Taking chicks out in heat wave

[HennyPenny44]

Hi everyone. I'm not sure if this is the forum to post in but here goes. My 5 chicks will be 6 weeks old this coming Monday and I had plans on taking them out to their coop for the first time then. All except one is pretty much fully feathered.

My concern is that we will be experiencing a heat wave at the same time I plan to take them out. Temps of 95 degrees are expected. They've been in a 75 degree garage for a while now with one or two hour trips outside in deep shade when temps are 80-85. How do I acclimate them? Should I get them a fan or full access to the run right away? I've read the advice that you should keep them locked in the coop for the first few days so they understand it's their home. But with the heat, I'm afraid the temps will be dangerously high even though they will have plenty of ventilation. They're getting big and need more space than their already big watermelon box provides them.

 

[Shadrach]

Hi everyone. I'm not sure if this is the forum to post in but here goes. My 5 chicks will be 6 weeks old this coming Monday and I had plans on taking them out to their coop for the first time then. All except one is pretty much fully feathered.

My concern is that we will be experiencing a heat wave at the same time I plan to take them out. Temps of 95 degrees are expected. They've been in a 75 degree garage for a while now with one or two hour trips outside in deep shade when temps are 80-85. How do I acclimate them? Should I get them a fan or full access to the run right away? I've read the advice that you should keep them locked in the coop for the first few days so they understand it's their home. But with the heat, I'm afraid the temps will be dangerously high even though they will have plenty of ventilation. They're getting big and need more space than their already big watermelon box provides them.

There does in general seem to be a lot of concern with chicken and temperature.
A chickens core body temperature is around 41 degrees centigrade (106 F).
Once the ambient temperature rises above this the chicken cannot transfer heat from it's body to the environment.

Despite the various breeding programs the chickens biology is basically the same as it's ancestors the jungle fowl.
Here is a link giving average temperatures in various locations in Indonesia, the home of the jungle fowl.
https://www.climatestotravel.com/climate/indonesia
You can see that the range that jungle fowl live in is very roughly between 28 degrees centigrade (82 F) and 34 degrees centigrade (93 F).
So, ambient temperature wouldn't seem to be that much of a problem until it reaches the mid thirties centigrade.
Air conditioning, foot baths, ice blocks et etc are completely unnecessary.
What the jungle does have that very few chicken runs do is shade.
It's direct sunlight that causes chickens problems in most keeping circumstances.
What they need is shade, preferably with a breeze.
So, provide you chickens with a shady spot and they should be fine.

 

[HennyPenny44]

There does in general seem to be a lot of concern with chicken and temperature.
A chickens core body temperature is around 41 degrees centigrade (106 F).
Once the ambient temperature rises above this the chicken cannot transfer heat from it's body to the environment.

Despite the various breeding programs the chickens biology is basically the same as it's ancestors the jungle fowl.
Here is a link giving average temperatures in various locations in Indonesia, the home of the jungle fowl.
https://www.climatestotravel.com/climate/indonesia
You can see that the range that jungle fowl live in is very roughly between 28 degrees centigrade (82 F) and 34 degrees centigrade (93 F).
So, ambient temperature wouldn't seem to be that much of a problem until it reaches the mid thirties centigrade.
Air conditioning, foot baths, ice blocks et etc are completely unnecessary.
What the jungle does have that very few chicken runs do is shade.
It's direct sunlight that causes chickens problems in most keeping circumstances.
What they need is shade, preferably with a breeze.
So, provide you chickens with a shady spot and they should be fine.

Thank you for the explanation. I do have shade in their run except for a corner of it having sun for about 2-3 hours in the afternoon but I'll be fixing that with a tarp and/or some artificial climbing vines. I did take them out for about 2 hours yesterday when temperature was about 90. They did fine with their food, fresh water and cold slices of cucumber. I still got a fan just in case though to provide them with a breeze since it can get muggy with stagnant air in the summer where I live.