Other tips to keep chickens cool in 85°+ heat

[CallMeBokBok]

Hey everyone, I'm a beginner chicken owner. My wife and I finished building our coop, and we need more ideas about keeping our chickens cool this Summer. We live in southern California, and it's starting to get to 90° here, so we just want to make sure our chickens can withstand the season. They're 13 weeks old. One's a Lavender Orpington, another's an Olive Egger, and the last is an Amberlink.

They've been panting since we put them in our coop/run. So far, we have the following cooling solutions:

• Solar-powered fans blowing in the coop
• Misters for the run
• Shade cloth

The coop also has a window on each side as well as the front.

We've been giving them cold watermelon, and we just put a pan with cold water and bricks for them to stand in. Is there anything else that we should do or add to the run so they can be comfortable? Thanks!

 

[DobieLover]

You can cut up a watermelon into 1 in cubes, spread them on a cookie sheet and freeze them. Then just feed them the frozen cubes.

You can also just feed frozen peas or frozen blueberries. Something that's easy for them to swallow.

It is also advantageous to offer electrolytes during periods of extreme heat or extreme cold. I do this by putting it into my birds mash or by using electrolyte water and blueberries and freezing them in silicone muffin cups. Then putting out the frozen muffins for them to peck apart.

When I go out to do lock up and head count, any bird that has her wings open and is panting gets taken off the roost and dunked in a bucket of cool, not cold, water and I slosh it through her belly feathers and butt fluff then put her back on the roost soaking wet. She's not panting anymore when she goes back in. I also have a fan blowing across the roost to help cool them off.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Have you got an outdoor thermometer you can place in the coop about midway up?

I’m thinking that despite the existing windows, you need more, and much bigger, openings. In your climate, you could have an open air coop, perhaps one solid wall, maybe 1-2 partial walls.

Which compass direction does the side with the nest boxes face? That black lid is scary to me.