Topic of the Week - Keeping Chickens Cool in Summer

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

i use a bowl filled with water and throw some fruit in, and freeze it. Cranberries, blueberries and even kale are all good things to freeze. I put the frozen bowl into a low plastic tote filled with a very little water. They have to step into the water to get to the frozen fruit.

you also may want to include some save a chic electrolyte powder. sells in single use packages at TSC and other places. Maybe make a batch of that to add a boost along side the regular water. Also, Can you dig down in the run to expose some cooler ground? The mud thing probably does the trick. Im sorry your going through this! Its like almost desperate measures with that heat. I always say if I had an emergency I would bring them in the basement where its cooler. I hope you and your flock get through everything ok. That sucks about the nesting box too. I have read that some chickens will die in a hot nesting box. I perched a fan to blow into their box today! crazy. the fan has helped a lot this season and it hasnt even been that hot. My chickens GLW do so much better in the new england cold than the summer time. how many chickens do you have? Good luck to you.

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

Rough day here! Temps went up to 103 and the “babies” (hatched March 1st) were struggling. I integrated them into the flock a bit over a week ago, but there is still some chasing and pecking going on and the little ones spend all their time in the coop, not venturing out into the run. Turned my misters on today and of course the babies stayed inside panting and miserable. I took them one by one and cooled them down in a tub of water and put them on a high roost in the run to enjoy the mist. of course they jumped back down and ran into the coop again. Ended up closing the pop door and locking everyone into the run (it was 90 on the run floor, 105 on the coop roost where the babies wanted to be). Put the little ones back on the run roost (to be out of the way). Gave everyone watermelon - handfed the babies their first watermelon, it was a big hit! Spent the day dunking babies and offering them water on the roost. When I checked on them again around sunset they were still sitting on that roost after everyone else had gone inside for the night. Had to put them on the ground one by one and made sure they still got to eat before hitting the roost inside for the night. Oufff.
I hope everyone will calm down again very soon so the babies can move around better! Luckily tomorrow is supposed to just get to 93 and then cooler still the rest of the week….

Oh wow! Thats quit a day! You'll sleep well tonight! I would have brought the babies inside if they were getting too worked up and overheated! i get so nervous. Follow up Stephine I'm curious how things work out for you. i wish you all the best! You better stay hydrated too! lol CT has been somewhat mild i am thankful. Good Luck!

 

[Stephine]

Oh wow! Thats quit a day! You'll sleep well tonight! I would have brought the babies inside if they were getting too worked up and overheated! i get so nervous. Follow up Stephine I'm curious how things work out for you. i wish you all the best! You better stay hydrated too! lol CT has been somewhat mild i am thankful. Good Luck!

Thank you! Yes, that was one of my most stressful chicken days so far! Luckily temps have gone down enough (highs of 95 at most) that I can put the dog out there with them and let the chickens roam. I set up an additional line of misters under the redwoods where the babies like to hang out and everyone has been managing much better. Pecking and chasing has gone down, too, thankfully, though I still have to see the babies mingling with the others in the run…

 

[Stephine]

I know this is an old comment. But I'm thinking of picking up a tarp to set on top of my metal roof (coop & run) to add to my heat relief efforts. I don't think your roof there was metal, but I'm wondering if you know if any certain type of tarp might be more effective than another?

Tarps are iffy because they deteriorate so quickly in the sun and then you have an unusable mess. I highly recommend shade cloth instead. It lasts and lasts. I got mine 6 years ago and it’s up for 7 months a year and it looks like new. I got a light color so it doesn’t heat up much and I am using a double layer to make solid shade over their run.

 

[Stephine]

I don't think a tarp directly on the roof would do any good, but suspended a few feet above the roof it would cast good shade. One of my pavilions had a white cover, the other was blue. I didn't notice a lot of difference between the two.

The brooder shown in that post does have a metal roof. The Little Monitor coop has a shingled roof. Both benefited from the man-made shade in the absence of natural shade.

If there’s a choice, I would always pick a lighter color to reflect the heat. Under a small tarp like in your picture it probably doesn’t make a big difference because there’s so much air circulating under it, but in other set ups it’s definitely noticeable. I recently exchanged an old black garden hose with a new white one and while the water came out steaming hot with the black hose, it is now barely lukewarm with the white hose. I was stunned!

 

[3KillerBs]

If there’s a choice, I would always pick a lighter color to reflect the heat. Under a small tarp like in your picture it probably doesn’t make a big difference because there’s so much air circulating under it, but in other set ups it’s definitely noticeable. I recently exchanged an old black garden hose with a new white one and while the water came out steaming hot with the black hose, it is now barely lukewarm with the white hose. I was stunned!

Probably a good principle -- though one could equally-well argue that darker creates more shade.

For me, the air circulating underneath is a critical part of the setup.

 

[Stephine]

Probably a good principle -- though one could equally-well argue that darker creates more shade.

For me, the air circulating underneath is a critical part of the setup.

Darker colors don’t create more shade. That’s a matter of how opaque your material is. Darker colors just absorb the light and turn it into heat, where lighter colors reflect it.

 

[Carters Chick House]

I use terracotta bowls like the ones for under a large pot plant, large but fairly shallow, seems to do the trick. Metal or black is no good for my hot humid summers, even in shade metal heats up too much

Also as of last summer, I now give them only fermented feed and I keep it quite wet - I think they possibly get hydration with probiotics.

Mostly I try to avoid adding tasks to my day to keep them cool - shade/water/wet feed/cool dirt patches are things I can manage and be away for the day.

Most of my chickens are built for heat, only a few are less heat tolerant varieties (so I have to accept a bit more effort for them as I chose them! Yes I've even laid a small wet towel on the coop floor for them near the pop door -they love it, but I hate the laundry!).

This is my first summer with chickens. They are 8 weeks old. Shade under coop with fan on. Shade cover for other part of run. I have ice bottles in the drinking container that I change out often.. hydro hen in one water and regular water in the other. Mid day I offer frozen veggies and some fruit. So far all are living through this horrible heat.

 

[Stephine]

This is my first summer with chickens. They are 8 weeks old. Shade under coop with fan on. Shade cover for other part of run. I have ice bottles in the drinking container that I change out often.. hydro hen in one water and regular water in the other. Mid day I offer frozen veggies and some fruit. So far all are living through this horrible heat.

That sounds great! Just remember that a fan itself doesn’t cool chickens down, because they don’t sweat. Fan over ice or wet sheets will cool the air. But if you put a fan to blow under your coop, where it’s probably cooler than the surrounding air, you might actually be heating that space up to ambient temperature.
I have found it works well to water the ground under the coop and leave it alone. The deep shade there keeps the ground nice and cool…

 

[Carters Chick House]

That sounds great! Just remember that a fan itself doesn’t cool chickens down, because they don’t sweat. Fan over ice or wet sheets will cool the air. But if you put a fan to blow under your coop, where it’s probably cooler than the surrounding air, you might actually be heating that space up to ambient temperature.
I have found it works well to water the ground under the coop and leave it alone. The deep shade there keeps the ground nice and cool…

TY so much. I turned the fan off for now. Will wet down the outside of coop and under it this evening when I get home.