Texas

[Cockle-Dood]

where are you little wing? thought u were in the market for some poults?

 

[Texasmja]

Agreed. Shade, shade, and just in case, shaded shade. I think whether to have misters or no depends on your area. If you're in deep south Texas it's likely too humid for them to be a lot of help. Vivi is in a drier climate and I know the misters are a Godsend to her chickens. Here, it's so humid that misters just add to the misery. I provide a large shallow pan with a couple inches of cool water in it, in the shade. They love standing in that water during the heat to cool off. I have some of the fluffiest "can't take the heat" types you ever saw and haven't lost a one to heat stroke like others have. Shade and Air Flow are the things that work here, plus the shallow water to stand in.

I use misters every year here for every yard, when I forgot to turn them on, I had chickens who had heat strokes I even use them for my dogs.

 

[Little Wing]

It's too early to get them now. I'm waiting a few months before I do. I think those rascals get too big if you grow them too long. Plus I'm not sure how big of a pen turkeys need. I'm going to have to expand some more first. I talked to someone on here about them and they said it cost them $60 ea to grow turkeys for Thanksgiving. $8.50 to buy and the rest in food. That's not too bad spread out over a few mos. for an awesome dinner.

 

[chicken fever]

ya, we are growing out several but not just for Thanksgiving. we are also doing ground turkey for the year....much cheaper and healthier than store turkey!

 

[galanie]

Agreed. Shade, shade, and just in case, shaded shade. I think whether to have misters or no depends on your area. If you're in deep south Texas it's likely too humid for them to be a lot of help. Vivi is in a drier climate and I know the misters are a Godsend to her chickens. Here, it's so humid that misters just add to the misery. I provide a large shallow pan with a couple inches of cool water in it, in the shade. They love standing in that water during the heat to cool off. I have some of the fluffiest "can't take the heat" types you ever saw and haven't lost a one to heat stroke like others have. Shade and Air Flow are the things that work here, plus the shallow water to stand in.

I use misters every year here for every yard, when I forgot to turn them on, I had chickens who had heat strokes   I even use them for my dogs.

As I said, depends on your climate. Ours is so humid, the air already has all the water it can possibly hold in the summer. You'll be covered with sweat from stepping outside and directly into deep shade and under a tree in less than 10 seconds. It's difficult to breathe, feels like you're trying to breathe underwater. So the evaporative cooling that misters depend on.. doesn't. Tried it. Air flow combined with deep shade and the shallow pans of water = golden.

By the way, I remember driving from Houston to Little Rock one summer w/out air conditioning the car. Myself and everyone in the car immediately felt it when we passed from high to low humidity. We were all "ahhh" ing! hehe.

 

[Little Wing]

I actually started to put ceiling fans in the coops last summer, but then pictured one of them flying up into it and what a mess that would make. Still trying to figure out how...maybe a wire grill around them. hmmmm

 

[galanie]

Warm air already rises. Blowing it back down wouldn't exactly be cool and pulling it up faster just.. well it could work. Just be sure there is lots of ventilation. Create a cross breeze. Yes an open fan of any type is a bad idea.

 

[Little Wing]

LOL the only fan I had last summer was a big industrial type shop fan that would just about blow their feathers off.

 

[bnjrob]

I put small clip-on desk size fans in the coops and run extension cords out into the pasture for them. It helps a lot when the hot wind dies down at night but the temp is still high. Since we don't have any shade, we also put foam insulating board in the walls of the coop and it helps keep the temp inside about 5-10* cooler than the outside temp. The runs have shade cloth top and sides. We went with buckets that we put nipples into and they will hold water plus a 2L frozen water bottle for cool water all day. Also kitty litter pans turned into wading pools. They like it when I make mud in the runs with their dirty wading pool water.

I try not to coddle them too much - we want them to get acclimated to extreme temps so they are less likely to keel over.

On the hottest of days - over about 100*, they get frozen water bottles in their runs and/or coops to cool off with. They perch and even lay on the ice.

They are a little more stressed at the beginning of summer, but by Aug/Sept, they could tolerate higher temps before panting and needing ice bottles.

 

[KnobbyOaks]

Wonder what our ancestors did for summer cross-breeze.