We took our 1 1/2 week old girls out today for about ten minutes. It's 98 degrees today in the shade. They were miserable. They immediately sat down and started panting. How am I going to move them outside when they are older?
When they are older and better feathered, they will be better suited to regulating their own temperature and their feathers will give them some insulation against more extreme temperatures. There are also several ways to help them stay cool in hot weather: Always provide plenty of shade. Add ice to drinking water to keep it cool. We put an entire frozen water bottle in larger waterers to keep it cooler longer. Put out inexpensive kitty litter trays with water in them for the chickens to wade in. Put out large, frozen bottles of water (we use 2 ltr bottles) for the chickens to lean on or to help lower temps in the coop (keep in mind they will condensate). Put a towel over these for chicks that aren't yet fully feathered. Give cold watermelon as treats.
Quote:Don't do this until they are much older and bigger. They'll drown in a hear beat when they are small.
Frozen bottles of water saved our rabbits on many occasions when I was in 4H. They'll lean against the bottle as needed and it can really help. You could probably fit a regular water bottle in a sock to provide some protection.
Quote:Don't do this until they are much older and bigger. They'll drown in a hear beat when they are small. Thanks for mentioning this. My advice is for older chickens once you get them outside permanently, not itty bitty fuzzbutts still living in brooder.
I have over 200 chickens and we live in the Tx heat where hitting 100 degrees here. In all my coops I have fans. During the day I put at a water misther during the hots time of the day. I also let my chickens out early in the morning as soon as the sun comes out that why they'll be nice and cool, all my chickens r free range except at night there in there coops. The water mister is one that screws into the water hose you can get that at any homedepo. Am also going to try the cold water bottles. We also live in the hill country and we have a water well I've started putting out small water sprinklers the chickens love it at times I see the getting wet and looking for bugs. Hope this helps.
The birds have shade but I also have sprinklers which I turn on during the hottest part of the day. The birds seem to like it. Some people use misters.
Misters were really helpful for our flock when we lived in the desert. Up here, it's more humid; I put misters in the peapen, which work OK, and built a makeshift swamp cooler for the chicken coop. It's a doubled sheet of shade cloth hung in front of the big window (4'X5') on the windward side of the coop. There's a length of dripline with four emitters running just above it. When it's really hot, I turn on the dripline until there's a rapid drip of water falling on the shade cloth. It soaks the cloth, and the breeze blows through it and cools down by a good twenty degrees. It helps; I've seen the hens standing up beside it enjoying the cool air.
I don't mean to take over this post but since my question is on the same line as this, I didn't see the need to start a new post. My 37 +/- chicks are arriving tomorrow or Monday. I'm so excited as I've never had chickens before! I'm in Alabama and forecast is for temps in the high 90's to low 100's for all this week and probably the rest of the summer. I will be brooding my chicks in a watermelon box in the coop and I'm concerned about them getting too hot during the day. Below is a picture of my coop from the front. It's not quite finished in this picture but it's the most recent one I have for now. The left side wall is solid wood top to bottom and the back wall and the right side have a 30" lower wall and hardware cloth the rest of the way up. I think I've got plenty of ventilation area in general but do I need to put a fan somewhere for air circulation for the chicks or will they be fine in the high temp without circulation? If I need to put a fan in to circulate some air, where should I put the fan blowing in relationship to the chicks in the box? I'd sure hate for them to die of the heat if there is anything I can do to prevent it. Thanks so much for all y'alls help.
My 7 week old girls are still on chick starter because we still have about 3-4 pounds of it. I store the food in the freezer, mostly I'm worried about mold here in TX. The chick starter doesn't freeze really...it's just cold. They seem to like it. I try to change their water at least once a day and put in ice blocks I've pre-frozen. Occasionally I run the fan.