Newby Heat Question.....

[Katiedid]

My girls have lots of water, food and shade. They have a sprinkler (soon to transition to a mister) but they are laying a little less (there are only 4 and I am getting one or two eggs a day rather than three or four) and they are eating less food but seem to want more treats (run at me squacking). They still drink water, seem active and rarely pant, but I am concerned about their comfort levels. They are basically pets at this point so while I don't want them to move into the guest room, I don't want them to have heat stress either. It's been in the high 80s low 90s, but it will be warmer in July and August, so I'm trying to get the system in place before then. I don't want to use electricity because the coop is a long way from the house so it isn't viable. Does anyone have any suggestions? (They didn't seem to like the water pan idea and if I set the frozen milk jugs out before I leave for work they'll be melted before the heat of the day.)

Is it normal to see a decrease in laying and eating in the summer?

 

[ChicKat]

Yes, the heat can cause a decrease in eating and laying.

Perhaps you could get a solar fountain...and bypass the need for electricity -- but still have access to re-circulating water for them. I can understand how they may take some time to adjust to wading --- but I suspect that once they get used to it -- you will wonder if they are part flamingo.

good luck, I'm facing the heat too.

 

[Katiedid]

I love the solar fountain idea! I'm very interested in sweet talking DH into putting solar panels on the house when we make our vast fortune!

Perhaps the solar chicken fountain can be the gateway.....I'll google it, but if anyone has any links to share, I'd love the advice. I've never even heard of a solar fountain before! We may need to watch it though, we're in a desert on a well, so it would need to be at least OK on water.

Oh- I tried using what looks like a plastic casserole dish for them to walk in, is there anything else you might think is better?

 

[ChicKat]

I have a giant flower pot saucer, a dish pan, an oil drainer....and a small animal feed dish (like you find in feed store for let's say livestock not house pet). When they are full of water they all work with the flower pot (terra cotta colored) working the best and being the most popular wading pool. Surprising second place is the dishpan...but if the air evaporates the water...and a hen stands on the side, it tips over. The oil drainer for a car---because it is black --- gets used but isn't too popular and the little feeder -- doesn't get used. Maybe it is too small and the water seems to evaporate out quickly.

There was a You Tube of someone who made an automatic chicken door using a solar fountain mechanism...if I can find it I will come back and edit...to add a link.

You would want recirculating water for your solar fountain. Since you are in a desert...evaporation would probably diminish your water fairly quickly.... ;o(. Maybe a google or Bing search could lead you to something reasonable.

There was a posting just a while ago about someone who lowered his coop temp from 107 to 92-degrees with a swamp cooler....... Heat is a problem for me here as well.

 

[Katiedid]

I didn't catch them walking in the water today, but at least they were drinking from the pan! I also added some chicken electrolytes to their water. (Very inexpensive for a small flock.) Hopefully that will help. They seem to be eating more since I've cut back on treats and increased the number of times the sprinkler goes off, but it seems as though they are waiting until the evening when it's cooler.

DH will be home this weekend so I think we may have a talk about different ideas. The garden has a pretty elaborate watering system and the chicken coop isn't that far from the garden, it maybe time to talk about running water underground instead of running all of this from the house. And maybe installing a gauge to see how much water the garden and chicken coop are using to make sure our system is effective. In the mean time, I've found some "poultry fountains" that don't seem to take power. Has anyone tried something like this?

http://www.flemingoutdoors.com/automatic-game-bird-fount.html