This may be a dumb question....

[amynbrent]

Do chickens get hot? Do they know what to do if they get too hot? When their babies they either move to the heat lamp or away but right now their coop is super hot and they wont go outside. I have 3 vents and the run door so they can come and go as they please. Today it's in the upper 90's as well as the next couple days. I went to check on them to make sure they had water and they are all panting in the coop. I tried to get them to go out but they wont. I just dont want them dropping deat of heat stroke. We are going to put a window in there but were going to wait until the colder months becaus I thought the sun would be too much in there for them.

Thanks!

 

[BrattishTaz]

If your chickens are panting, they are hot. I would shut them out of the coop. Make sure they have lots off cool water and a shady place to stay in. I put a pan of water in the run that mine will stand in to cool off. You can also mist them with water.

 

[Nicole01]

Yes, they can overheat in this weather. I have my 3, 12 week olds in the house because it's so hot. I'm about to bring in the other 5 and put them in the basement. The other 5 are much smaller and handle the heat better. I have my coop in the garage and everything is closed up to keep the heat out. I have a huge floor fan in the coop also. Yesterday the chicks were on the coop floor necks stretched out, wings at their side panting like crazy. They don't handle extreme temps well, but neither do I.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Yes, if they are holding their wings out from their body and panting, they are hot. Give them shade, hose down a shady area, put ice in their waterer, give frozen grapes or watermelon as treats to help them stay cool. Chickens aren't exactly known for their intelligence level, so they may not get out of a hot area.

 

[Keri78]

I'd do the window asap and maybe even add a box fan to keep the air circulating.

 

[amynbrent]

Thanks everyone....I'm new to chickens and so far so good. Their coop is shady so I figured that is why they are in there. But yes it's hot. I've heard many different things on the window. Someone told me if I put it in now in the hot months the sun will light up the coop taking away their shade. It would be good for the winter when they do not go out...that sort of made sense to me. I have a fan in there and I didnt think of the frozen stuff I'll go do that right now.

 

[I'm1chickencuddler]

My coop and pen is in an area of my yard that is very shaded. We hadn't finished the netting until last week and they were in the coop while we were finishing. They were hot and I didn't realize how hot the coop could get. We ended up bringing them back in the house until we finished which wasn't long. When they get hot now, they dig in the dirt to cool off. We hose down some areas so they can have cool wet dirt to dig in. They seem to enjoy that and then a little while later they go over to the dry dirt for a dirt bath. Mine enjoy the wet dirt.