We had day after day after day of 100+ degree days last year, and not only did my chickens survive those days, but their egg laying was not even affected.
However, I had to do alot of things to keep them from suffering.
Some of the things I did:
1, I got several cheap kitty litter pans from WalMart. You know the kind, they are just a plastic tray that is maybe 16 inches by 12 inches by about 3 or 4 inches thick.
Anyway, I got these litter pans and put them in several locations in the chicken yard. Then in the morning when my wife goes out to water the vegetables, she dumps yesterday's water if it is dirty (which it usually is, since they have a dirt floor to their run), and then she uses the hose to fill the pan with cool, clean water.
On days when it got really hot, one of us would go out there and dump the hot water in the pans and fill them again with cool water.
Sometimes they just use the pans as watering dishes, but several of the hens realized that they could get reallly cool by climbing into the pan of water and splish, splashing around in them. There are some chickens that really like to splish, splash in the pan of water, and others who will only drink from them.
Please note that we did this for the older birds only. Baby chicks should NOT be given access to open water like that -- they can drown in pans of water like that.
2, I took a couple of saw horses and put them in the corner of their chicken run. I then put a 8 foot by 4 foot piece of plywood on top of the sawhorses, and draped a large tarp over the plywood, securing it to the ground on the east and west sides by driving tent stakes through the grommet holes. This created an 8 foot long, 4 foot wide, covered "tunnel" that the birds could retreat to when the sun was bearing down on them.
On the south end of the tunnel, I placed a large fan right underneath the covered structure, far enough in that rain did not threaten the fan. I turned the fan on in about late May, and did not turn the fan off until about September. This created a wind tunnel that the birds could enjoy all summer long.
The north end was left open, so that the hens could enter and leave the wind tunnel at will.
On the rare cool days of last summer, the birds did not spend much time in their wind tunnel. But on those long, hot, summer days, they spent more time in their wind tunnel than anywhere else in their henhouse/chicken yard area.
3, Before the long, hot summer was out, I had seven fans -- some large, some small -- out there keeping their henhouse, chicken yard and wind tunnel cool.
4, I bartered with a farmer who raised watermelon. He would give me his broken, cracked or bruised watermelong (the ones that he could not sell) for my hens, and I would give him two dozen farm fresh eggs each week.
We both felt like winners on that trade. And my birds loved the cool watermelon that I would slice for them in the late afternoon.
5, I am an organic gardener, so I have planted two grape type tomato plants (the variety is Juliet) especially for the chooks. The Juliet produces plenty of smaller tomatoes -- perfect size for the chickens to play field hockey with and helps keep the chooks hydrated when they eat the tomatoes.
6, I took wire ties and tied a dark colored tarp onto the livestock wire fence on the west side of their chicken yard. This is the side where the hot summer sun comes in strongest on hot summer afternooons. I didn't have enough dark tarp to put around their entire yard's fencing, but at least I blocked the harsh afternoon sun anyway.
7, Of course, changing their waterers frequently with fresh, clean, cool water is always helpful. So is a treat of cool plain yogurt or cottage cheese in the afternoon heat.
Hope that gives you some ideas...
However, I had to do alot of things to keep them from suffering.
Some of the things I did:
1, I got several cheap kitty litter pans from WalMart. You know the kind, they are just a plastic tray that is maybe 16 inches by 12 inches by about 3 or 4 inches thick.
Anyway, I got these litter pans and put them in several locations in the chicken yard. Then in the morning when my wife goes out to water the vegetables, she dumps yesterday's water if it is dirty (which it usually is, since they have a dirt floor to their run), and then she uses the hose to fill the pan with cool, clean water.
On days when it got really hot, one of us would go out there and dump the hot water in the pans and fill them again with cool water.
Sometimes they just use the pans as watering dishes, but several of the hens realized that they could get reallly cool by climbing into the pan of water and splish, splashing around in them. There are some chickens that really like to splish, splash in the pan of water, and others who will only drink from them.
Please note that we did this for the older birds only. Baby chicks should NOT be given access to open water like that -- they can drown in pans of water like that.
2, I took a couple of saw horses and put them in the corner of their chicken run. I then put a 8 foot by 4 foot piece of plywood on top of the sawhorses, and draped a large tarp over the plywood, securing it to the ground on the east and west sides by driving tent stakes through the grommet holes. This created an 8 foot long, 4 foot wide, covered "tunnel" that the birds could retreat to when the sun was bearing down on them.
On the south end of the tunnel, I placed a large fan right underneath the covered structure, far enough in that rain did not threaten the fan. I turned the fan on in about late May, and did not turn the fan off until about September. This created a wind tunnel that the birds could enjoy all summer long.
The north end was left open, so that the hens could enter and leave the wind tunnel at will.
On the rare cool days of last summer, the birds did not spend much time in their wind tunnel. But on those long, hot, summer days, they spent more time in their wind tunnel than anywhere else in their henhouse/chicken yard area.
3, Before the long, hot summer was out, I had seven fans -- some large, some small -- out there keeping their henhouse, chicken yard and wind tunnel cool.
4, I bartered with a farmer who raised watermelon. He would give me his broken, cracked or bruised watermelong (the ones that he could not sell) for my hens, and I would give him two dozen farm fresh eggs each week.
We both felt like winners on that trade. And my birds loved the cool watermelon that I would slice for them in the late afternoon.
5, I am an organic gardener, so I have planted two grape type tomato plants (the variety is Juliet) especially for the chooks. The Juliet produces plenty of smaller tomatoes -- perfect size for the chickens to play field hockey with and helps keep the chooks hydrated when they eat the tomatoes.
6, I took wire ties and tied a dark colored tarp onto the livestock wire fence on the west side of their chicken yard. This is the side where the hot summer sun comes in strongest on hot summer afternooons. I didn't have enough dark tarp to put around their entire yard's fencing, but at least I blocked the harsh afternoon sun anyway.
7, Of course, changing their waterers frequently with fresh, clean, cool water is always helpful. So is a treat of cool plain yogurt or cottage cheese in the afternoon heat.
Hope that gives you some ideas...
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