Chickens and Heat

I started this post 2 days ago but the heat finally got me yesterday. The joys of autonomic insufficiency….NOT!

Our 2 flocks are not in optimal places for when it gets hot. The layer flock of 18 birds has a too small coop in the barn. They have a large pen and the portable snake fence but there’s no shade out there.

The broilers have the hoophouse but no other shade. The ventilation in the hoophouse is not great. Changes to it for next year:

• Make the vent hole at the top at least twice as big
• Don’t run the tarp all the way to the ground, leave 8” – 12” open

Layers:

For the layer coop, we did what we could to get air moving in there when we built it. There’s a large window opposite the 4’ wide door for cross ventilation.

And we put a large box fan up in the corner by the door to blow air on the roosts. They will sit on the roosts in the moving air.

Frozen kale soup for layers

When the temperature is in the 90’s even that doesn’t help much. So I freeze them a giant Tupperware bowl of water with enticing things in it.

This gives them something to do besides torment each other when they are hiding from the sun in the coop. Plus it gives them cool water to drink.

Chickens will not drink enough if the water is too cold or too hot. Without enough water, they cannot digest their food properly. Ever wonder why laying falls off in the heat?

Some things to add to the water:

Frozen fruit

Frozen vegetables

You can also freeze fresh herbs and forbs too.

Frozen kale

Last year I went through a spell when I liked a bowl of kale for breakfast. I had frozen a bunch of portion sizes so I would have it over the winter. But then I ran out of garlic scape pickle brine… So I had all these bags of kale in the freezer. They worked great in the big bowl, 5 bags was just right for the layers. For the last 2 weeks I’ve kept freezing a big bowl every day.

Broilers:

The broilers have more room in their coop, plus it has no floor. There are a lot more of them, up to 90.

The very first thing we did was setup a double waterer system, in case 1 fails. In this heat, the algae builds up on the filters, blocking water flow.

Pint deli cups of ice

To keep the water cool we freeze a bunch of these deli cups and take them out to the reservoir. We also use a white reservoir, as it doesn’t absorb the heat as much.

When I have it, I use the waste from beef bone stock making. I freeze it in 4# bags and put 1 in a huge Tupperware bowl with water. It keeps them occupied for hours.

But I only have this every other year, as we only do a steer every other year. So I figured out another way of cooling them down.

It seems they like to stand in cool water as it cools their legs, and hence their bodies.

I used one of the sturdy colored plant seedling trays this year. Last year I used one of the wimpy black type and it just broke.

The lap pool

When it is full, it’s harder for them to tip over by standing on the side, unless too many do it.

I use the pint cups of ice to keep it cool, as they will mob it, as many as possible trying to get in.

So that’s what we do for the birds in high heat.

Credits:
Thermometer: vagawi https://www.flickr.com/photos/98876848@N00/3199088206/

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