called Morocco. It gets hot there and they have a lot of desert. They keep chickens. They were keeping chickens before America was invented.
The villages tend to let the chickens shelter in the clay built houses that keep very cool due to their construction. They also build funny looking domes out of clay with multiple entrances that allow the breeze to blow through.
Electricity if supplied at all, is problematical and expensive, so misting systems, fans, air conditioning aren't really options.
It is worth bearing in mind before making any patronizing comments that other countries have been keeping chickens for a very very long time compared to the US and may just know something about the subject.

Hi @Shadrach,

No offense taken and the history of what you write about is true. Although, the analogy of Polar Bear keeping in deserts was a bit extreme as you said. Anyway, chickens are raised everywhere in the world and have adapted to their environments where ever they have landed (pun intended) and since I am a newbie to raising them and seeing them under heat stress, I wanted to reach out to those who have a greater knowledge and experience just to see if I could make them more comfortable. My coop/run does not have electricity so I can't do what some have suggested. I do have water which I can set up a mister with, though. I can definitely see how clay houses for the birds living in areas such as what you mentioned would be perfect for their needs. Also, I may be wrong but Oaks take a long, Long, LONG time to grow where they can actually provide the type of shade suggested. There is, however, an evasive species of tree in Utah, Idaho, Colorado and Wyoming called the Russian Olive which can grow in our areas and although it is considered evasive, I might end up putting some in next Spring (maybe?). There are other options but it will be a few years out before any of them will be able to provide the needed shade. I will definitely be putting in bushes which tend to fill out more rapidly.

 

[Verbon30]

I live in Florida my hens was soing alot of heat stess. So I been using fans and Minster and is helping a lot. I would go ahead and but them on layer feed.

 

[Lulu Lipshitz]

I freeze gallon jugs of watet and place in their favorite dust bathing spots. They snuggle up in that cool dirt before I walk away.

 

[Ponte]

Have Buff Orpington’s in south Florida. Became concerned due to seeing them panting so did the ice bucket thing for one week. It really did not do much so put water cans throughout the yard. Worked much better and the chickens learned to be in the shade when it’s hot.

 

[aart]

Have Buff Orpington’s in south Florida. Became concerned due to seeing them panting so did the ice bucket thing for one week. It really did not do much so put water cans throughout the yard. Worked much better and the chickens learned to be in the shade when it’s hot.

Weren't you the one who suggested using tiles as cooling slabs?

 

[Ponte]

Yes, I still use them in the aviary.
I find the hens laying on them almost every morning when I open the door to let them free but I have never seeing them laying on them at any other time.

 

[Shadrach]

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.
The most probable system for supplying a water misting system would seem to be a hose laid on the ground from a tap. This would in effect be much like my hot water system.
Ice blocks would work given they obey the laws of thermodynamics. But, a block of ice would need to be massive to maintain it's cool sink properties for very long and of course, the chickens would need to be in closr proximity to the ice for thermal transfer to take place. I would need at a rough guess 10 such blocks for 30 chickens spread over 4 acres.
These would need replacing pretty quickly I think.
Then there is the cold drinking water business. Sure, cold water makes us feel better when drinking it but in fact, it doesn't coll us down. What it does do is replace the water we sweat out. Not really applicable to chickens though because they don't sweat. This is something that is important to understand.
I haven't carried out any empirical testing but just from being the person that keeps the water stations full with clean water here; all 7 stations I have over the years got some idea of the amount of water consumed through the seasons. If the chickens here do drink more water in the summer it's a very small amount. Chickens when free ranging can go a long time without drinking as such because they get moisture from some of the stuff they forage.
Air movement works. The faster the air flow across a body given the air is at a lower temperature than that body the more quickly it will remove heat. The reason chickens hold out their wings when they are hot is to increase the body area that is exposed to air flow.
The reason they open their beaks isn't because they are thirsty, it's because they can lose heat through the membranes in their mouth.
It seems there is a basic misunderstanding of chicken biology and thermodynamics with some of these ideas.
At an ambient temperature of approximately 41 degrees centigrade (106 Fahrenheit) a chicken is no longer able to transfer heat from its body to the environment. It doesn't matter what the humidity is. It's why thousands of chickens die at once when the air conditioning breaks down the the big batteries. You could have 100% humidity and they will still die.

 

[aart]

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

Basically it's water from the tap thru a garden hose into a nozzle that produces a fine mist. You would run all the water that was hot from sitting in the hose before attaching to misting nozzle so water would be as cold as it comes out of the ground.
I have experienced these misting systems in the desert of Arizona and it's amazing how it 'cools' the air. I don't know the exact science of how it works, but it works.
But misting doesn't have much of an affect in a more humid climate.

The reason chickens hold out their wings when they are hot is to increase the body area that is exposed to air flow.
The reason they open their beaks isn't because they are thirsty, it's because they can lose heat through the membranes in their mouth.

Yes, increased skin exposure by lifting wings and evaporation cooling by panting, same as dogs and other 'panters'.

Chickens transfer a lot of heat from their bodies thru their feet too, why they like to dig down into the dirt where it's cooler...and why ice blocks can help.

 

[jeannedeaux]

In the heat, I’ve learned to limit melon and other fruits that easily can cause diarrhea in chickens as that dehydrates them more. I freeze not only blocks of ice for wading pools (cooling their feet is best way to lower temps) but also gallon containers full of water to set around the edges of their outside covered area and inside the coop at night to cool the air. It works pretty well. Ice blocks in their waterer are essential. I think a mister is great, particularly if you angle so that they can just walk over and get wet on legs and feet. I often spray with hose down low and they like that. Let them make dirt baths in the shade. If you wet the ground at night, it will be cool below top layer the next day.

 

[lolson69]

I’m in a dry triple digit summer area. I use a mister with my girls. Keeps the soil in the coop moist and cool. Feed cold watermelon cold cucumbers. Blueberries. Anything to keep them hydrated. Ice blocks in water help too