How are your chickens doing in this heat?

[CathyA]

We're beginning a heat wave here in Indiana. Its supposed to be mid 90's all week.
I have a box fan in the window in my coop, facing outwards, but I also have one behind a screen door in the coop that blows air right on them. They love this and spend their days sitting in front of it. Over the years, the trees around the coop and run have grown up and provide some shade. I also have a few tarps over the run which shade it.
Some people say their chickens love to be misted with the hose in the heat. Mine sure don't. They run like hell when I try to mist them. Its funny, 'cause they love the rain and just stand in it.
Its supposed to be good to give them vitamins and electrolytes in their water during high heat stress.
Try to keep those chickies cool!

[Float On]

SWMO and we've been in the high 90's for what seems like 3 weeks but may just be 2 weeks (with one day that was in the 80's - blessed relief) and we've got another week of high 90's to look forward to. So far my girls are doing fine. I keep their tractor in a wooded area right now and keep running water out to them several times a day, they've dug some nice dirtbath holes and I think that cools them down a bit. I know when we had rabbits we'd put frozen milkjugs of water out with the rabbits to keep them cool and I've wondered about doing that for the hens, would they lay against it to cool down or just run to the other corner of the run screaming about what dangerous things I put in there. Mine don't like water from the sprinkler or rain, hadn't thought about running a fan out there form them.

[CathyA]

LOL Float On.......if they are like mine, they would run from the frozen milk jug, and all huddle in the far corner of the run until I took it away! Silly girls!

[Blackdog Lin]

We lost a hen to the heat 3 weeks ago at the beginning of this wave - DH just plumb forgot about getting the fan ready and going for the summer. He felt terrible about it.

So running a fan in our coop seems to be essential to the flock's survival in this heat. They've done fine since. We plug it in 10-11 am, and unplug at night. DH also waters them twice a day, rather than once, and puts a small frozen water bottle in their waterer each time, to keep their water cooler.

[MsSpot]

It's been over a 100 degrees several times in SW Arkansas where I live. I've got a box fan and a mister in their coop. Some of them like the mister and some don't. Here's what I've been doing to help cool them down in the afternoon.......I throw a few handfuls of frozen mixed vegetables into the coop for them to enjoy. I just figure that popsicles really help me when it's hot, so I guess this is a chicken-style popsicle. :D Then sure seem to look forward to it now.

[CathyA]

LOL! Frozen mixed veggies........great idea!

[The Storyteller]

I have probably lost 8 over the summer to heat. Most of those were at the beginning of the hard heat, before I figured out a solution. A couple were just too darn big, others of breeds that apparently aren't very heat hearty. That isn't too bad when you have almost 100 birds.

This is the hottest summer on record. The average high for June was over 104, with several spikes as high as 112 or 113, depending on whom you listen to. July has been even hotter, with day after day of 107 to 109. That is much hotter than most years, where we might get a day or two of 106, and maybe a three weeks or so over 100. We are probably approaching over 60 days for the summer.

My solution was to just turn them all loose, make sure there was plenty of water in numerous places. They seem to be able to find their own ways of staying cool better than I can.

I wet down areas under trees for my dogs to cool off under. It is amusing to look out the window and see 6 or 7 chickens huddled among our 130 pound Pyrs trying to find cool spots.

[Blackdog Lin]

We lost four more, and I feel terrible about it. I was responsible, I see in retrospect, but shoot.....This damn heat wave!

I can only do outdoor chores Sunday mornings during this heat wave (I work 6 days a week). So I weedeated with my new weadeater last early Sunday (0700) , and noted that the chickens freaked on the weedeater. DH cares for the chickens same as any other day. twice a day cold watering, they were okay at 1100, but at 1700 there were 4!!! dead. It took me 24 hours to figure out that it was a combination of the stress of the weedeating and the heat.

No more weedeating around the chicken coup, and forgive me for not knowing this ahead of time. I promise not to stress y'all out during this heat wave any more, we'll try to go easy during the hot weather.....

[CathyA]

So sorry about this Blackdog Lin. You just never know what's going to stress chickens. Mine love it when DH drives the mower around the outside of their pen. Go Figure. Don't beat yourself up. Its all a learning process and sometimes we just don't know something until it has a bad effect. I'm sure this heat makes it a totally different ball game.

[Float On]

So sorry Blackdog Lin. I actually put a fan out by the chicken coop, they seem to enjoy the breeze even if it is hot. I'm only getting one egg every other day right now but I don't blame the girls for not wanting to lay in this heat.

[Blackdog Lin]

Thank you for the words of sympathy. I'm better now.....I realize that I couldn't have known ahead of time that the little dears would be so stressed over their coop being weedeated around. I know now. It's academic anyway for the foreseeable future - with the heat and drought the grass is all but dead.

And I think they'd ALL be deaders if we weren't running a fan for them in the coop. But egg production is still pretty good - 3-4 a day out of the remaining 6 hens.