The Heat!!!!

[PAchickenlover]

P.S I'm in Red Lion


Mollie

 

[chickengrandma]

I'm in Wisconsin and we are just wrapping up a two week hot spell. We had super high humidity - making it feel like 104.

We put one fan in our coop blowing the air out a window - trying to pull the hot air from inside and create some movement. Then we also have a second fan blowing, basically, right on the girls roosting platform. We've had it running non-stop for two weeks. We haven't heard them complain about the breeze?!

Also, we did the ice thing. Put some blocks in a large pan and put it by their roosting platform. I'm not sure if it helped much but it didn't hurt!

We also gave the girls pure fruit popsicles and large blocks of ice in their run. I also made sure to wet down their run in the morning and at night. I figured the wet ground would be more pleasant then dry, hard, hot ground. In one corner of the run I created a mud puddle for them. I saw them playing in it a couple of times.

They all survived the heat and I didn't hear any complaining... some panting but no complaining.

Good luck to you AND TO EVERYONE with their girls during this horrible heat wave.

 

[jjthink]

At 7:55 a.m. here in Jersey it was already 97 heat index. Dew point is over the top insane at 77. Forecasters have consistently underestimated temps week after week - yesterday was forecast to be 100- 105 with heat index and it was 113+. Today is forecast to be 110 heat index and I predict we'll be pushing 120. Tomorrow is forecast to be a carbon copy of yesterday. Like last year, hotter than Florida - the weather is turning on its head

Very dangerous conditions for just about anything living. Because my birds humble house (4'x6'x8' high - just 2 birds) is inside a larger building (22' x 22') and there's room to roam during the daytime, they are in lockdown until this thing breaks (and not happy about it but ...). I have fans out there and as of last summer when conditions were like this, also an AC. All equipment is struggling to tackle the temps so right now it is 80 in there and of course I worry how high it will get while I'm out at work today - probably well into the 90s but hopefully not anywhere near as bad as outside.

It is a poopapalooza when I have them in lockdown as the amount of times 2 birds poop on the cement floor of the larger building is stunning and takes me forever to clean up, but hopefully at least this plan keeps them alive. Some years ago when we had a long heat spell like this and before I had the birds situated at this location I took them into my basement to ride out the heat wave, not an option for everyone, I know, but I only had 2 birds (though the uninitiated would think I had 200, if they were judging by one day's poop!). Have to uncharacteristically go out of town Monday for a few days and have a house sitter coming - I have been praying the weather breaks (sounds like it will) so she doesn't have to deal with a poopapalooza of them being cooped up indoors.

Anyway, I also provide blocks of ice in their water, frozen and cold fruits, puddles to play in (when they are outside)......

Electrolytes if your birds are panting a lot.

Fresh water outside for all other beings - my squirrels and other critters are desperate too.

Good luck everybody.
JJ

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

We have a large pen with sand. When it gets hot (and it's been about 103 degrees these past days) I pour water on the sand and mist the chicken coop down. They love to lounge on the damp sand all sprawled out and the water evaporates keeping it cooler. I have a water pan that some of the chickens stand in. The older ones HATE the water and will not stand in it. The younger birds just go run and jump in and LOVE the water. It just depends if your chickens grow up with wading rights. Their water pan only has about 1 1/2 inches of water in it if that, it does not take much to do a lot of good. We have a fan in the coop doorway to keep the air circulating, too. I am going to start giving them frozen or just cold treats too. Be sure that your chickens are not getting to many wasteful carbs. The extra weight is terrible on chickens in the heat, it would be better to keep them thinner.
I hope this helps! I used to worry about my chickens tons, but as previous people have said, they are tough little critters.

 

[jjthink]

9 a.m. and already 102. Not good.

JJ

 

[AngelzFyre]

Quote:
Wouldn't these bottle of ice and the humidity create a lot of moisture on the wood shavings? How do you keep the shavings dry?

LibertyChick, I personally don't put the bottles in my coop because I want to keep it dry but have seen it suggested many, many times on BYC. If it's really hot out, the condensation would probably dry up if the bottles weren't put in same place daily and such..but that's a good question!

Anytime you add something new that the chicks/chickens haven't seen before and they seem freaked out, leave it for a few days before removing so they can get used to it. Most of the time one brave one will check whatever it is out and when they see that it didn't do anything to that one..the others will follow.
My adult chickens stillllllll do this even if I move the DE dusting pan to a different place in the coop and EVERY time I put new shavings in! You'd think that they'd remember....but noooooo

 

[Mac in Wisco]

If you can arrange fans to remove excess heat from the coop (it shouldn't be much warmer than the outside) and fans to blow directly directly on the birds it will help greatly. The fans will not be too much for them, you need to move lots of air across them to help draw heat off of them.

We had three days where the temps reached 95-100 and the heat indices were around 115. We keep 2500 birds in a large hen house that has multiple exhaust fans to remove the heat. The ventilation system was never designed for this kind of heat, so in addition to the installed exhaust fans, I bought two 42" portable barn fans (BIG fans, these blow 13,000 CFM each). I put them at an overhead door blowing air in, across the birds, through the hen house to open overhead doors on the other side creating a stiff breeze through the barn. Most of the birds sat right in the airflow. (I even stood there at times to cool off!) We did not lose any of them.

 

[LibertyChick]

Quote:
How do you provide electrolytes for them?

 

[JoePa]

HEy - I'm between New Tripoli and Kempton Pa. - yes it is hot - what I'm doing is spraying the run with a hose a couple times a day - spray the chickens but they take off running under the coop - stupid things don't like getting sprayed - I put a garbage can lid in the run and fill it up with cold water from the hose when I spray the run the chicken drink the water and walk in it - you'll be surprised how the spraying reduces the temperature -

 

[Summerdae214]

Hello All. I'm new to the forum and a chicken owner since May this year. Today's heat index in NJ is going to be around 120 degrees F...way too hot for man or beast. I've been cooling my girls in their tractor with icewater in a pan, occassional misting of the ground, cold veggie treats. I did see something called a Cool Bed for dogs on Dr Foster and Smith website that looked like a really good idea. You fill it with water or icewater, (it's vinyl) and put it on the ground. Has anybody tried this for their chickens to lay on when it gets this hot?