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

[analyticalblonde]

Its 100F in the shade for many days here in Florida, humidity varies up to 90% and more.

Traditionally Florida farmers free ranged their chickens and the chickens either roosted in trees or in lockable runs that had coops that are open on the south side and with the walls on the east and west side raised off the ground for air circulation (predator control relied on the run being secure and on free range farm dogs). During the day chickens found their own shade. One could accomplish the same sort of coop setup perhaps more securely by just making three of the four walls out of hardware cloth and putting a large lockable frame door in the front.

My chickens are doing fine in the heat. I'm not using a traditional Florida coop, instead I'm using a converted insulated shed as their coop. I did cut a large window in the door for air circulation at night and during the day I leave the door totally open. The chickens spend the hottest parts of the day on the shelves in the coop. The coop is built under some large pine and ironwood trees that provide shade all day. Perhaps will be problematic if lightening ever strikes one of the pines. But overall is great for the heat. Besides my jungle fowl, my breeds are white leghorns an wyandottes. Some of the wyandottes are heafty but they don't seem to have problems. They all have access to cool sand to wallow in when they want.

I wouldn't really know what to recommend besides giving them access to shade and cool sand making sure they have constant access to water. I keep my waterers full, but mine also have access to a deep, cool, pond just yards away from their run. I have noticed that when I'm filling waterers and the water hose makes puddles, they enjoy laying in the dirt where the puddles have absorbed into the ground.

On another part of the farm I have a small pre-made coop that's for my old English game bantams. They are not in any tree shade, but their entire coop and run is covered with a tin roof. Tin is a traditional roofing material in Florida because of how well it reflects sunlight. The coolest houses in Florida are those that have tin roofs. Anyhow, it seems to work well for the bantams. They spend the hottest parts of the day in the coop like my big chickens do and apparently they get enough air circulation to stay cool and prefer that to being out in the shaded run. Their coop has some small ventilation windows at the top about the size of a human hand and between those small windows and the coop's door, they seem to get enough circulation. Their coop is made of wood and the bottom of it is off the ground, so I suspect the breeze blowing under the coop helps keep it cool as well.

Wow! You have a great set up! We are scheduled to have nothing but triple-digit heat now and in the foreseeable future. My husband and I put up our canopy tent next to the run on the west side where the sun just is so brutal. As the sun goes over the sky today, we will be moving the canopy to the best spot to add more shade. I also have a mister arriving today from Amazon which I will be setting up to help lower the temp...our area is a high desert so hardly any humidity so the mister should help (areas like where you live with high humidity, a mister wouldn't work). Also, I have two kitty litter boxes coming in and will put water into both of them so the girls can either stand in them to cool off or lie next to them to cool down. All of these ideas came from great forum posters from this thread and I am so grateful for all of the ideas! Thank you and thanks to everyone!!! I greatly appreciate it!

 

[jeanetteiacovon]

Oh thank you so much!!!

I give them chilled blueberries but not frozen...I have thought about freezing my fruit other than the watermelon I mentioned thinking it would cool their core temperature and give a little bit more water that frozen bits can provide. Do you think a hose that is attached to a misting unit is a good idea?

Yes I do. I lived in AZ for almost 10 years and it does cool things a bit. Just don’t get the coop itself wet cause the poop will stink and bring flys. I put frozen soda bottles filled with water in the drinking water. Then at night I refreeze the bottle again to put back in the water at about noon time again. Good luck

 

[mdquilts]

Great information! I’ts hot and humid here so my husband set up a big fan and wanted to do the mister but I thought that would just make it worse. I put out ice chunks in a kiddie pool and they were afraid of it. Put the ice in a smaller lower container and they wouldn’t go in but had a few sips. Not all are panting so I think that’s a good sign.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

When a relative of mine lived in Tucson, he had misters along the top of his patio for his dogs and they loved it! It was so arid there was no chance of the ground getting moist or damp.

Your landscape looks familiar to me, you wouldn't be up La Plata Highway in San Juan County, would you?

 

[analyticalblonde]

When a relative of mine lived in Tucson, he had misters along the top of his patio for his dogs and they loved it! It was so arid there was no chance of the ground getting moist or damp.

Your landscape looks familiar to me, you wouldn't be up La Plata Highway in San Juan County, would you?

No, I actually live in Tooele County...on the west side of the Oquirrh Mountains. Only along the bench of the Wasatch Mountains is there really any significant greenery. There are trees where I live but were planted by original residents many, many years ago and only on their specific property...a few Pines higher up on the Oquirrhs. My property pretty much is flat, wild weed-ridden from years of horses grazing before we bought it. Next Spring though, I and DH will be attacking with fervor in planting trees and landscaping! Can't wait! Until then, I have to create a small, artificial microsystem to keep my girls comfortable.

 

[Shadrach]

The first important point about keeping chickens comfortable in hot conditions is to get a breed that can tolerate the conditions they are likely to be subjected to.
What is apparent here (It was 106 Fahrenheit midday today) is shade is vital. However there is shade and shade. A single layer placed a few feet above a run, or shelter can easily trap the rising hot air (See picture on home page for this thread). Trees for example let hot air rise through the branches and also prevent the lower foliage from getting heated.
The ideal type of shade seems to be either tall bushes/cane or dense undergrowth beneath trees.
Something like these options.
During the heat of the day Tribe 1 stay down the bank on the left of the picture.

A large tall bush. This cane and a favorite area of safety and shade for Tribe 3.

Plenty of air movement and shade under this large bush.

In the pictures above the temperatures were 90 degrees +.

A chickens core body temperature is around 106 degrees Fahrenheit. As soon as the ambient temperature reaches this a chicken can no longer transfer body heat to it's environment. It doesn't make a lot of difference what cold things you give it to eat, they won't alter the chickens temperature although they will provide some hydration in the case of say watermelon. We humans drink water or cold drinks because our heat regulation is done through sweating but chickens don't have sweat glands so this doesn't work for them.
Misting with water may seem like a good idea but a mist won't penetrate they chickens feathers and their skin temperature is likely to remain the same.
One of the less noticeable ways a chicken has of regulating it's temperature is through feather adjustment. The same mechanism they use (Filoplumes) to raise and lower their feathers to protect them from the cold also works to improve airflow close to the skin. The holding out of the wings assists the airflow increased by raising the feather with the Filoplumes, giving a greater surface area exposed to any air movement.
Part of the problem for chickens in the heat is they don't sweat and they are reliant on losing body heat primarily through their combs, wattles and mouth.
For chickens confined in a run a space under the coop if available makes good shade. The sun heat doesn't penetrate to the floor and heat is still able to rise into the coop.
Best of all is shade provided by foliage. Very hard to better what nature provides.
One method used where I live to provide shade for chickens in runs is to cut small tree branches and lay them on the roof of the run. Even is your run couldn't support branches you could still make a makeshift frame, cover the with branches and place it in the run.
Another alternative is to buy wall insulation slabs, the thicker the better and construct a three sided box with the reflective foil on the outside. An arrangement such as this might work well in the urban environment.
The main points I wanted to stress are chickens don't sweat so trying to pour water down them isn't going to work, and well thought out shade that doesn't restrict any breeze is the best solution.

 

[Shezadandy]

One of the most important role of fans is to help the inside of the coop cool down as the temperature (finally) drops in the evening. There has to be a big enough opening for the hot air to leave - otherwise you're just blowing hot air on them. We've got a poultry exhaust fan on 24/7 until cooler weather hits - it points out into the run, so there's always a breeze. There are several other fans and lots of open windows. We did a ridgeline vent also.

I watch them VERY carefully at bedtime- having lost one to heat stroke overnight a couple years ago led to all the above changes. If I see some having a harder time than the rest, they get a "hotel room for the night" (several large crates in the basement) - and of course I've got a list of regulars I know will come in - including some breeds that are supposed to be heat tolerant! Sometimes simply re-arranging them once it's dark can alleviate the signs of heat stress- I will never understand why they insist on being shoulder to shoulder when there's plenty of room for everyone to spread apart and stay cooler - so I do it for them once it's dark enough that they won't leave. Then I check back and make sure there aren't any others looking bad - cooling off overnight can help them so much, especially when it's a several day long heat wave.

Our new property has made things so much easier- lots of mature vegetation that provides that deep shade and is THE place to be in the late afternoon. We also did one of those ShelterLogic corral covers and I love it. It adds shade in the summer and a dry spot in the wet months.

We wait for the hottest part of the day to do watermelon- they've got a perpetually dripping hose that almost functions as a fountain- I stick it down an empty feeder- where it pools in the base then spills over, and it becomes kind of a little spring as the ground gets saturated - that helps keep a nice moist cool area as it dribbles down the hill- they love drinking from the running water. The other thing we do is use water heater pans - which are shallow and big - as a good spot to dip the feet.

 

[Peepsi]

The first important point about keeping chickens comfortable in hot conditions is to get a breed that can tolerate the conditions they are likely to be subjected to.

The OP did get breeds suitable for the environment. I live about 20 miles away from the OP. We get a lot of snow and icy-cold temperatures in the winter, and blazing hot triple-digit summers. So the best breeds are ones that can tolerate both extreme conditions. A hot-weather-only breed won't work here in Utah, they'd probably die in the winter.

Also, misting in Utah cools the air itself. It does work, even for chickens, because of the sort of super-dry weather we have. Literally, the air they breathe is cooler if it is misted here (especially if the OP puts ice in the mister). This place is harsh... I'm guessing that where you live, conditions don't fluctuate as much, nor is it a high desert where you are. Very few plants actually *thrive* here, unless one spends a fortune watering, and even then, half of them die.

 

[Criticalicious]

For places where it's difficult to add shade or you need something quick, I use shade cloths from Amazon to block the worst of the sun. Find some with 90% UV block - you can get them for around $20 - $30, sometimes less. I notice my girls will dust bathe a lot more to try and stay cool. We set up fans to circulate some air and they plunked themselves down right in front of it. So although it isn't necessarily cooling per se, it does seem to help them feel better. Mine are not big fans of blueberries but tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe, and cucumbers are popular. Or ice cubes with Nutridrench and Grubblies.

The funniest thing last summer was watching the rooster shake his head after he gave himself ice cream headache.

 

[Lizzy733]

Make sure to keep any water containers out of direct sunlight and I'd recommend shading the dust bath while you're at it... surfaces such as stone tile and sand in a well shaded area should stay cooler than the ambient temperature and can help wick some of that heat away from your girls. - particularly, digging down into a cool dust bath would be great for them.

Promote airflow wherever you can for passive cooling - if your coop is quite enclosed, you may want to think of cutting open a wall to add a screened window and closable shutter.

There have been a few studies which have indicated that extra protein can be beneficial in hotter climates, so it couldn't hurt. Corn has a warming effect when digested, so keep that as a winter-only treat. Also, I haven't tried it myself yet, but mint is supposed to have a small cooling effect too.

PS: I absolutely love your jungle gym