Having just spent an entire week with heat indexes at 100-113, I hear you! By day two, it was 90' at 8am. I have lived in southern Alabama. I now live where it not only gets as nasty as it does there in the Summer, but where temperatures can hit -50'F in the winter with the wind-chill. My bird breeds must be able to tolerate both extremes. While my coop is very large, is perpetually open on one side, has huge upper windows, a large barn fan, and a covered run for shade, I threw open the doors and let the whole flock out onto the countryside. The coop and run were the same temperature as the great outdoors (YACK), but allowing them to roam, let them seek shade in the meadow and under the coop where there was not only shade, but cool grass and earth.
I decided the risk from predators is/was far less then the danger of heat or stress. My orpington was suffering something awful and had to be cooled or she certainly would have died.
I figure in the old days, you raised what was in your area and those were tolerant to that area. You didn't ship funky, fun birds from around the country. In addition, birds that would have dropped from heat would have just been taken as a loss, and eaten/processed. It was just the way it was. Livestock loss due to weather was just the way it was. Now we have more advanced methods for moderating those extremes. BUT we also have those wacky imported breeds. For that reason, and the fact that many of us don't use our birds for simple production, we go to those extremes to keep them healthy AND happy.
I have learned that while I love the giant, waddling butts of the Orpingtons, they simply do NOT handle the heat and humidity well here. The darker breed birds don't either. As I replace my flock over the years, I'll replace them with birds that are most suitable for the wacky conditions that we have here.
