With the recent heat wave in the midwest, we've been very careful to make sure all our chickens have fresh water, shade, ice for the nesting boxes, fans, etc. My older hens seem to realize that being outside the coop in the shade is a much cooler place to be. The others...well...not so much. Herein lies my problem.
We have 15 Rhode Island Reds that are about 16-17 weeks old that brooded together. We moved them into the big coop, fenced off from the established hens for a period of "see but cannot touch" before we moved them all together. Then the big heatwave hit. No matter what I do, they will not move from 1 corner of the coup, and insist on bunching up together (creating more heat I'm sure). I go out several times a day to refresh and hose down the runs, and shoo them away from their corner. They will not go outside unless I chase them out the door. When they are out there, the established hens basically ignore them, so it's not like they are being bullied. And, there's plenty of room for all of them...more than enough room.
Any ideas on how to get them to stop crowding into that corner? I have fans pointed on them, but geesh, they are creating more heat than what's already in there! Am I doing something wrong? Are they just stupid? Are they scared? I don't want to stress them out anymore than the heat already is, but we've lost 4 older girls already due to the heat, I don't want to loose anymore.
Any advice would be appreciated!!
We have 15 Rhode Island Reds that are about 16-17 weeks old that brooded together. We moved them into the big coop, fenced off from the established hens for a period of "see but cannot touch" before we moved them all together. Then the big heatwave hit. No matter what I do, they will not move from 1 corner of the coup, and insist on bunching up together (creating more heat I'm sure). I go out several times a day to refresh and hose down the runs, and shoo them away from their corner. They will not go outside unless I chase them out the door. When they are out there, the established hens basically ignore them, so it's not like they are being bullied. And, there's plenty of room for all of them...more than enough room.
Any ideas on how to get them to stop crowding into that corner? I have fans pointed on them, but geesh, they are creating more heat than what's already in there! Am I doing something wrong? Are they just stupid? Are they scared? I don't want to stress them out anymore than the heat already is, but we've lost 4 older girls already due to the heat, I don't want to loose anymore.
Any advice would be appreciated!!
