Louisiana heat

[Jahenbo]

Hey y'all,
Trying to find an answer for my wife. We live in Louisiana and it does get hot here in the summer. How do y'all keep you chickens cool? Does anyone use a fan? Or do chickens do well in high heat? I know i don't!

 

[NatJ]

Hey y'all,
Trying to find an answer for my wife. We live in Louisiana and it does get hot here in the summer. How do y'all keep you chickens cool? Does anyone use a fan? Or do chickens do well in high heat? I know i don't!

Chickens do have trouble with high heat, but they have some ability to become acclimated to it.

Shade usually helps a lot, along with ventilation and air movement. Just a roof helps to provide shade, but it's best if the roof is well above the chickens, so they have the shade without sitting close to the hot roof.

Under a big tree is great-- lots of shade, air movement, and nice cool dirt for them to lay in (chickens like to lay around in the dirt, since it tends to be a bit cooler.)

Of course you should make sure they always have water available, in the shade so it doesn't get really hot from the sun.

Some people offer electrolytes in water, and some people do not. If you try it, make sure they have plain water available too, because electrolytes can cause trouble if the chickens have too much.

 

[WIchickMama]

agree with @NatJ shade and ventilation and lots of water

I also give a couple more water filled treats in the summer to keep them hydrated (melons or freeze pieces of stuff in muffin tins and let them peck away.

I have read about offering some low pans with water for them to stand in, but I haven't ever done it as I don't think my ladies would like it.

 

[Obsessed With Silkies]

I live in Louisiana too so I know how hot it gets! Make sure in their run there is a good amount of shade that the chickens can go under when it gets hot. You will probably have to change out their water every other day if not every day because they drink so much of it. To keep the water cold for a while is put two plastic water bottles in the freezer so that you can always have a way to keep the water cool. Everything you give them fresh water you can take the old one out, put it back in the freezer, and get the next one that has refrozen. For the chicken coop you can make "windows" with small wire fencing and you can leave it open during the day and night that way they can get a breeze and fresh air. (Included is a picture of mine). Hopefully this helped some!

 

[Artichoke Lover]

Not in Louisiana but in an area with similar climate. I try to stick breeds that are more heat tolerant than others. I also ice their water down on the hottest days and make sure they have plenty of shade in the run. It’s important to make sure they can’t become trapped in the coop and that it’s properly ventilated. I know some people in extremely hot area rig up systems of fans and misters in part of the run too but it hasn’t been necessary here since our temps rarely break get much above 95F

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Large prominent combs, clean legs, lots of shade, lots of ventilation, plenty of shaded place to dig down into the earth (world's largest heat sink!) during the worst of it. If you are able to successfully plant bushes or shade trees in your run, the root area of that vegetation is even cooler still.

Fans present a lot of potential hazards, but they have their uses. Keep in mind however that, unlike humans and most every mammal I am aware of, Chicken's CAN'T Sweat. So blowing hot air over one of us while we "glisten" feels completely different to us than it does for our birds. There is no evaporative cooling going on.

 

[3KillerBs]

Here is my article on this issue:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/hot-climate-chicken-housing-and-care.77263/

If you don't already have an Open Air coop, I strongly recommend converting to one.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I'm in FL Panhandle, and if I hadn't needed a more effective second "coop" to double as protection for my goats and my ducks, I'd have built an open air style facility. As is, as budget allows and the pasture grows, I'll likely build open air shelters in the future, with a rainwater collection system on the back with some simple gutter and bucket system.

Never again will I build a raised coop.

 

[Joey and dolly]

we have a garden with cucumbers if they aren't big we refrigerate them and when they have frost on them we cut them in half and put them in the chicken coop and our chickens eat the inside but not the peel (the peel is bad for them but the inside is good) and they stay cool like that we also put ice in their water and that's enough for our we are about 2 hrs from the gulf so we get some hot wether and this is a really hot summer for us so that's saying something.