The Weather Is Brutally Hot, What Can We Do To Help Chickens?!?!?

[kysilkies]

The weather here has been absolutely brutal and set to be worse in the coming days, is there anything short of putting an A/C unit in each coop that we can do to help them?...Will they wade or swin in a pool like our ducks?!?!?

 

[Duchessk75]

I fill 2-liter and milk jugs up with water, freeze them, then set them up all over the coop. My hens "snuggle" with the frozen bottles. You can also wet down the outside run often, that helps keep it cool too.

 

[detali]

I live in Arizona and heat is an ever present thing here. Shade is essential. My hen yard is shaded by a large mesquite tree. If your hen yard does not have natural shade, make some. Shade cloth works great for that.

I have several shallow water dishes which get filled up by a micro hose from the garden drip irrigation system. When it's super hot I let it run and overflow. So the ground downhill from the water dishes get wet. The chickens love to dig wallows in the damp soil and lay in them. And yes, the chickens will stand in the water to cool their feet.

Hope this helps.

 

[kysilkies]

Both suggestions help! Thank you!

 

[Boo-Boo's Mama]

I use gallon milk jugs, juice bottles, 1 liter club soda and 22 oz soft drink bottles...freeze these daily...use my TSC yard wagon to haul them to the chicken run each day.

Four juice bottles go in the cat litter bucket waterer to chill the water, one of the 1 ltr soda bottles is hung on the side of a hutch in the run--as it melts they drink from it, gallon milk jugs go in 2 rabbit hutches and in Rubbermaid containers turned on their side in the chicken run...the hens love these...they get in with the bottles, other bottles are used in more Rubbermaid containers on their sides...the girls sit on the bottles...put some on top of the Rubbermaid feed box where they sit on these, too. When the day is done, I empty all the bottles on the sand in their run so that the sand is damp the next day. The girls love the damp sand; dig holes to sit and chill! yippiechickie

I have a fan going 24/7.

 

[jjthinkagain]

At work right now so can't break away long enough to list a bunch of things but if you use the "Search' feature up above you will find an amazing array of threads on this topic, even new threads as of today, with lots of great suggestions.

As I said in one, fans fans and more fans (can't stress this enough) and lots of cold or frozen treats (e.g, watermelon). I wish my feathered friends would stand in water but they refuse and give me the "What do you think I am - a duck?" sneer.

Weather has been so bad in NJ that I finally got them an AC. It was more than worth the $100 to have peace of mind while I'm at work.
JJ

 

[kysilkies]

We're fortunate to work from home so we're here all day...I just stuck a bunch of gallon jugs in the freezer, wife is wetting down the runs as I type(too hot for me LOLOL) and I always give them watermelon we keep in the fridge, they love it!!!!

Thanx for all the tips and I'll search some other threads...

 

[nanawendy]

I always have frozen squash in the freezer... not that we get that hot here... but the girls love pecking at frozen stuff. Also ice-cubes in a large flat pan, sometimes they walk in it to cool off and of course drink it.

 

[SandyK]

My girls had 1/2 gallon of Bryers All Natural Ice Cream today! I had it for a while and was cleaning out the freezer. Gave one to the dog and two to the chickies. They better not get used to it!

 

[Dixiedoodle]

I have a fan in a window, on the shady side of the coop, blowing into the coop! I have shade cloth on the top, and it has trees that shade almost all day. I have a tray filled w/ water that they sit/walk/splash in.. One even laid an egg in it! We have had some really brutal temps along w/ some really high humdity....They seem to be doing ok.. I am getting 4-5 eggs every day from 7 hens (and one of those is just coming off being broody)..