what are you doing to beat the heat?

[xanaxnation]

we're topping 105 here (sac, ca) with disgusting hazy skies. i have 3 girls that are about 12 weeks old in a dog house enclosed in a 9x3x3 run with a rabbit. (and a partridge in a pearrrr treee lol) theyre in the shade of a plum tree and ive started putting frozen water bottles out there. i did 1 half gallon juice bottle, an empty monster sized skippy peanut butter jar and 2 regular (16 oz?) water bottles. in the after noon, my son swapped out the melted ones for 2 more 16oz'ers and a half gallon oj bottle.

im also giving them frizen plums, berries, cucmbers, etc for the eve "treat". they have a small tub of water they can splash? in (do chickens play in the water?) and i have a blanket covering the side of the run that gets sun, although they are never in direct sunlight, there is always a shady area.

any other ideas? what are you guys doing to keep the *peeps* happy?

 

[coltsrox]

i have been having problems too with my 15 week old kids, that here in florida its 90-105 and MUGGY! so i put a fan on the hutch on low and my roo snuggles right up to the fan.

 

[spook]

The heat has been horrible in the NE also. We may not have the long spans of heat and humidity that you southern states or areas have, but when we do, its horrible.
I have been keeping the girls (layer hens) in their pen until noon, getting the egg laying out of the way, they have nice pans of water to walk in, a couple of different water containers besides the tote cover for wading.
In afternoon, I release them into the back yard and they lounge under the trees and grape vines on the bare dirt.
The Cornis X , DH built a hutch and we placed them in the shade under the trees where it stays cooler.

Other then that I give them cold fruit snacks and ice water, change the tote cover a couple times a day to keep them cool.

 

[TexasJoe]

I keep a large box fan over the top of the cage and set it to pull the air up and out. It keeps the heat from building up and creates a light, continuous breeze without directly blowing dirt/debri all over the chickens.

 

[Mahonri]

We just keep praying for rain.

It cools us down.

We had a good rain on Thursday and then again last night.

It'll be Halloween before you know it.
(Here that means cool weather will follow)

 

[Buster]

We bought 5 gallon waterers for our pens. They cost a bit but it is nice not having to worry about them running out of water and over heating. We also cut some windows in the coop, continuing our conversion of the woodshed we started out with.

 

[Mahonri]

I'll add...

We've had some days over 115.

I have a large waterer, a fan in the coop to move hot air out and every now and then I'll put ice in their waterer. I have also sprayed the coop at about 6 PM to help cooling via evaporation.

With all of the monsoon moisture, that won't do much good now.

Chicks seemed to stop growing a little with all of the heat but they are still eating well.

We are looking forward to September, and cooler weather.

 

[Buster]

I'd like to add that we also put in two fans- and we are probably 20 degrees cooler than you in AZ and 10 than CA.