Excessive heat warning keeping chickens cool.

Sorry about your chicken!

Due to old age and missing opportunities to get layers during Covid, my headcount is down to two, one green-laying hen and one bantam.

Three nights ago we heard chicken screams between three and four A.M. Husband rushed out (the coop is near our bedroom window, the whole garden is small) and saw the bantam lying in the chicken run. We used to close the door of the hen house in the night, but with the warm nights and the early sunrises I preferred to let them get out as early as they wanted (before we get up in the morning).
Anyway, poor bantam was shocked, had lost feathers but seemed unhurt. Apparently a marten had tried to drag her away.

The next night I had a zoom conference in the evening when a fierce thunderstorm started, When I finished, it was almost night but the bantam was missing! I was so sorry, she was traumatized by the attack and now got snatched away finally!
That's what we thought. The next day she was in the chicken run with her friend again. We thought she had found a small crevice in the run to hide during the night. Until the next night we discovered she was perched in the ginkgo tree in the chicken run! Clever little bantam.
But yesterday we preferred to lock her up early in the hen-house. I would be sorry if the marten plucked her out of the tree at night.

Anita I'm glad your chicken found a safe place.
I used to let our chickens free range. One night no one came home. 12 chickens disappeared without a Trace.  It was the strangest thing.  
Now I try to keep them in a old horse corral, that is now my chicken yard.  I get it so I think they can't get out, and they find a new way.  Oh well keeps me on my toes.
Maybe Nosy will show up too. I don't have high hopes, but I will keep looking just in case.  Thanks

Jen Fulkerson wrote:As hard as I try, I still lost a chicken.    I looked everywhere.  She didn't show up today either.  I looked again. No dead or live hen. No feathers, no sign of struggle.  Just gone.  I don't know if something got her, or she got to hot and died somewhere. I think it's almost harder not knowing.  She could still show up, but I doubt it.  Usually when they get out, come evening I will find them roosting on the fence behind the coop.  .

"Nosy" may have gone broody in this heat. I'm not sure how much territory you will have to look at, but look low, under the deck, in tangled brush, behind a pile of trash. It does not matter if she has no rooster. At this time, she does not want to be seen by any one, not even her favorite owner: Her instinct to avoid any potential predator is taking over.
If you have a rooster, she may surprise you in 21 days with a clutch of chicks. It is more if you don't have a rooster: then, her eggs are sterile and if she's a good mother, she will try to stay on them as long as she has strength. In this heat, it may end badly. My suggestion, especially in this heat is for you to have lots of cold water available outside the coop, and some grain too. I'm pulling for you [and for Nosy]! Good luck.

Jen Fulkerson:

Yes it does make it like a mush.  I have been keeping it a bit more watery since it is warmer now.  They seem to still like it.  All gone by noon.

I scored  a couple hundred pounds of hemp seed from a local source here in Helena, MT

Chickens really like them!!

Dennis Barrow wrote:Jen Fulkerson:

Yes it does make it like a mush.  I have been keeping it a bit more watery since it is warmer now.  They seem to still like it.  All gone by noon.
I scored  a couple hundred pounds of hemp seed from a local source here in Helena, MT
Chickens really like them!!

Good to know that in some States, you can get hemp seeds without jumping through hoops, agree to share your police record, get fingerprinted. Do they check your crop? At your expense? [to make sure it is not more that 3%THC? [This is what we are dealing with here.]
I hear that you can make a "milk" of hemp seeds, just like you make oat milk. I hear from my sister in France that it is delicious. Healthy too.

Thanks Cecile. We always have water out for the stray cat that has decided to live here.  We have . 99 of an acre.  Tons of hiding places though.  We don't have a rooster, so no chance of chicks.  I never thought of her going broody and hiding.  I will look again after work this evening with that in mind. Thanks you.

That's great about the hemp seeds. I like to add  other stuff to the grains I ferment. I think it is healthier for the hens and us in the long run.  

I don't know if anyone except the salmon Faverolle uses the pool, but it just tickles me to see her chillen in the pool.  I need to try to get a picture.  
Thanks all try to stay cool.

My youngest found one of chickens dead from the heat this evening. I feel horrible. We left the property today, thinking it was going to be cooler than yesterday, but it was hotter. I know that livestock die, and I don't have a problem with killing them, but I don't want them to suffer. I'm going to have to do better.

Stacy Witscher wrote:My youngest found one of chickens dead from the heat this evening. I feel horrible. We left the property today, thinking it was going to be cooler than yesterday, but it was hotter. I know that livestock die, and I don't have a problem with killing them, but I don't want them to suffer. I'm going to have to do better.

Humans and animals alike are suffering with this extreme heat. Try to focus on the "have to do better" and don't beat yourself up - you didn't personally cause this heat wave, and people like you who are trying to live lighter on the land are the ones that will try to do better, learn from their mistakes, learn from other's ideas of how to make your land more resilient and your farm better able to support you and your animals when heat like this comes again.

So sorry Stacy.  I agree with Jay, but totally understand how you feel.  I said it before in this post, and I will say it again.  Sometimes you do everything you can, and still loose one.  
I'm afraid this is the beginning of a very hard and miserable summer.  Everyone think cool thoughts, and good luck.

Jen Fulkerson wrote:Thanks Cecile. We always have water out for the stray cat that has decided to live here.  We have . 99 of an acre.  Tons of hiding places though.  We don't have a rooster, so no chance of chicks.  I never thought of her going broody and hiding.  I will look again after work this evening with that in mind. Thanks you.

You know that as soon as the sun sets, she will be in hiding. It is easy to go right past her and she will not move. She will stay quiet. At that time, because they have so little night vision, you can catch them very easily. if you happen to have one of those infrared cameras like house inspectors use to find leaks, take a flashlight in one hand [so *you* don't trip] and the camera in the other and start looking for a faint source of heat. This one operates within 6-7 ft. I happen to have such a camera. It is about the size of a pack of cigarettes and I use it in the winter to check on my hives. they have much improved since I bought this one. Here is a link: It is a heat seeking camera, so thermal imaging.
https://www.cnet.com/news/heat-seaker-thermal-imaging-camera-for-the-masses/
I have a Houdini myself. I'm not sure how she gets out but she does, every other day. The next day, when I go to let them out, here comes Houdini, as fast as her legs can carry her and she runs straight to me. [She doesn't want to be caught though] I get her to the door and open it and she goes in as obedient as a little dog. [She is hungry and thirsty and wants to get back to her friends]. I was late one night to lock them up and I noticed she was missing again. I started looking with the flashlight and found her under the electric plucker. If she is brooding, you might first look at places with a roof. Once you know where she goes, she will go back there every evening. [I'm not sure they understand the cause-effect: I hide here,---> she finds me, maybe I should hide elsewhere.]

Sorry 'bout your chicken Jen.  Your 108 degree heat seems awful!  Out of curiosity, what do your low's get to?  Does the night cool off at all?

I liked that I heard a lot of suggestions about misters.  I was going to suggest one myself from the company Dripworks.com.  Although they are predominantly a drip-irrigation company, they do have a selection of misters designed for cooling.  In particular, they have a "super-fine" mister that emits 50 micron water droplets.  Apparently they are emitted like smoke and reduce water consumption (under a gallon/hr) and help leave one cooled as opposed to wet.  Maybe your chickens would appreciate it?

Of course, this works best in places with low relative humidity.  I don't know how well adding more moisture to my 80% relative humidity days would actually comfort, but if you have humidity below 50%, it might do the trick.

Obviously, many other suggestions are great and it sounds like you have already taken advantage of them--cool pools of water, fans/air movement and of course, lots of shade.  If you do try a mister approach, maybe combining it with a fan would double the effect.  Just an idea.

Good luck and I hope your heat breaks soon.  Triple digits is too much!

Eric

I'm going to buy a mister today. We will see if they like it. Thankfully our high today is only supposed to be 102, much better than yesterday's 116. Our humidity in this heat is super low, like 17%, so hopefully this will help.

Stacy,

I would think that with 17% humidity a mister and fan setup could work very efficiently.  I had a friend who lived in Texas who cooled his house with a similar setup and he told me about how it actually made him uncomfortably cold.  But that setup would work in Lubbock, Texas and not Southern Illinois, and area notoriously humid.

Good luck.  I hope this works and please let us know.  I am curious to find out myself.

Eric

Stacy Witscher wrote:I'm going to buy a mister today. We will see if they like it. Thankfully our high today is only supposed to be 102, much better than yesterday's 116. Our humidity in this heat is super low, like 17%, so hopefully this will help.

While you are at it, you might want to invest in a little fan as well: It really enhances the cooling effect. A super low humidity feels great on human skin but lack of moisture in the air parches the throats of our birds.
I have a little Ryobi, battery operated, that I can place on a shelf in the evening. In the morning, the battery is flat dead, but I can recharge it and off we go for the next day.
It is getting a bit better for you and I'm happy. This way, you'll be ready for the next time you shatter heat records! Your average is only 77F and you are confronted with 108F. Yikes!

We are also dealing with the heat wave, 106 yesterday, 113 predicted today. My two hens have a coop and pen under an overhang that extends from my garage. They are shaded by a large board from the western sun and a concrete retaining wall on the north keeps them snug in winter. But they seem to be unhappy in the heat, have stopped laying. I will put ice cubes in their water, maybe freeze an alternate shallow pan, and put a damp cloth over the cage portion. I need to hunt up a fan.

They were a gift from a friend and my son tightened up the coop with hardware cloth, a good thing as something is trying to dig under. I have had chickens before and missed them, hence the gift. Thanks for all of the cooling advice. We don't want the ladies to suffer.

Nosie has returned.  I ran out to feed and give fresh water before work today, and she was in the coop.  Houdini can get back into the coop when she wants, and a few of my new girls learned how from her. I didn't know Nosie was one, but she wasn't there last night.  She seems no worse for her little adventure. I did a happy chicken dance, I really didn't think I would see her again.
Eric, thanks for the mister co.  Night temp's just depends.  We are supposed to get a break from the triple digits this week thank goodness!!!  Low for tonight is mid 60 s.  They are predicting 59 one night next week wooo hooo.  
Besides the chickens not liking the misters, they are a huge pain in the posterior.  We have super hard water, so even if I put a screen in both ends I still have to take the mist end apart and remove all the hard water deposits pretty often. I will probably still try it, because I know what it's like to be super hot, and not be able to get cool, and I don't want that for anyone.
As far as adding ice to water conditioners, I find bigger is better. I don't put ice in my main waterer because it is the cup kind so even if the bucket is cool the small amount of water in the cup heats up fast.  I just added a large bowl and add large chunks of ice to that.  It stay cool quite a long time.
Stay cool, and good luck.

Jen,

Glad to hear that you at least get some degree of relief at night.  Nights in the 60s and low humidity sounds great, especially after your blistering afternoon.

By me the heat does not really give up all that much at night.  I remember once driving back from Wisconsin when we pulled in at about 10:00pm.  We got out of the vehicle and the air was still 90 degrees and probably 80-90% humidity!  The air felt like it was going to choke me.

But your 108 and higher temperatures are just plain awful.  Hopefully this weather will pass soon.

Eric

So I wasn't able to buy a mister locally, everything is sold out. I was able to order a Ryobi fan/mister online, thank you Cecile. I do have a watering wand with a misting setting that I will use for the hottest part of the day until that comes. Stay cool everyone.

roberta mccanse wrote:We are also dealing with the heat wave, 106 yesterday, 113 predicted today. My two hens have a coop and pen under an overhang that extends from my garage. They are shaded by a large board from the western sun and a concrete retaining wall on the north keeps them snug in winter. But they seem to be unhappy in the heat, have stopped laying. I will put ice cubes in their water, maybe freeze an alternate shallow pan, and put a damp cloth over the cage portion. I need to hunt up a fan.
They were a gift from a friend and my son tightened up the coop with hardware cloth, a good thing as something is trying to dig under. I have had chickens before and missed them, hence the gift. Thanks for all of the cooling advice. We don't want the ladies to suffer.

Could you rig a spot in your garage?  With just 2 hens for a few days, that is doable. [Keep the car outside, it won't die on you like chickens can] If you keep them outside, or even in your garage, a mister or a big bag of ice and a small fan [like the Ryobi battery operated fan I suggested previously:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-ONE-18V-Hybrid-Portable-Fan-Tool-Only-P3320/205022215?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&mtc=Shopping-VF-F_D25T-G-D25T-25_9_PORTABLE_POWER-RYOBI-NA-NA-PLA_LIA-2231655-WF-SMARTSHOPPING_Q1Q2PLUSUP&cm_mmc=Shopping-VF-F_D25T-G-D25T-25_9_PORTABLE_POWER-RYOBI-NA-NA-PLA_LIA-2231655-WF-SMARTSHOPPING_Q1Q2PLUSUP-71700000083187721-58700007049582706-92700063451361509&gclid=CjwKCAjwrPCGBhALEiwAUl9X0-BzdDjanWJVdBNHSYriCKz9d1-PEECNK1iTv5CZbuiKwOIdrxo9-hoCNQEQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds ]
It will run for 10 hours on one charge, so it should serve nicely. It is portable and "hangable" with a little ingenuity, has 2 settings, high and low. [I'd hang it upside down from the rafters to keep it out of their reach and orient downwards]
Get a bag of ice [$1-6, depending on size]. If you can't get the solid ice, get the largest cubes you can, they don't melt as fast]. Set the fan to blow on the ice. [Make sure they can avoid the icy draft, as that is not good either]
With just 2 hens you love dearly and this heat wave, this last suggestion is: you take them in your [hopefully cool] house and make a place for them. There should be abundant light [or they won't lay either]. Cover the floor with a tarp and place a short house  ladder to use as a perch. Add water and feed. Hopefully, it will not be the whole summer, just a few days! . Good luck to you and your girls.

It's also helpful to give frozen treats like frozen peas, or freeze some kitchen scraps in water to give the chickens a way to cool from the inside.

Thanks for the suggestions. Actually my garage stays about 65 degrees because I live underground. The cage is near one garage door and I think that if I open the door and place a fan facing the cage they should stay fairly cool. Alternatively they could stay in the garage for a few days as I have a large ferret cage there. I just need to dig it out from behind the summer patio furniture that needs to be moved anyway. (I wonder how they would deal with such a large temperature differential.)

In the meantime I have pulled a hose down to the cage so that I can keep the cage cover damp. Someone laid an egg yesterday so things are looking up.

roberta mccanse wrote:Thanks for the suggestions. Actually my garage stays about 65 degrees because I live underground. The cage is near one garage door and I think that if I open the door and place a fan facing the cage they should stay fairly cool. Alternatively they could stay in the garage for a few days as I have a large ferret cage there. I just need to dig it out from behind the summer patio furniture that needs to be moved anyway. (I wonder how they would deal with such a large temperature differential.)
In the meantime I have pulled a hose down to the cage so that I can keep the cage cover damp. Someone laid an egg yesterday so things are looking up.

Underground?! Wow! cool!  And 65F is a great temperature for chickens! If you are afraid they could catch a hot & cold, the secret might be if they can *escape* the big difference in temperature. Perhaps if they were loose and could choose more where they want to be? That would give you an idea. Remember when they were under a heat lamp? Even baby chicks will move away from too much heat and go to the other end of the cage to be more comfortable.
You might want to try this: Put the fan on low and have it blowing only on one end of the cage. If they go to the cooler side, move the cage a bit more into the flow. Remember that chickens can tolerate freezing temps fairly well. It is the heat that they have trouble with, but yeah, a big sudden difference in temperature might make them sick. From 108F to 65F in minutes is a lot for us. You could ease them into it by making the switch early in the morning? when the temps have cooled for the night?
Hang in there!. This @#$%^&**&^%$#@!!! heat  wave cannot last forever.

I was so happy to hear it was going to cool down. High of 95 today.  Maybe I'm a baby because it still feels miserable to me.  I gave my hens frozen corn that was in one solid mass and some other frozen veggies. Yesterday.  It was funny.  There first reaction was what in the h*!/ Is that?  Have you lost your mind?  Chickens are always suspicious of new things.  By the time I was done with my chicken chores they were really getting into it.
So far everyone is doing well.  They haven't figured a new way out, (extended the fence 2') and I'm getting more eggs.  I haven't found a mister yet, but the fan, fresh water, adding chunks of ice, and pool seem to be doing the job.  On super hot days If I'm home I will go out about 4 and spray them with the sprinkler.  They don't like it, but seem better after.  
Good luck staying cool, and keeping all the critters safe on what promises to be one very long hot summer.

So far all my chickens are doing well, I hope yours are too.
I overslept this morning, but I still made sure I went out to change the water in the pool, and to drink, so my chickens wouldn't suffer any more than they have to.
The city I live in has a lot of wild chickens.  There are a lot that live in the parking lot of the store I work at.  The city is strange about them. I've been told there protected by the city, but also if you are caught feeding them you will be fined.  There's a teenager chicken I keep seeing all by itself. It seems it be surviving fine on its own.   This morning it got me thinking.  I make an effort every day to make sure  my chickens don't die from the heat.  This is not me being paranoid, or overprotective, it is a real concern.  Here are lots of chickens doing just fine on there own.  They live in a cement parking lot with trees and bushes for shade.  They probably eat what people discard, and give them. I have no idea where they get water. Not only do they not die, they keep multiplying.  They won't let people get to close, but the roosters are never aggressive.  It just got me thinking how we have somehow developed such delicate creatures, when the wild ones seem so tough.  I won't do it, probably couldn't if I wanted, but I like the look of this one rooster.  His comb looks like a brush on his head.  I wish I could bring him home, and add some toughness to a new breed of chicken.  With my luck he would turn mean and die of heat on me.  Anyway just an observation I wanted to share.  Hope you all stay cool.

No surviving wild chickens here! [zone 4b Wisconsin] I didn't even know that was a thing in California: Our Free-range chickens are still not "free", like a wild pheasant or a prairie chicken or a partridge: they still count on humans to provide.
My guess is that humans are tossing scraps and perhaps providing water for their pet cat or dog. That might be how they get by.
Even free-ranging, they are basically flightless birds, and they have very little night vision, so they roost at night. Although when I say flightless, I mean they cannot stay airborne more than a few seconds. But I've seen mine jump a 6 foot fence straight up, so if I didn't feed them well, they could, technically, escape. Note that in zone 4b, we do have wild pheasants, prairie chickens [ Tympanuchus cupido] and partridges. Our lakes freeze solid, and stay frozen for months, so they must eat snow or find running streams. And our wild turkeys can also "beat the heat and the cold" in my State. I hear that even "free-range" chickens stay within a 300 yards radius of where you see them. There has to be a reliable source of water nearby, as well as a roosting place for protection from predators. The origin of our domesticated chicken was figured out and they are used to warmer climes than Wisconsin. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-domesticated-chicken.html so they could live in California without *much* help.
I think of them as an opportunistic kind, eating whatever they can find, so those chickens, if they are truly wild have found an environment where their needs are met. One advantage they would have is to be superior foragers, and probably more intelligent than our domesticated kind: Humans have always bred animals to be dumber than their wild ancestors, for practical reasons, and some species [honey bee, silk worm...] can no longer survive without us. Even most of our tame chickens have had the 'motherhood' instinct to brood bred out of them. Would they breed with yours? who knows? It would depend on how many years they've been living on their own, how 'tame' they are as you approach, how 'needy'. I would not try to mix them with your flock: They might also kill them and eat them. [even in locked up, chickens will occasionally attack one of their own and eat it,] so... I would not try. Just saying...

Even if I wanted to catch a wild chicken, no way I could.  Even with food they stay away from people.  It was just a thought about how tough they are.

Here we go again, 111 today, and 114 tomorrow.  I don't know how my poor hens stand it.  The Salmon Faverolle was standing in her pool.  She is the only one I have ever seen use it, with the exception of when I set one of the other in it, some will stay for a minute, others bolt like I put them in acid.  Usually the pool is fairly clean, but today it was filthy, so maybe it's getting more use.  To let you know how hot it is. I have a large ceramic mixing bowl in the coop. It holds 1 1/2 maybe 2 gallons of water.  I rinse, fill and freeze 20 oz water bottles. I cut the plastic off and have chunk of ice.  I filled the bowl with the coolest water I could get from the hose.  Put the ice in and it was totally melted by the time I left, maybe 20 minutes.  I need to freeze something larger.  Everyone looks miserable, wings out beak's open, some panting ( those are the ones I worry about the most). I'm off work today, so I went out about 3:30 when it's getting really bad and give fresh water, food, and I wet them all down.  I think I will go out about 5 and wet them down again.  They hate it, but seem better after.  They are all eating, drinking, laying, and acting like normal, so that is good.
Good luck to those of you suffering the heat like we are.

How about freezing a metal or ceramic bowl full of water, then setting the whole frozen thing out for the girls? It would take longer to melt and warm up.

Jay Angler wrote:

Anne Miller wrote:Freeze bottles of water then let your fan blow air on the bottle as they defrost.  I use the gallon bottles because it takes longer for them to thaw out.

This only really helps if the equipment you're using to freeze the bottles is outside - if you use your fridge freezer in the house, the fridge works harder and releases more heat into the house because that's how fridges work. We've got a freezer outside under our barn overhang, and I'm thinking of taking some ice cube trays up there to make ice if I get desperate.

If it is hotter outside than inside the effort of the freezer to cool and freeze the water is much grater than if the freezer was inside.  Your indoor freezer is working regardless of the water bottles placed inside, and the other frozen items inside will help to maintain the cold temperature.  Yes, it may cost a little bit more for the electricity to keep the freezer cool and it might put off an extra cycle or two of heat to freeze those water bottles, but I suspect people are not sitting next to the freezer when using a fan to blow the cold air off of a block of ice.

Two or three cold showers a day and using a spray bottle to dampen your clothes will help if you are not in a humid environment.
Plenty of ice water is always a plus, the more cold water you drink the more hot "water" you expel.  

Hey chicken owners,

During the hottest months, consider feeding sprouted whole oats. While corn & wheat offer the best sprouted grains for cold weather (adding heat to the bodies), sprouted oats will dump heat. On the south coastal area of MA where it gets humid...and inland 14 miles from the coast where my farm was, the ambient temperature is always 10-15 degrees hotter, my birds always had overheating issues.

While ducks and geese benefit from swimming pools, chickens are not as likely to bathe. Altho' I have seen chickens wade in shallow pools of water, they pant to release heat. When the heat index gets to 100 and above, they really suffer! As always, there was plenty of shade for them to rest in, but they were always interested in scratching and gathering.

Sprouted oats seemed to help them vent heat. Soaking sprouts really helps get your best bang for the buck. Finding non-GMO oats might be a challenge, especially in the mid-west.

On the north-eastern side of the US, a company, GREEN MOUNTAIN FEEDS offers organic oats. These non-GMO seeds will readily sprout. My chickens loved any sprouted seeds, but oats are the choice for feeding in hot, humid summer months.

Best of luck keeping your feathered friends cool!

In the Midwest, I found this, online https://countrylifefoods.com/products/oat-groats-whole?currency=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&wickedsource=google&wickedid=CjwKCAjw95yJBhAgEiwAmRrutI3ztvyc0DcJLZo_O-eXzEVnWNw2nQWJAJ6wSHOrhdoSi1Vp3zi7-hoCywIQAvD_BwE&wickedid=526788246916&wv=3.1&gclid=CjwKCAjw95yJBhAgEiwAmRrutI3ztvyc0DcJLZo_O-eXzEVnWNw2nQWJAJ6wSHOrhdoSi1Vp3zi7-hoCywIQAvD_BwE&variant=39401104605368
I wonder how much shipping I would have to pay for a 50 Lbs. bag, though...

Shipping for 50# bag of oats will be stiff. When I had CERTIFIED organic chickens I drove about 55 miles every 45 days or so to upstate MA to get my grains. I have a 240 Volvo station wagon and would load 20-22 50# bags of grains into my car and drive it back to the farm. It was an all-day project since I unloaded the grain out of the car ASAP. At that time, the cost of layer pellets (certified organic) was between $22-24 per 50# bag. Oats were cheaper, wheat or spelt and corn about the same price. I had a reinforced floor in the grain room so storing wasn't an issue except in summer months when mold would get into the feed. It was a challenge!

I have no advice except to find out where the closest vendor is for whole grains and make the trip. Finding non-GMO grains or terminator grains (which won't sprout) will be a challenge. I did this because I couldn't feed conventional grains if I wanted to stay certified organic.

I wish you luck in this challenge!

My chicken experience in regards to heat is that they love to dig a dust hole in the shade of a big tree and chill there.  Its Spring here now, in Australia, and I have a new flock of 3 so I will see how these three will manage their preferences.

I was going to build them a hen house but all things considered thus far, I think I will keep it simple with hoop coup only, with one side open air flow, and other rear and side options according to the day /weather. Their roost and their nests in one big room rather than hen house within a hoop run.  This might manage the heat on days when I am not home by dusk/evening of and therefore they cant be roaming and chilling under that big tree, like already love doing in Spring time.  I will have test runs to monitor this before I do it.

Joyce Harris wrote:My chicken experience in regards to heat is that they love to dig a dust hole in the shade of a big tree and chill there.  Its Spring here now, in Australia, and I have a new flock of 3 so I will see how these three will manage their preferences.

Well observed, Joyce. I envy you going into Spring now, as here in Wisconsin, I woke up to temperatures of only 11F.
Something that may really help is a thermometer hung in the shade [where the chickens will be] so you can tell what they are really enduring and act accordingly.
Having a fresh supply of cold clean water is another important item.
I also plop a handful of DT. This dust seems to stay cooler, when kept in the shade. Also, it keeps them free of chicken lice. I also sprinkle some liberally on their perch at night, as these parasites can make their lives truly miserable.
If you can manage it, 3 walls and a roof with the opening to the north [Your north is our south] will also help.
Do you have them roaming free? how do you deal with potential predators?

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:

Joyce Harris wrote:My chicken experience in regards to heat is that they love to dig a dust hole in the shade of a big tree and chill there.  Its Spring here now, in Australia, and I have a new flock of 3 so I will see how these three will manage their preferences.

Well observed, Joyce. I envy you going into Spring now, as here in Wisconsin, I woke up to temperatures of only 11F.
Something that may really help is a thermometer hung in the shade [where the chickens will be] so you can tell what they are really enduring and act accordingly.
Having a fresh supply of cold clean water is another important item.
I also plop a handful of DT. This dust seems to stay cooler, when kept in the shade. Also, it keeps them free of chicken lice. I also sprinkle some liberally on their perch at night, as these parasites can make their lives truly miserable.
If you can manage it, 3 walls and a roof with the opening to the north [Your north is our south] will also help.
Do you have them roaming free? how do you deal with potential predators?

Hi there Cécile,
If I am home they roam free, and if I am not far from home.
I am in metropolitan Melbourne, so predators are reduced in that sense.

Stray urban cat: potential hazard
Even since I have brought these chickens home a few weeks back, the long term stray cat that did not want to be homed, but roamed from home to home (i never fed him though) has never been seen since. Yet he would attack birds in the open gardens /lawns /nature strips as in the wild.  Thankfully he has roamed away, as that may have been a hazard.  

Foxes dens nearby:
Houses with hens in their yards, lining a long concreted creek bed, have all been attacked/ wiped out in one visit. Thats a common story over the years. So i am conscious of this risk, IF they happen to have a drought on their normal diet of vermin and other critters, that they might move into the streets and find the scent of hens in my yard. Although I have had 2 rounds of hens previously on site  and nothing but old age, cancer, and an accident in the garden involving me being injured and the last hen dying (misjudgement of a heavy load on my behalf. Sad.).

The Pen / Hoop Coup will have a skirt of hard wire shallow depth, around the frame to prevent anything digging under, especially at night, or when I am away for the day etc.

I have decided on the Hoop Coup/Pen.
And its orientation to have it open sided on the sunny side.
And no hen house inside but roost bars and nest and other essentials and extras.
The location is also going to be in the sunny side of the garden (front yard).

But WHERE in the front yard is what I am observing at the moment.
There are three options and I need to change plans to accommodate the location of the pen regardless.
Oh how illusive is common sense and decisiveness when all options are fairly balanced.

Great to have options even in a small yard @8meters x10meters of usable for food/hen activity.  (Although the hens have the rear and side of the house as well, which helps providing alternatives to their needs as they forage or bath.  

I love it how they now fly up into one my native trees, that I introduced them to.  They perch and snooze, or pluck and preen away as if they have just been given a million dollars. Its sweet to see them enjoying life, at rest.  They are sweet young ladies.   I should share the drama about the first and the second lady beginning to lay eggs.
(Oh my Goldie was a crazy crazy bird, she settled after about three days and now its routine but my I never knew that a hen could be so interrupted and disturbed.  Yet understandable if something inside is bursting to come out!!!)

Today it's supposed to be 105. I'm never ready for this weather.  I'm sure my chickens feel the same.  Lucky I noticed a few days ago there fan wasn't working. I bought and installed a new one last night.  I waited till late morning when it started getting hot, and put fresh water in both waters, and pool. Adding ice packs and a frozen milk container to the pool.

I'm tired of fighting the algae in the waters. I bought the stuff to make new waterers. My plan was to use black duck tape to block the light, and spray paint white so it won't absorb the heat.  Today I was thinking maybe I should put cardboard, or foam, or something then duck tape, then paint to kind of make a make shift cooler to keep the ice packs frozen longer keeping the water cooler longer.  What do you think?  I have 3 water stations, one with 4 cups, one with 1 cup, and one with 4 chicken nipples. They are all in the shade, but seem to get enough sun to grow green algae.  Just seems like an opertunity to make something better.  What do you think?

Jen Fulkerson wrote:

My plan was to use black duck tape to block the light, and spray paint white so it won't absorb the heat.

Have you considered using something like the aluminum covered bubble wrap? You'd need something secure over it so the hens don't peck at it. Pictures of what you're using would be helpful. I sounds as if the nipple one is a bucket, so not too many curves to worry about. Finding a slightly larger bucket and removing most of the bottom so that the water bucket with the nipples fit inside the bigger bucket with insulation between might work.

Jen F.

I agree with you.... these are opportunities to make something better.
I trust you will find the best fit for your situation, even to eliminate the algae.

I don't use nipples, or cups for my hens. I have thought about it. So maybe others can speak into that specifically.

In terms of water vessels:
When I had to be away for 5 days,  I simply adopted an ordinary black bucket placed in their hen pen,  in constant shade, and put logs etc (height around it, or you can have a permanent shallow hole if you choose) so the hens can lean over comfortably and get water. But its high enough that their general scratching on that ground level is less likely to end up in the bucket.

(The downside, is my location of it, without creating an 'umbrella'  for it, as they have an overhead 'tray'/bench (a repurposed an unwanted shower base on legs) that is home to their dry pellets bowl and wheat greens 'cage' and their beach/ egg shell grits bowl. I purposely have a little grass cuttings or soft landing up there as they leap from the roosts onto it, then down to the ground floor.  Therefore they also scratch around up there and gravity ensures whatever they flick off, comes down, and some of this inevitably finds its way in the water bucket below. And directly UNDER the tray/bench or their mezzanine floor where they have breakfast and see the sun rise above the boundary fence!!! is their dust bath. So I dont want water in there.)

In terms of algae.....
I wash/scrub all my water bowls/bird baths  and chicken bucket with COMFREY LEAVES.  
I empty the vessel first.
Rinse it.
Then with one or more comfrey leaves just scrub around the vessel surfaces inside to outer.
And get new leaves for each vessel.
RINSE them again of the grit and grime.
Then another final wipe over with a fresh comfrey, and I leave the residual green of the comfrey in the vessel.
Fill with water, and that seems to hold very well - longer than not.
And since the hens eat comfrey all the time, its not an issue. and I am not worried that the wild birds will be harmed via the general yard water bowls and bird bath by the residual of comfrey, in fact in may be beneficial for them.


I will need to create an umbrella frame over the location of the bucket so their water has more chance of staying 'fling' free from all they fling into the air when the scratch.

OR as you say, maybe a time for something better!!!

The high temp are back.  Over 100 yesterday, 104 today, supposed to stay in this range through Tuesday, that's 8 days of misery.  I guess my luck ran out because after all this time got COVID.(I'm vaccinated, so feel crummy, but not to bad). So I'm home through Sunday. I wait until it starts getting uncomfortably hot, and go out give the hens fresh cool water, put a few inches of water in the pool with a frozen milk container. I spray them all down. They hate this!!!  Then I sprinkle the bugs they love in the coop by the fan.  They think I'm the evil water lady. When I go out to the coop  there beaks are open, wings are out and they look miserable. When I leave they are scratching and happily munching bugs, no panting or out stretched wings, so I can live with it. You gotta do what you gotta do.